Q4 2023 (Oct-Dec) — Through Your Adapted Lens

Lens Baby composer with sweet 50 on an EOS M body. Really didn't work.

I see some faces in there... looks interesting and I like the colors! What part didn't work in your opinion? The lens on that camera? Or something else?

It works for me. The colors look nice together and I definitely see faces.
Thanks for sharing,
barondla

Well the way I understand the lens is supposed to work is that it makes a very sharp spot in the center, and then everything else gets kinda fuzzy. That didn't really happen.

"Christ Crossing Over"
EOS M, Digital Holga lens.
Jintu makes lousy adapters.

That's a spectacular shot - love it! How did you achieve the result - double exposure? And is one of those a capture of stars? Really great and imaginative!

Okay... I know there are only a handful of people here with an interest in adapted/experimental lenses, but I've got a riddle and I would appreciate your help a lot!

I got a mystery lens. Its inscription says:

N.J.K. M=Tominon. F4. 60mm №1000030

I've posted some pictures made with this lens before. It's in an extremely bad state and missing all of its aperture blades, but it still is able to produce somewhat interesting (albeit low-contrast) images. Here's the most recent one.

Uncreative? But God knows I've dried... by simple.joy, on Flickr

This lens is going to be part of my upcoming article on Tomioka (which is certainly the most 'deep dive' thing I've ever attempted), and I feel like I have a somewhat coherent theory about it overall. I think it was a prototype lens of sorts for the well-regarded Macro-Yashinon 60 mm f/2.8. The similarities are too big in my eyes to be a complete coincidence and we know that lens was made by Tomioka, so it's not quite an 'out-there' theory. I'll show some more on that in the article.

However - even if I assume this to be true - a couple of questions still remain. The most important one in my opinion: What does the incredibly unusual inscription mean? I've never seen anything like it to be honest. If you look at the image of the front of the lens above, you'll notice the blue "N.J.K". I've asked a number of different people in different places online, if they have any idea, and one of the first associations was Nippon Kogaku (earlier name of Nikon)... however even older Nikon lenses are usually labeled Nippon Kogaku Japan, which would make N.K.J. way more likely and they never abbreviated it on the inscription as far as I was able to see. So here's a number of other ideas:

Nitto Japan Kogaku
Nakano Japan Koshina (Cosina)
Nagano Japan Komine

but nothing really makes sense, particularly with the Japan in the middle.

And the red 'M='... I was thinking of 'Model=' or 'Manufacturer=' but why wouldn't they write Tomioka in the second case? Any why is it red, which is often used for markings of Coating. Of course 'Multicoating' could be an option, but what does 'Tominon' have to do with that?

Also: Why the full-stops behind Tominon. and F4.? And what does the weird letter in the No, which looks like an upside-down Umlaut 'ö' mean?

It kinda feels like I've reached a dead end... So do you have any other ideas, what those letters/markings might stand for? Do you know someone familiar enough with the Japanese optical industry of that time to take a guess?

I can't offer you much apart from crediting you in the final article of course... but if someone is really able to find a convincing theory, I'll make sure to gift that person one of my experimental lenses. 👍 Can't say for sure what yet, but I'll certainly try to find something interesting.

Kendrak Lamar's "Humble", the Holga lens crappiness, the eos m's crappy auto iso, and a giant reflection.

Very nice work - I enjoy seeing creative, inspired things like that! Some fantastic shots and visual ideas in that video for sure.

Isn't inspired, it's straight from the video. Did an experiment last night. 1200 photos later and I've got some interesting stuff I'm combing through.

And if I'm one those "handful of people" , I don't have any knowledge about Tominon lenses. But I can guess and I can search in the Internet.
My guess is that it is a prototype lens, number 3 or 30 in a pre-production serie.

In Large format forum there was one interesting row: "Osawa Tominon 60 4.0 22.0 Straight 8 8 / 4 AKA Hoya Super EL enlarger lens. M39 1979-1990"
It was in this discussion: www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?167246-Tominon-Lens-Specification&highlight=Tomioka
I found 24 discussions there when seaching with word Tomioka or Tominon.

