I WENT BONKERS OVER 135MM VINTAGE LENSES

For my birthday this year, I went a bit crazy on ebay and ordered myself vintage lenses ... one vintage 135mm lens for each day of my birthday week.

Back when I was in engineering school at Columbia University in the City of New York a long long time ago now, I typically celebrated my birthday with two 99 cent burgers ... one for me and the other one for the homeless (CU fixture) gentleman panhandling outside of Burger King.

My charity this time around is probably less charitable however : I'm only helping those online traders get rid of their unwanted doorstoppers at over-inflated "Buy-Now" prices, contribute 25% VAT to the government coffers and increase my carbon footprint by continue putting DHL, UPS, Fedex, Royal Mail and Japan Post in business. Heck I haven't left my mancave since Mar 2020, I think this lackluster birthday presents are well-deserved! Doorstoppers to others, bling-bling to a simple starving creative wannabe like me.

Vivitar 135/2.8 AIS mount from Oslo 

Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 135/3.5 M42-Mount from Japan

Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 28/3.5 M42-mount from USA (next year's birthday present this year!)

Pentacon MC Electric GDR 135/2.8 M42-mount from UK

Nikon Nikkor 135/3.5 Non-AI from Japan

Jupiter-37A 135/3.5 M42-mount from Ukraine

Asahi Pentax SMC 135/2.5 K-mount from Japan (has a cult following, 6 element version)

Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar MC 135/3.5 M42 Mount

Olympus Zuiko 135/3.5 OM mount

SMC Pentax 135/3.5 K Mount

SMC Takumar 135/2.5 M42 Mount (6 elements, 6 groups)

A collage of the outcome of a week of utter madness on ebay. As consolation is cheaper than a Sigma Art 85mm f1.4 and I to play with 11 bokeh monsters!

I am so impressed with the SMC Pentax 135/2.5 (6 element) unit that I received, I decided to get another f2.5 (6 element) as well as f3.5 version. Hopefully with these 135s, autumn and winter will be slightly busier with making images and footages worthy of the reputation that comes with these lensea. Some of these lenses are indeed legends back in the day, some still are today.

VINTAGE LENS NIPPON KOGAKU NIKKOR-Q AUTO 135MM F3.5

Today I took the opportunity presented by an overcast end of summer early autumn day to make a short video using a Nippon Kogaku-Q Auto 135/3.5 I acquired (picked up from a bargain bin in Hoogeven) almost 20 years ago today. I shot quite a bit with it on film camera when I first acquired it, now and again whenever nostalgia comes over me. I think I also conducted a small test shots using the Sony A7S a few years back.

This morning I attached it to a Sony A7R2 (using K&F Concept Pro Nikon-Sony E Adapter) and recorded some footages around the garden at f3.5. The day was overcast with some light but not too jarring, the breeze was gently moving amongst the leaves.

Dancing leaves on an overcast early autumn day.

This lens is dear to me simply because it's not a perfect lens. It's has what looks like a thin film of oil (from the aperture blades) or fungus spreading thinly over the front elements on the inside of the lens. This produces a "glowing" effect" when shooting against the sunlight. I remember noticing the "glowing" elephants I shot at Emmen Zoo when we visited with Ali and Aisya. The kids they were still babies then.

I'm going back to these old vintage lenses that I've collected over the years, most if not all of these gems were collected while we were living in the Netherlands, I was an ebay addict then. This was also during the period of the changeover from analogue to digital, I myself dumped quite a few (if not all) of my Nikon AF lenses to support "back to the glorious analogue past" habit. 

I hope to make a few more footages over the next few months/years.

Incidentally I've acquired 6 more 135mm vintage lenses off ebay.com and finn.no in the past 7 days, and 1x 28mm:

Vivitar 135/2.8 Nikon AIS Mount from Oslo
Nikkor AI 135/3.5 from Japan

Asahi Pentax SMC 135/2.5 K Mount from Japan
Pentacon Electric MC 135/2,8 M42 Mount
Jupiter-37A 135/3.5 M42 Mount
Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 28/3.5 M42 Mount from the USA
Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 135/3.5 M42 Mount

All vintage lenses from a bygone era, some making a well-deserved comeback into the digital cine world.

September Milkyway Stitchup

These are several Milkyway stitchups from the outing 02nd Sep 2021. I need to be more meticulous when collecting the collages of our big sky, probably more methodical as well.

These captures were pretty quick and shoddy in-and-out job as I was rather rushing it due to the limited time circa 4 hours (from 2300hrs and 0300 hrs the next day) I had. Milkyway movements are limited by the two center of light pollution (Eigersund and Sandness/Stavanger).

And there's also the travelling time of 2 hrs each way, by the time I got to site I was mentality tired especially towards the end of the session.

I left the house at 2100hrs, arrived at 1st location near Sinnes by 2300hrs just in time before MW crosses over Eigersund. Spend another one hour to travel to Lyseheia to arrive around midnight.

MW travels Westward from 2300hrs in the South to 0300hrs in the West, two sources of light pollution if shooting from the mountains ie Lyseheia would be Eigersund in the south and Sandness-Stavanger in the West. From this map it seems the locations is still from the coast ie. Sele or any dark spot between the two big LP centers.

Stitch up of 3 stacked shots, each shot is a stack of 5 single exposure shots.

Stitch up of 5 stacked shots, each shot is a stack of 5 single exposure shots.

Stitch up of 5 stacked shots, each shot is a stack of 5 single exposure shots. LP is from Sandness/Stavanger.

Milkyway on Youtube.

