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CarlosB
Joined: 25 Sep 2012 Posts: 1
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Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:31 pm Post subject: Why the CZJ Pancolar 1.4/55 isn't the best travel lens |
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CarlosB wrote:
Hi everyone, I've had alot of help from these forums the last couple of years but I have never registered or posted. Now, however, I have to issue a warning concerning the spectacular CZJ Pancolar.
Last week I went for a short vacation to St Petersburg. The city was great and I stumbled over a few cameras and lenses as well. I've read about the customs in Russia and that they have rules against taking certain old things out of the country. From what I had read there are usually no problems with cameras though. Instead of my ordinary vacation camera (the Zenit-19) I decided to bring my Pentacon Super with the attached Pancolar 55mm 1,4 for shooting BW film, partly because I hadn't used the Pancolar for BW film before and partly because I didn't want my bags to be overflowing with russian camera equipment when going through the customs for the return trip (you can never be too sure).
'Super through the wide open eye of the Pancolar
Anyhow as I went through the customs on my way home a red lamp started blinking and there was a beeping sound. Some people from the customs came running, stopped me and started asking if I had a health problem or if I had bought a watch or something else in Russia. I found it hard to believe that they had a device that could sense if the old russian camera stuff in my bag but, I thought, maybe the camera store had marked the things in some way? After passing the sensor with different things it soon became clear that the Pentacon outfit was the culprit. I sat there scratching my head in wonder until they said that the thing that beeped and blinked was an alarm for radioactivity. Of course I had heard the stories about the radioactive coating of the Pancolar (and seen the brownish surface of the glass) and it all became clear to me. I explained the matter and was a bit worried that I would have to leave the lens behind but the customs people were overall very friendly. They wondered why in the world I had an old camera with a radioactive lens when there are new digital autofocus cameras and told me to keep it away from children (and themselves) but they did let me bring it back home.
Lessons learned:
1. The customs people at Pulkovo airport are nice but haven't discovered the charm of old manual lenses.
2. They (above) don't seem to care much about preventing old russian cameras from leaving the country.
3. Don't travel to Russia with your Pancolar 1.4/55 if you don't like the attention.
Now I will have to find a geiger counter to see how much the lens really radiates, I don't think an old Takumar would have been enough for sounding the alarm, but who knows how sensitive the russian devices are? Has anyone here experienced anything similar with any of the old "radioactive" lenses or had them measured?
As for the lens I think my copy has a loose lens element or something because the pictures vary pretty much in sharpness (from super sharp wide open to not so sharp with halos), it is one of my favourites anyway as the pictures always have a unique atmosphere, often with a sickly (radioactive?) glow.
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Attila
Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 57865 Location: Hungary
Expire: 2025-11-18
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 12:04 am Post subject: |
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Attila wrote:
Welcome! Congrats for your sought after combo! Thank you for sharing this valuable info! _________________ -------------------------------
Items on sale on Ebay
Sony NEX-7 Carl Zeiss Planar 85mm f1.4, Minolta MD 35mm f1.8, Konica 135mm f2.5, Minolta MD 50mm f1.2, Minolta MD 250mm f5.6, Carl Zeiss Sonnar 180mm f2.8
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Lightshow
Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3666 Location: Calgary
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 2:51 am Post subject: |
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Lightshow wrote:
Nice story, I wouldn't worry about the radiation too much unless you plan to sleep next to it every night, or plan to eat it.
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Now I will have to find a geiger counter to see how much the lens really radiates |
If you do this get some bananas to measure at the same time.
I posted a topic here on radioactive lenses.
http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic,p,1262350.html _________________ A Manual Focus Junky...
One photographers junk lens is an artists favorite tool.
My lens list
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightshow-photography/ |
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SVP
Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 665 Location: Greece
Expire: 2017-12-17
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:33 am Post subject: |
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SVP wrote:
Lightshow wrote: |
................... If you do this get some bananas to measure at the same time................... |
That's absolutely right, we had an incident at Athens Int'l Airport some 8 years ago when a cargo truck loaded with bananas triggered the radioactivity detection system on the apron.... |
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Nisseliten
Joined: 26 May 2012 Posts: 332 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:51 am Post subject: |
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Nisseliten wrote:
SVP wrote: |
Lightshow wrote: |
................... If you do this get some bananas to measure at the same time................... |
That's absolutely right, we had an incident at Athens Int'l Airport some 8 years ago when a cargo truck loaded with bananas triggered the radioactivity detection system on the apron.... |
Did anyone check if there perhaps was a box of old russian cameras under the banans perhaps?, or perhaps they were smuggling uranium under the bananas?.. _________________
DSLR: Canon 550D, Panasonic DMC-GF3
SLR: Leica R3mot electronic, Leica R4s, Leica R4mot electronic. and more.
Medium Format: Many.
Lenses
Leica: 19/2.8, 35/2, 35/2.8x2, 50/2, 60/2.8 macro, 90/2, 90/2.8, 180/3.4, 250/4, 500/8 T-Noflexar 400/5.6
Other: When will it end?!
Canon: 50/1.8, 70-200 f4 IS
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miran
Joined: 01 Aug 2012 Posts: 1364 Location: Slovenia
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:50 am Post subject: |
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miran wrote:
Nisseliten wrote: |
Did anyone check if there perhaps was a box of old russian cameras under the banans perhaps?, or perhaps they were smuggling uranium under the bananas?.. |
Bananas are slightly radioactive, that's common knowledge. Same goes for fertilizers, charcoal and anything that comes from a bbq. |
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urbeker
Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 8
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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urbeker wrote:
If you own an android smartphone you can use the camera as a makeshift Geiger counter. There is an app made by some nuclear physicists. Although it only works for gamma radiation, I doubt the lens would be giving off beta or alpha particles but I could be wrong about that. |
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