Mir-1B

[William]

I bought a Mir-1B off Hari, it has a 37mm FL and appears to distort very little. It's solidly built of metal and the elements are very easily removed in the same way as the Zeiss Jena Tessars and Helios 44 etc. The scalloped focus ring is located at the very bottom of the lens and is thin which makes it slightly awkward to use and probably takes some getting used to. Preset aperture is very smooth with a click ring at whole stops and smooth variable ring.

This lens is very prone to flaring and loss of contrast when shot into the sun:


http://www.orangehexagon.co.uk/lenses/mir1b/bmw_l.jpg - full resolution

Detail resolution is impressive and I think that my DSLR is the weak point. This is a view over Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat, a 250m hill- sharpened:


http://www.orangehexagon.co.uk/lenses/mir1b/edinburgh_l.jpg - full resolution

I shot from an aeroplane for the first time with this lens, approaching Heathrow I took a photo of Hounslow with my house in it in the distance which is also sharpened:


http://www.orangehexagon.co.uk/lenses/mir1b/home_l.jpg - full resolution