Pentacon 4/200 made in GDR with little wonder Q10(1300mm)

[dr.volkan]

Handheld shots SR on. RAW. If the lens sharp little Q10 gives very good results
First shot from 10m, second shot from 30-40, third shot from 25m last one very far away from

[uddhava]

[Pancolart]

I like the Tuborg girl's expression.

[D1N0]

I am not a great fan of this lens with it's low contrast and mediocre sharpness and purple fringing. It is leading a lonely shelf life. I much prefer my Jupiter 21m (if it just weren't so heavy) And my Takumar 200's (F4 an 3.5). My 80-205 3.8 and 70-210 3.5 Vivitar zooms also do a better job at 200mm. Mine is an older Zebra version.

[dr.volkan]

[Langstrum]

The Jupiter 21M 200mm f/4 can do a better job, at least in term of sharpness

[Sciolist]

I have this lens but have not put it to any use. You're certainly making the best of it with a 1/2.3 sensor. I really like the results.

I'm even more impressed with hand held @1300mm:shock: . I wonder if there's a collar that would allow the lens to fit to a tripod. There's certainly space for one. Fitting the Q10 directly with that lens on might damage the lens mount on the camera I suppose.

[dr.volkan]

[dr.volkan]

[Lloydy]

I like the 200 / 4 Pentacon, and I nearly always use mine on a tripod or a monopod - and use a hood. The tripod mount on my PentaMog ( made with bits of Pentacon and Meyer Optik Gorlitz ) is an odd one I found that is 67mm open and the lens is 62mm at the wide point of the tapered section. I lined the mount with some plastic that's about 2mm thick and has some give in it - not much, but enough to grip the taper on the lens, and it is helped by the three screws around the mount that located in the groove on the doner lens. I can slack the screws and it makes little difference. This lens gets used a lot and it's never come loose in the tripod mount.



( I've got three Pentacon 200's, and I don't need all of them. I'll sell one if anyone is interested. )

[dr.volkan]

[Lloydy]

This Tamron tripod mount also works on the Pentacon, with a little bit of sticky back foam to make the diameter slightly smaller. As you can see in the picture there is a lot of thread on the clamp and the V shaped design lends itself to being used on many different lens diameters. This is a very useful mount, and quite common.

[dr.volkan]

[Lloydy]

Because the Pentacon has a taper where the mount needs to be it is a problem to adapt a mount, and the Tamron mount is not as good as the first one I showed ( which is a mount of an old SUN zoom lens - 80-200 or something like that ) because the SUN mount makes contact with the lens all around the full diameter where the Tamron mount has two small contact points on half the diameter, and does come loose. It can work but you have to be careful with it.

I found that the plastic - most likely polythene - that I glued inside the SUN mount has enough give in it to really clamp down on the taper of the lens, even though it doesn't fully conform to the taper. The polythene was just hacked out of a 25 litre oil drum with a knife and then trimmed to size when the glue had set.

I have used thick leather on a similar mount for a different lens, an bit of 2mm thick that was an offcut from a saddler, and that works just as good.

I think it's member Marcus who has an excellent tutorial on reducing the diameter of mounts using the epoxy body filler used for car repairs, which I could see working very well on a tapered lens like the Pentacon, although I would also use something to provide friction as the epoxy would slide easily on the paint surface of the lens. I have some thin neoprene, less than 1mm, that's used for patching wet suits that's easy to glue and the rubber provides grip. Again it's an offcut that I scrounged.

[D1N0]

[dr.volkan]

[Lloydy]

that's a lot of adaptors between the the Pentax and the lens, but at least that tripod mount does seem to be in a decent position. On my Sony there is one adaptor that's bout 27mm long, and my M42 adaptor could easily take a tripod mount. I've got a Pentax and Canon adaptor that have tripod mounts, but I've taken them off because they were so bad, they were held on with two really tiny, inadequate, screws. I had a medium size 200mm lens on the Pentax adaptor and the screws just stripped out and the camera and lens nearly crashed to the ground. I just wont use that kind of tripod mount again, I've removed them and use the adaptors without the tripod mount. As an engineer I can see how poor the construction is, and there really is no excuse for it - other than cheapness.

Today, on the strength of participating in this thread that is actually about the Pentacon, I took my Pentamog hybrid out and used it without any support, hand held on my Sony A6000 and loved it. I enjoy taking just one lens, of any focal length, speed or 'quality' and getting the best images I can, and today I chose a slow old 200mm lens to use in glorious spring sunshine. And in the field behind our house are a flock of Soay sheep. They make great models.

As shot, no PP at all, ISO 250 at 1/1000sec. I think this lens is wonderful, this image would scrub up beautifully with minimal PP. It does suffer with purple fringing, but that's so easily fixed. I think it has way more positive qualities than negative, it's one of my firm favourites.

[dr.volkan]

[Sciolist]

[dr.volkan]