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Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.

Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.
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Link to some Modern Photography lens tests
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Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 8:39 pm
Post subject: Link to some Modern Photography lens tests
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Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 8:39 pm
Post subject: Link to some Modern Photography lens tests
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This link

http://www.edsawyer.com/lenstests/

will connect you to several older Modern Photography lens tests. Also it will link to other links for lens tests from other sources.


I like the Modern Photography lens tests, and I've been searching for archives like this on the net. If you have other links to other such tests from Modern Photography or elsewhere, kindly post them.


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Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 10:45 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 10:45 pm
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Just downloaded some interesting stuff, Wink


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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:20 am
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:20 am
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from Vivitar 450mm/4.5 mirror lens test:
"The time required for a Vivitar product
to be actually available after its initial
introduction often exceeds the
gestation period of several elephants."

Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy


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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:12 pm
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:12 pm
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Interesting. But that elephant thing must have been intended in jest.

The gestation period for elephants runs circa two years (just a bit less). "Several" means more than two, more than a "couple".

So taken literally, it would mean it took Vivitar circa five to six years from lens introduction to lens availability. That cannot be true!

Still, I guess we can assume it took too long for whoever wrote that. Regardless, I find that information interesting beyond just the comedic value. Actually, I find all contemporaneous data, regarding these MF lenses we enjoy so much, fascinating.

I began thinking of buying some of the old Modern Photography, and Popular Photography, magazines. They are available for sale on eBay. But they take up much space and, so much time having passed, might smell or be otherwise unpleasant.

Then I thought of our library system. Thought is these old issues might be available on microfilm or even (much better) on DVD.

The tests I posted in the OP are OK, too. I'd like them a lot more if they were in color.


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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:12 pm
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:12 pm
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Very usefull link, thanks a lot!


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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:13 pm
Post subject: Yup. I posted those.
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:13 pm
Post subject: Yup. I posted those.
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Glad that you enjoy them. I have many others I have scanned but not had the time to post yet. Our library has a full run of Modern Photo and a few other mags.


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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:12 pm
Post subject: Re: Yup. I posted those.
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Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:12 pm
Post subject: Re: Yup. I posted those.
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EdSawyer wrote:
Glad that you enjoy them. I have many others I have scanned but not had the time to post yet. Our library has a full run of Modern Photo and a few other mags.


Ed

Spectacular having you here. Thank you so much for all the lens test posts!!!! They are great!

Ed: You are the man Wink


BTW: You are beyond fortunate to have the library you do, wherever it is you live. That's amazing. If they still have all the paper copies of the magazines, that's beyond amazing!


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Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 10:02 am
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Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 10:02 am
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Thanks Ed.


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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:05 pm
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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:05 pm
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You never, ever, know what's around the next corner. Following my own advice (above, earlier in this thread), I visited my library and asked if they had old (paper) issues of Modern Photography. They did not.

But as I shortly learned, they had a vast collection of old Modern Photography issues on microfiche.

Leaving out a lot of chaff, and cutting straightaway to the chase:

They GAVE me the fiche!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only that, but they also gave me Popular Photography on both fiche and on microfilm.

(I also got Road & Track, which is O/T here, and one other magazine.)

Bottom line, I got at least a couple thousand sheets of fiche and many tens of rolls of microfilm.

How, you ask, how is this possible?

Well, as always, "timing is everything". Unbeknownst to me, at a meeting which took place only within the last few days, library potentates had announced to lower staff the decision to clear all this stuff out to create space for more modern and popular references. They were going to throw away all that great stuff!!!!! Instead, they gave it to me. Very Happy Very Happy

I am beyond happy. I am ecstatic . . . and I'm shopping urgently for a microfiche reader on eBay. Very Happy

Last edited by guardian on Thu Nov 14, 2013 7:27 pm; edited 1 time in total


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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:40 pm
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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:40 pm
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!!!! !!!!! !!!!! Shocked Excellent!


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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 7:26 pm
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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 7:26 pm
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well, very good for you.

Very good for us too?


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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 7:49 pm
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Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 7:49 pm
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DR.JUAN wrote:
well, very good for you.

Very good for us too?


Possibly, but not any time soon. I have a ka-jillion projects backed up.

Thing is, I don't know how to put this information into digital form. It would take a scanner, of course, but the fiche images are really small. I would have to research the scanner resolution needed for such a scan to be successful.

Also, fiche is fiche. It is not 35mm film. I can already scan slides, for example, because I have a couple of old (SCSI) Polaroid scanners. But the fiche form factor is wrong to fit into such a scanner without destroying the fiche. I've already decided I will not do that. It would be insane to cut up the fiche. S'not gonna happen.

There probably exist fiche scanners. Certainly I'm not the first person to face something like this. Whether I could afford such a scanner is another matter entirely.

BTW, I already know the microfilm records are all in B & W. I've not yet looked at the fiche, so I don't know. But if it's not in color, while it's still wonderful, it's not as good as having a color reproduction of the magazines. It's just not.


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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 6:06 am
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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 6:06 am
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Well, you can pick up microfiche readers for pretty cheap. There's a bunch on eBay. Also, I clearly recall, back in the day, being able to make hardcopy prints from the scans, which means the reader was hooked up to a printer. Probably a parallel port. Or maybe the reader had to be hooked up to a PC where the output was sent to a printer connected to the PC. Something worth checking into because, if it's hooked up to a PC, usually there is an option where you can print to a file, which is what you would want.

Probably the easiest way to get digital images from the microfiche would be just to take pics of the images on the reader's screen with your digital camera, yes? Easy, quick, cheap, no hassles.


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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 2:19 pm
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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 2:19 pm
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cooltouch wrote:
Well, you can pick up microfiche readers for pretty cheap. There's a bunch on eBay. Also, I clearly recall, back in the day, being able to make hardcopy prints from the scans, which means the reader was hooked up to a printer. Probably a parallel port. Or maybe the reader had to be hooked up to a PC where the output was sent to a printer connected to the PC. Something worth checking into because, if it's hooked up to a PC, usually there is an option where you can print to a file, which is what you would want.

Probably the easiest way to get digital images from the microfiche would be just to take pics of the images on the reader's screen with your digital camera, yes? Easy, quick, cheap, no hassles.


Thanks for the response. I dunno. I'm working on this entire matter, which is interesting. My prior knowledge being zero, I've a long learning curve to ascend.

I do want to be able to read those magazines because I'm pretty heavy into MF lenses and they should be chock full of MF lens data. But I never saw coming being handed, for free, thousands of microfiche images. And I'm so busy with other stuff the fiche and film are still in my car. I've not even had time to unload!!

All of that said, the ideal (to me) would be a scanner-only device which outputs a digital image I could see on my (computer) monitor . . a pure scanner device, IOW, without a screen of its own. At this point I don't even know if such a device exists . . or what it might cost.
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