If it's f/11 at 1:1 it might be an f/5.6 lens wide open at infinity... so a kind of mixture between the Makro-Symmar 120 mm f/5.6 and Macro Varon 85 f/4.5 in terms of specs. Would have to be outstandingly good, to compete with the current Macro Varon then, because (at least for me) 85 mm is way more versatile than 100 mm.
I made another shot with the unassuming little Rodenstock Ysaron 60 mm f/4.5:
Salty, simple boy? by simple.joy, on Flickr
Not too bad, even though the well-worn state (and coating damage) does show....
If you look at the two inner lens groups, two lenses cemented in both, which together make the floating element, you'll see that Macro Varon and that anonymous 100mm SK lens are more near to each other in design than Makro Symmar to those. In Makro Symmar in the outer lens groups are two lenses cemented together.
So it's 6/8 design in Macro Varon vs. 4/8 in Makro Symmar. And lenses in those inner elements are in turned order in Macro Varon compared to Makro Symmar.
I think the new design in Macro Varon is worth of patent for new design.
Look at this drawing of Makro Symmar and compare it to Macro Varon:
Now I have to ask what is your magnification this shot. Are you using FF sensor or cropped? Did you crop in post process? I guess, the bread is magnified a lot.
I'm looking at the transition from sharp in-focus part of the picture to out-of-focus area. The behind of focus area looks nice. Not sure about the in front of focus area.
I guess this picture is shot too near to the subject and a too big aperture was used.
I'm thinking portraits all the time. If you focus to the front eye, what's infront of the focus? It's the nose. But if you don't touch the nose with your lens and if you stop down to f/8 or even f/11, this could be very good portrait lens.
Sorry, I may have phrased that wrong... of course I'm well aware that the Macro Varon is different from the Makro-Symmar in terms of lens design. I was thinking more of the similar specs. If that is indeed the lens patent for a new lens with 100 mm and an f/5.6 aperture, I'm not sure whom it would be particularly useful for, if you can already get a 85 mm f/4.5 Macro Varon or one of the Makro-Symmar 120 mm f/5.6 versions for significantly less. But for all I know this could also be an old patent and not relevant... who knows. It does look almost identical to the Macro-Varon, so it's possible that Rodenstock actually just got rights to use that as well but non-exclusive ones.
This was shot at f/4.5 (wide open) and at roughly 1:1 magnification. Yes, that's certainly not ideal for that lens but I liked the look for that particular shot. I've tried to stop it down, but don't think it made it look better. I wouldn't use this lens for portraits because I find it too slow. My recent favorite for portraits is a Meopta Meostigmat 70 mm f/1.4 - that's truly excellent in my eyes. There are only a couple of ELs I would ever use for portraits - one of them being the Tomioka Copal-E66 75 mm f/2.8. But I'll have to add that I'm not very experienced with portrait photography anyways, so take that with a grain of salt.
Yes, I think the background bokeh (the highlights in the back are really undefined/blurry and the strength of the double edges are caused in part by the lens defects. I've posted some images by some (similarly well-worn) lenses here as well and I also think it shows:
I don't think it looks 'bad' per se (I actually love it in some instances), just visibly lower in contrast and detail than one would expect from an intact sample of the same lenses.
This lens was in with another I bought. It has no ID anywhere I can find. It is big and heavy. If the front was threaded it would be about 77mm. Anyone know what it is and what it is used for?
thanks,
barondla
I thought it was a projector lens, but the big front lens and small rear lens was something I've not seen in projector lenses.
It seems simplejoy nailed it, it's a X-ray lens.
Did you try to adapt it? It looks very interesting lens to adapt. If the f-stop is around f/1, maybe bigger, then the depht of field were very thin.
Yes - it should be possible to adapt it, at least to a mirrorless camera. However it likely is quite a challenging lens to use, if it's indeed as fast as some of those X-Ray lenses shown. I've got a JML lens with a fixed aperture of f/0.85 and it's very hard to get something useful out of it even though it's fun trying:
Another similar lens (not for X-Ray, but apparently for capturing traces on CRT screens during atomic tests some time ago) is more useful with its f/1.2 aperture:
I love the results I get from this lens, but it also has a diaphragm many of the X-Ray lenses seem to lack. I would however suggest you try it, may be a very fun lens for experiments.
