Onto the fast lens wide open bokeh bandwagon

[iangreenhalgh1]

After all the posts of these fast lenses with tiny dof for 'bokeh' I thought I'd hop on that bandwagon too.

Any guesses what lens I used...

Some clues, it's not Chinese or Japanese or Korean, it's not held together with glue or made of plastic and it's not very expensive

[Fabian]

Like the clarity-slider much?

I really like the last one, but not all.

[iangreenhalgh1]

No use of the Clarity slider at all, actually. I used NIK Sharpener and on some use the Structure slider.

[anscochrome]

Since it is not showing me swirl, I'll eliminate the Helios 44 varient. How about the 50mm F 2.8 Domiplan, the 50mm F 1.7 Zenitar, or a 50mm F 2.0 Domiron you bought overly cheap from an unknowing owner?

[anscochrome]

Here is my parody of the craze-I called it "Bokeh Obsession":

[iangreenhalgh1]

[Fabian]

[iangreenhalgh1]

I told you, it's using the Structure slider in Nik Sharpener.

Without PP.

[enliten]

what is "not very expensive"... hmmm... I want to say jupiter 3

[iangreenhalgh1]

Good guess, but it's not a J-3, I don't have one, just four J-8s

It was cheap, let's put it that way, and it has severe separation, a long thin crack in the glass, lots of bubbles in the glass and some strange patches in the rear group that looks like liquid between the elements but obviously isn't. I think most of the coating has been rubbed away too. In short, it's in awful condition optically.

Still works alright though

[hoanpham]

Last photo in the series is beautiful.
Looks like 85mm or longer. Maybe takumar 85/1.9? I am not sure about my guess due to the close focus capability.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Hoanpham, that was a lucky capture, she looked at the camera at just the right moment.

You're right it is a longer lens but it's not that Takumar, I had that lens and it was pretty good, sold it for a large profit, not because I didn't like it, but I needed the profit more than I needed the lens.

[enliten]

I'm led to believe that bubbles in glass were once a measure of quality a manufacturing process (before it was refined further).

anyway, is it a zeiss jena? (i guess 2.8 isn't considered fast though)

[peterqd]

I like the last one too. I'll go for a preset Meyer/Pentacon 2.8/135

[Attila]

I like little girl series , certainly cut model help a lot.

I help a little to guess lens has zero value , no focus or aperture either

I have one too in different focal length and speed. Meyer 135mm has better contrast and more sharp.

[fuzzywuzzy]

Last one is very nice. That's what people seek when they crank the aperture wide open

I kind of agree with you, but maybe have a different conclusion.

Shallow DOF is definitely a fad, and is definitely overused. It's also harder to make a good image both technically and compositionally.

But when it works I like it, as in your last pic.

[stilian]

My vote goes for Biometar 80mm 2.8 or Jupiter 9 85mm 2.0

[Orio]

Some really good ones, I think you are improving very fast at portraits.
My two favourites are the two photos with the guy, especially the first one where composition is perfect.
He is a great subject, he could be a pro model for commercials.
Your composition is very modern and gives dinamicity to the subject.

The last two (girl's heads) are also very good.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Thanks for the kind words guys, this was just an informal candid mess around in the back yard, on a cloudy day, I'm trying to develop my own style for portraits that has elements of fun and art, as every pro shooter in my area does the run of the mill boring posed portraits, I wanted to explore a different approach.

It's not a Biometar or J9, although I have both of those and they are excellent portrait lenses. It' not a Meyer/Pentacon 135 either, although I have a couple of different ones.

Attila was warmer, think outside the box a little. It's not a Zeiss or Meyer lens and it has no value on the market.

Here's one Orio might like, I didn't post because of the extensive PP, not sure it worked as I really wanted, makes my friend look much older, but I do want to experiment further with silver efex on portraits.



And here's another one I shot with this lens over a year ago on my old EOS 10D:

[anscochrome]

It is a projector lens of the Petzval type.

[iangreenhalgh1]

[Lloydy]

Ian, you're like some kind of 'mad scientist' stuck up there in a remote part of Cumbria and working away with all these different lenses, and it's paying off - at last There's some terrific portraits there, I agree with Orio that the pictures of guy with the dreadlocks are very good, well worthy of being commercial and exhibition quality, and the young girl series has some equally as good.

You're lucky in that you can remember which lens does what, and you obviously understand a lot about what makes a lens perform in different ways, it's something I can't do as my memory works in mysterious ways. I just remember which of my lenses are 'good', but don't ask me "why ?"
That knowledge is working for you, that's a fine series of images.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers David. I've had this little beauty sat here for ages, I knew it was capable of some very nice portraits, just not had any need or opportunity to shoot portraits, but now I've been asked to do some portrait work so I thought I'd give this lens a try again.

Now I've got to mount it properly, I just had it stuck into two sets of Chinese NEX extension tubes joined together end to end. I'm working on putting the lens into a set of KMZ M42 bellows.

[Lloydy]

I've got some machining facilities Ian, a small lathe and I can do some light milling. Let me know if you need something doing.

[hoanpham]

Are you taking this lens to the wedding sessions?