Kyoei f3.5 180mm + Speedbooster in park

[kds315*]

All shot wide open at the last hour...













Full set is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kds315/albums/72157680460057840

[luisalegria]

Oh wow!
What a trip man. Far out!

[kds315*]

[luisalegria]

Well, with the speedbooster you are showing us what else was in the frame.
With APS-C I wasn't making the best use of it.
And there you are, it is excellent for the creamy bokeh, a real Sonnar.

[luisalegria]

Thats quite a world traveller, that lens.
From Japan to the US, Wisconsin I think, then to California, where it went to the banks of the Tuolumne, then back across the Pacific to Manila where I did not use it (fool that I was), then back to San Francisco and then to Germany.

[kryss]

You have done it again....

[kds315*]

[BurstMox]

Nice!

[kds315*]

[Nordentro]

Oh, those pics are beautiful Klaus!

[Minolfan]

Beautiful pictures!

[!Karen]

Very Nice
The light is beautiful!

[Sciolist]

Great eye for colour.

[Lloydy]

Very good indeed,

[cooltouch]

Wow, marvelous! The level of detail is extraordinary and the bokeh are just beautiful.

I own a Kyoei Super Acall 135mm f/3.5. After seeing your photos, I think I'd really love to own a 180mm f/3.5 as well. Is yours an LTM? I got a lens brochure with my current copy of the 135/3.5, and I'm pretty sure the 180 is listed in it. I'll have to dig it out and look it up.

I've owned the Siuper Acall 135mm since 1984. I bought it because it was attached to a Canon rangefinder IVsb that I wanted. I recall going to a camera show about a year later, asking the dealers about the lens -- I'd never heard of it, and wanted more information on it. I ended up having a brief conversation with an elderly fellow, who I later came to know very well when I became a camera dealer -- Gene Lester, of famous Hollywood photographer fame. He had done a lot of work with Marylin Monroe and other movie stars of the 1950s. Anyway, when Gene looked at my Kyoei Super Acall, he pinched his nose between two fingers to let me know what he thought of it. I'd used it some by then -- it was the only lens I had for that camera -- and I thought it did a decent job. More than likely, Gene thought it was junk because it was an LTM lens coming from Japan instead of Germany.

Fast forward several years and like a dolt, I sold that Canon rf and the lenses I'd accumulated for it. Didn't get much for the Kyoei. Now, fast forward a couple of decades and change and I had bought another Canon rangefinder, and I wanted that same Kyoei Super Acall back. Well, I found a few on eBay, but they were all surprisingly expensive. Apparently the Kyoei lenses had established something of a reputation while I'd been absent from the scene. I finally found one that was offered through an auction, and picked it up for a much lower price than all the BINs.

One of the first things I did after getting it sorted out was to shoot a roll of black & white with it, see how it was. The lens performed well. So these days I consider Kyoei optics to be worth paying attention to. And yours proves my conviction in spades. What a wonderful job it does!

[devinw]

[luisalegria]

"Is yours an LTM?"

This is M42

My writeup on it - the same lens thats done so well here -

http://forum.mflenses.com/kyoei-acall-180-3-5-m42-a-rare-lens-t14579,highlight,%2Bkyoei.html

[kds315*]

Thanks guys and thanks Luis for the clarification

[hoanpham]

Very beautiful rending. Never own one of these.

[kds315*]

Btw. here a few test images I took before, showing how sharp and flat field that lens really is (fully open) using my rather well known test targets





That gold ball usually shows massive CA (if it is there), not here tho

[Sciolist]

Were you into slide (reversal) photography in a previous life kds? Your style is so reminiscent of it, to me at least. I feel like I could walk into the scene of pic #1 in your original post.

[kds315*]

[cooltouch]

[kds315*]

[Sciolist]