Industar-69 28/2.8 on APS-C

[luisalegria]

Ok, since I have a couple of Sony NEX, and I am also very cheap, I had to try the famous Industar-69
I got one from the Ukraine, cheap, about $20.

DSC00988 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC00993 by luisalegria, on Flickr

These are the famous M39 mount lenses taken from the Chaika viewfinder half-frame camera, of which millions must have been made. They just screw off the Chaika body it seems. They are M39 with no rangefinder linkage, and a simple screw (not a helical) is used to focus them. The back-focus is a bit less than Leica-M39 by a bit over a millimeter. They go on an M39-whatever adapter just fine.

So adjustments have to be made! Focus obstructions must be removed to permit screwing the optical block just a bit deeper. There are any number of Youtube videos on this, and a couple of different variants of this lens, but on mine I removed both internal stop screws and ground down the internal "lip" with my faithful Dremel. A bit too much, as now it goes beyond infinity. Still, it doesn't matter. Since the whole optical block comes off it is very easy to clean and regrease the screw, which is a good thing as it improves the feel a lot.

What is left is an extremely compact lens, that can focus from infinity to, well, very close indeed. You know the limits of close focus when the optical block comes off. I can get down to about 4 inches, subject to sensor, which is pretty good as 28mm's go.

The (mechanical) problems with this thing.

- The aperture control is this fingernail-ring around the front element. It is not too handy, to say the least.
- Changing the aperture limits (well, throwing them away) throws off the relationship between aperture markings and the aperture ring. So one must guess aperture values.
- Aperture is, of course, clickless. This thing is as simple as can be.
- It can't really take filters, as the filter thread is a weird 22mm/22.5mm thread hard up by the aperture ring. Its not that somme sort of adapter can't be rigged, its just that if you do it would have to come off in order to shift the aperture.
- The front element is quite deep-set, but in spite of that one may want to put on a hood (see below). No can do.

Now one is set to go really old-school with that little compact camera.

Performance is, well, weird.

- It covers APS-C, with a great deal of vignetting and light falloff when wide open. It gets much better stopped down. As a 28mm it covers a 42mm equivalent on APS-C, so it should be decent enough as a general purpose lens.
- It flares like crazy. Anything bright floods anything nearby. Shooting against the light is difficult, to say the least. And my copy is quite clean internally, as best i can tell.
- Colors are off. They seem washed out, generally, and quite "flat". On the whole it seems like a very old fashioned lens meant for B&W.
- Its quite sharp, even wide open in the center.

Besides this all, there is a certain odd something about this. I was turning on the Nex 7 High Contrast B&W mode or "Rich Tone" B&W, which is a kind of mono HDR, and leaving that on. The effect is retro, like shooting Plus-X or something. Except more weird. The similarly cheap Chinese CCTV "Fujian" 25mm 1.8 is by comparison a great deal more conventional in every way. But that may be too normal.

Anyway, samples.

DSC08990 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08962 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08780 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08759 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08936 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08600 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08739 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08689 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08876 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08655x by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC09017 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC09008 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08882 by luisalegria, on Flickr

DSC08630 by luisalegria, on Flickr

[SkedAddled]

Luis, I am glad to see you here, as I was wondering if you'd left us!

I love your reports on such lenses as you find and use them, and I love your pictures.

I may have to PM you about lens origins, as you know so much
about serial numbers.

[Lightshow]

I found my I69 to be very sharp in the center on my NEX-7, but it also had heavy colour shift, so I only used it for B&W and higher ISO to get it more film like, and resolution drops quickly as you get away from the center.
I wanted another compact 28, but hopefully much better, and thought I'd try the Canon S 28/2.8, it has a good reputation from the film days, and my Canon S 35/2.8 is very good on my NEX-7(and now A7r), so I gave it a chance, sadly it vignettes heavily I'll have to try it on a BSI sensor to see how much it improves.
Back to the I69, it's a fun lens when you want to go small, which is its main feature, that it's so inexpensive is a bonus.

[kds315*]

wonderful Luis!!

[dr.volkan]

Very good work...
Thank you for the information about lens

[Lightshow]

I should add, nice pictures! They're best I've seen from this lens.
I'll also think that there seems to be more than 1 version of the lens, they seem to need slightly different modifications to reach infinity on a LTM adapter.

[Sjak]

It's a fun lens! And you make good use of it

Of course, people who take pictures wide open of brick walls and then look at every pixel at 200% will never understand its charm.

The lens has boatloads of character, which can be used to your advantage. Although I admit that sometimes it is simply does not suit the look I am aiming for, this is certainly one lens that I will always keep in my collection. A classic.

[sergtum]

[visualopsins]

Wow Luis these are really good photos, quite different from your usual, which are also excellent!

[kypfer]

I found this thread after I'd modded my Industar 69, removing the focus stop screws and the "step" with a Dremel as above. One thing I did find, however, is that the focus thread isn't a "normal" screw, but has two starting points, and by choosing the appropriate one the focus scale lines up almost exactly after modification ... certainly as close as one needs to be with a 28mm lens and an EVF.

Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone finds it useful

[Lightshow]

The focus ring can be infinity adjusted by loosening the set screws.
Many manual focus lens helicoids have more than one start, adding an extra start will have the optics move at a faster rate for the same amount of rotation. You should see higher start counts in longer focal lengths and single starts in UWA lenses.

[noddywithoutbigears]

Love it, it certainly has that vintage charm, very 50’s magazine look. Not a great lover of pin sharp, perfect lighting, technically correct pictures so these are right up my street.

[Anthracite]

[philslizzy]

I adapted mine non destructively. I reduced the thickness of the (inner part of the) adapter by 1.2mm with a file. Mine flares like hell and is soft. But its a nice lens to use and some like the 'dreamy' effect.

[uddhava]

I finally adjusted mine after reading this post.