MIR-1B & Pentax K-5

[Rolf]

Hi,

found yesterday when I cleaned my warehouse a lens which I didn´t know that I own it. Believe that I bought this one few years ago but never used it. This morning I tried it out with Pentax K-5 during my morning walk.

All images with f 8 so good corner to corner sharpness. Not bad for a cheap 40 € lens.

[peterqd]

Very nice indeed Rolf. Lovely solid colours once more. When soviet lenses are good, they're very, very good. You've spurred me into trying mine again!

I've been sitting here looking at a very nice black example of a Zenit E and thinking about the lenses it was designed for. It doesn't have the push bar for auto M42 lenses, so the Mir-1 would be one of those. I think you're right to use a midpoint aperture setting. The focus screen on the Zenit is just plain frosted glass, no bright collar etc, and it's not easy to focus at all, and I believe it was normal, expected, procedure in those days to use lenses stopped down for the greater DOF and only open up if the light is poor.

[Rolf]

Wide open the lens is soft. So f 5.6 to f 11 seems to be the right setting. Here 3 other samples from this morning, nothing special only to show the capabilitiy of this lens.