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Pentacon Six mount: Zodiak-8 or Mir-26 or Flektogon 50mm ?
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PostPosted: Sun May 06, 2018 11:27 pm    Post subject: Pentacon Six mount: Zodiak-8 or Mir-26 or Flektogon 50mm ? Reply with quote

Hi everyone! There is no presentation subforum it seems, and I am new here, so hello to all.
This is my first question also.

i am the recent happy owner of two Kiev-6s. The first camera came with a Vega-12 90 mm lens, and i have bought from Serbia on Ebay a Mir-3 65 mm. Very nice lens.
Yet i am thinking of some wider one. When i travel I take a lot of architecture or landscape, and often a very wide angle is the fast and easy way to capture some building or view.
in ten days I will be in Sankt-Peterburg then Moscow, and i can get a Zodiak-8 for 8000 rb, a Flektogon 50 mm for 6000 rb, a Mir-26 45 mm for 4000 rb. I'll buy one of these.
I have read a lot online about the Zodiak-8/Arsat 30 mm but this one is a fish-eye. In the digital era, software can be used to soften and rectify to some point the fish-eye distorsion but results can be more or less good depending the lines, perspectives and distances to edge of the main subjet/object in the picture.
So i wondering if, in the long run, it is wise to carry the Zodiak-8 along the 65 mm Mir-3 in a travel bag, instead of a Mir-26 or Flektogon 50mm and the Mir-3. I use to travel light and the Kiev-6s house with two lenses is the max load I am wanting to take.

so, very interested in opinions and experiences here Smile


PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2018 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, if I were you, I would buy the Mir-26.
Zodiak is a very good lens, fisheye is not extreme (no vigneting) but still lot of distortions. That's cool sometime, but I don't think it can replace a good wide angle in long terms range. The Mir-26 is also good (from my experience again...maybe I have good exemplar), and not too big. In opposite, I find the Mir-3 not really good, and it take a lot of place in the bag. I advice you to try its successor Mir-38 65/3.5, which is way better and more compact.


PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2018 5:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BurstMox wrote:
Well, if I were you, I would buy the Mir-26.
Zodiak is a very good lens, fisheye is not extreme (no vigneting) but still lot of distortions. That's cool sometime, but I don't think it can replace a good wide angle in long terms range. The Mir-26 is also good (from my experience again...maybe I have good exemplar), and not too big. In opposite, I find the Mir-3 not really good, and it take a lot of place in the bag. I advice you to try its successor Mir-38 65/3.5, which is way better and more compact.


thank you! it makes sense. By now I am indeed inclined to the Mir-26b. partially because the lack of distorsion (yet the worse that can be corrected in software) and because the Zodiak-8 weights 1 kg it seems (!). Actually I may pick a Flektogon 50mm instead of the Mir-26b, just because the places in Russia where I use to pick old lenses are by now empty for Mir-26b but have good priced Flektogon (45mm vs 50mm). (the Mir-26v has some more availability and is cheaper...) Anyway I will have the possibility to try before I buy.

Will think of a Mir-38 too. Yes the Mir-3 is big but not heavy ~500g, and I have bought for it a set of adapter ring, protective filter and rubber hood, all together same of more money than what I payed for the lens itself so I will make the most out of it before I shelve or resell it Smile