Magical images @simplejoy. Shooting with almost zero DOF is very difficult. Well done. Believe you are correct, this is either a X ray or crt monitor lens. Will research to see if I can determine which it is. Lacking manufacturer labeling is strange and makes this more difficult to identify. Thanks for the link.
@TimoK I will look into adapting this lens, but it won't be easy for numerous reasons.
1. Very little distance between lens back and focal plane. Don't think the Olympus mirrorless will reach infinity. Pentax Q held up to
the lens works. There is very little space for an adapter. Even a C mount adapter won't fit.
The lens is heavy. Too heavy to hang from an Olympus Pen or Pentax Q. Might be able to handhold.
Don't know the focal length, so image stabilization is disabled. Will probably have to rig up a tripod support.
To make an adapter to mount the Q, I could hollow out a body cap and glue it to the back of the lens. The light weight Q would just be hanging there. If I do this, it would be nice to use glue that can be removed easily. The other thing that damps my desire to mod this lens is I already have a F 0.95 lens that fits the Q and it has a focusing ring and diaphragm. I'll probably do it anyway.
Thanks everyone for the info,
barondla
Something is wonky with this site. The message above has 3 points numbered 1, 2, and 3. Not two 1's and a three. When I select edit it shows properly, but reverts to above when saved.
On other news, I just received a new Fotodiox lens adapter today. It mounts L39 lenses to the Pentax 645Z. Should be interesting.
Thanks,
barondla
Don't do it!😮
I did never glue anything straight to the lens. I'm sure you later want to take off the adapter. If you could find something you can screw in to the big thread on the lens, a pipe or something like that. Then you could mount the body cap to that pipe, even with glue.
Edit. I found a M77 mount focusing helicoid in ebay (if the thread is M77). You'll also need something to reduce the tread.
There's some problem with this link, but if you copy it here and then paste in your browser it will work.
It's a fun lens to use but also very challenging, particularly because of its weight (more than 1 kg). It's not properly mounted in my case, so I have to support it with my hand in addition to the fixation of my bellows system. With that in mind I have to say it's a pretty sharp lens at f/0.85 Unfortunately also limited to the close-up range. Someone on another forum suggested it might be possible to increase the focal flange distance with a (minus) diopter in order to use it for something further away... Do you know if that's true? And if it is where would I be able to find one like that?
If it's so heavy I think you'll need a tripod collar or some kind of other tripod mount on the lens. I think it's the same thing with barondla's lens.
What is the rear flange distance of the lens? And the diameter? Is it same kind of design as Barondla's lens? So that the rear lens is very small and you can put it inside of the camera mount? I see, you have EOS R -camera with short body flange. It should be possible to adapt many lenses, unfortunately not all.
I tried that with an old low quality teleconverter which is made to screw in filter thread of a compact camera. It's called Naigor telephoto lens. There's warning: Only to Naigai SRF. I have never heard of that camera and don't know what is it's focal length but at the body of the tele lens there is a sticker F5.6.
At infinity it gave ~9mm longer flange distance for 80mm lens. Isn't it something? I don't know how powerful diopter this "telephoto lens" was, I guess there are different ones.
The JML is nice and sharp @simplejoy. Great job nailing focus on the Gator's eye. Lens performs well. You are doing an excellent job using a difficult lens/camera combo.
The diopter fix will likely have a limit. After that you could rig up a relay lens. I've always wanted to try the relay fisheye macro look.
Thanks for sharing,
barondla
Is it for Visoflex (1. version) -lenses? Maybe possible to mount enlarging lenses too, at least for macro?
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Yes, Visoflex/enlarging lens. I have already mounted my Nikon EL-Nikkor 135 enlarging lens to the Pentax 645Z and with some extension it focuses to infinity. Believe the EL-Nikkor 80 will as well. The 50 will be macro only.
I have two Leica M lenses with optics heads that unscrew. The threads are L39 and fit the 645Z. Unfortunately, I would have to buy some kind of helicoid focusing attachment. That may not happen. I'm happy to gain use of the EL-Nikkors.
Thanks,
barondla