Then I searched with Duckduckgo for "Hoya Super EL" I found this: www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4512481

Bingo! *) In the first post there was a link again: www.digicamclub.de/showthread.php?t=19767

I guess it's "N:o" but some Japan designer made it look more beautiful.

Edit. *) I mean It's bingo if it is the same lens.

Thanks a lot! That list in the large format forum is actually a quote from the deltalenses predecessor on Mark‘s (deltalenses initiator) site. The Osawa Tominon EL 60/4 (and its Hoya/Bogen variants) is a big part of my work-in-progress Tomioka article as well…

But while it does share the specs (and it‘s not unfathomable that the N.J.K lens might have been created as an early prototype design in the Osawa Tominon EL series) these lenses have a completely different optical design. The Osawa is a very unusual 8/4 Biogon/Super Angulon WA variant and the 60/4 N.J.K. Tominon a 5/4 Xenotar (like the Macro Yashinon or Zeiss S-Planar 60/4). No lens in the Osawa Tominon series has such a design as far as I know.

I also think the Osawa Tominons were created much later, but all of it isn‘t well documented. So it‘s a good reminder to look at the possibility of it being a very early prototype in that series again. Thank you very much for that!

Yep, perhaps just some weird design choice… but who knows.

I completely get where you're coming from with your approach to look for a lens with the same specs... so I thought it might be worth it to further clarify how unique both of these lenses are. Thanks a lot for making me aware of this oversight! To illustrate it a little bit I made this:

There is no official data on the lens design of the Tominon N.J.K. lens of course, so please keep in mind, that the lens design shown is based on my observation that it matches the Macro-Yashinon almost exactly.

Osawa Tominon EL 60/4 | Tominon N.J.K. 60/4

Lens design: 8/4 | 5/4
Height: 61 mm | 36 mm
Weight: 164 g | 86 g

There are also significant differences in terms of coatings (the Osawa Tominon seems way more modern in that regard).

All that being said, none of those differences mean that it's impossible or even unlikely that the Tominon N.J.K. was indeed an intended enlarging lens design for what later became the Osawa Tominon EL family. Different demands (wide angle coverage), new developments could have made it necessary or more practical to change directions and use more complex designs when they were finalized later.

So the possibility of that lens (and the N.J.K. letters on it) having to do with Osawa is indeed worth looking into. Thanks @TimoK

Your nice illustration helps understanding.

Now I've started thinking that your mystery lens is better a macro lens than any EL lens. I think if you made that time a 60mm EL lens it should cover a 6x6 cm negative AKA it should be a wide angle lens. I don't know if Zenotar/Planar type lenses are wide enough. But a macro lens have not be very wide. But how they got the one stop more?

It's time to post red light trough my adapted lens.

I have to thank you for refreshing my old memories. It looks that my first "very scientific" lens comparison was a duel, Tomioka vs. Schneider!
I did not know that until now I went through those Tomioka/Tominon sites. I really wait for your article.

At that time, I was 16-17 years old, I had "only a Japanese" Yashica D tlr camera with Yashinon lens. I thought it was not good enought for me. I wanted something better, something "Made in Germany".

Rolleiflex was too expensive, but one older friend from local camera club was selling his Rolleicord with Xenar. He loaned it to me for testing. I took several pictures of a same scene with different apertures from wide open to F22 with both cameras using the same tripod.
I did not buy the Rolleicord. Yashica was so much sharper. Now I know the winner was Tomioka!

Besides putting the finishing pieces on your spaceship computer, was there any other reason you might have taken this photo? Cleaning reasons, perhaps?

I think that's a manual version of HAL9000 with screw mount.... 😂

Great idea and capture @TimoK and a very interesting lens. Schacht is one of the lesser known German manufacturers, but made some great lenses. I have a Schacht M-Travenar 50 mm f/2.8 for example - quite a good lens:

Official Earth certificates by simple.joy, on Flickr

How is your Travegar?

Very interesting! Do you remember which Yashica lens it was?

A Xenar was one of my first manual lenses (a 105 bellows lens, still one of the most beautiful lenses I know in its simplicity...):

Love-letters by simple.joy, on Flickr