Milkyway chasing season this far North is short ... proper dark sky suitable for MW starts around 3rd week of August and ends 3rd week of November. By then winter is already knocking, eventhough the nights are longer the weather is far worst than Aug/Sep period with rain and dreary nights. On to top of that you have full moon. Roads to the mountains are also typically close by mid November. The coast are good go-to spots on clear nights except on fullmoon nights especially around October.

Sony A7R2 with Nokton 40/1.2 and Leica M Summicron 50/2

My interest in giving these old vintage lenses was again piqued when I found out how a current crop of cinematographers are re-discovering the beauty and unique look of these vintage lenses for the past 5 years or so. There a lively aftermarket for refurbishing and modifying these old lenses to be a part of their current cine lens arsenal. They termed these lenses "cine-modded" lenses.

The motivation is likely straightforward : one is cost (cine lenses break the bank apparently even for a Samyang; a Zeiss Superspeed USD$13,000 vs Contax Zeiss USD$200) and the other is that unique look afforded by some of these classic glasses (dt radioactive Thorium, imperfection in glass design, less than perfect multi-coasting etc). These lenses are very sharp in most cases and desirably "quirky" in many others. "Zeiss bubbles" in the glass element has been touted as positive in some circles.

Though I'm not using these lenses for any dubious cine ambition (though it did cross my mind), I think it's becoming more interesting to fully explore their capability, potential and look with digital cameras and affordable well built adapters. This is especially so in these times of ridiculously expensive and "perfect" new modern lenses. I read somewhere long ago that the glass formula for lenses hasn't really  changed much since Carl Zeiss's  groundbreaking discovery (not sure whether it was glass formula or multi-coating) back the in the 70s or 80s. 

Incidentally, I already own a few of these lenses and I am not averse to acquiring a couple more of these quirky oldies if I have to! I adore them for their look, metal build and heft. Back in the door, naughty colleagues lebelled me doorstop collector.

A7R2 with a fairly recent Nokton M 40/1,2

Image taken at high noon @f2.0 since I can't seem to be sure I was in-focus using focus peaking alone @f1.2

Crop of a section of the above image.

The sun in front of me, leaves taken from the shade @f2.0, same excuse as above.

Crop of a section of the above image.

And here are some samples from my most favorite vintage glass from Leica : Summicron 50/2.0. I think this lens is older than I'm ... I don't think this old Leica M mount lens will be cine-mod anytime soon due to it's design!

Image taken later in the day with the sun low on the horizon @f2.0

Cropped of the image above.

@f2

Crop of the image above.

@f2

Crop of the same image.

@f2

Crop of the same image.

I have a couple of Nikkor-Auto H which has been AI'd which I bought from a bargain bin for EUR30. One of the lenses, the 135/3.5 has fungus on the inside of one of it's lens element, everything else is in perfect condition. This lens has a most pleasing "glow" when shooting in bright sunlight. I also have a Mamiya RB 67 Sekor 90/4 which has the same quality when shot wide open ... when digital backs becomes affordable, I'll bring it out of it's slumber.

I hold that the potential of these lenses should be explored further, and since I already spent numerous after hours and euros acquiring them almost 20 years ago, lets give them another proper go. These should be done if not in still images, maybe with moving images. But I must admit, achieving focus at f2 or f1.2 isn't as easy as it used to be, so bear with me.

Sequator stacked Milkyway shots

Continued the Milkyway post processing from CaptureOne 20 to Sequator stack from the Canon 6D+EF50/1.2 and Sony A7R2+EF24/1.4 from 02nd September.

Shots from 6D was still manageable as it has always been; however shots from the 7DR2 faced some hurdles due to the file size. Sony A7S produced 12 GByte files, while A7R2 created 87 Gbyte file being a 42 MP camera!!! Sequator only managed to stack 3 files at a time ... looks like an intervention step is required after CaptureOne ie. Image Resize in PS!

All of this hassle is probably the limitation from my current Acer 4GB RAM laptop. The Ryzen 32GB RAM desktop hasn't been setup after 2 years, and the Sony 16GB RAM laptop has it's own issues. We'll need to sort that out sometime ...

6D+EF50/1.2 @f2,5 tracked

6D+EF50/1.2 @f2,5 tracked

6D+EF50/1.2 @f2,5 tracked

A7R2+EF24/1.4 @f2,5 tracked

A couple of images collated in video form, something new I'm trying.

Minolta MC Rokkor-PF 85/1.7

I attached the lens to Sony A7R2 via a Neewer MD to Sony E adapter and shot off a few exposures out from the front door. Shots made at the same Iso: shutter speed varies slightly depending on the aperture choosen. Raw files converted on CaptureOne 20 and then further tweaked and resized on PS.

@f2.5

@f2.5 (actually @f1.7 wasnt stopped down*)

@f1.7

Minolta MC ROKKOR-PF 85/1.7

@f1.7 correctly stepped down

@f4.5 correctly stepped down

 *And I just learnt today that this Rokkor-PF 87/1.7 needs to be stopped down manually to get the effect you wanted with your chosen aperture ... I was wondering why the background of the shot @f2.5 and the shot @f1.7 looks weirdly similar. If not stopped down the shot will be taken at @1.7 (widest aperture)!

Vintage lenses ready for some action

These are among the lenses I collected over a period of 3 years while in Holland 2002-2004, stalking ebay and used gear portals picking of other people's "junk". Sometime perusing "bargain" bins at photo stores in the area where I worked looking for classic glasses people throw away at the start of the digital photography conversion.

With the coming of mirrorless cameras these beauties are revived again with the multitudes of adapters available in the market (some good, some bad, some useless). The newer crop of adapters specifically designed for Sony_E mount I found to fit very nicely enabling me to use all these lenses on my Sony A7S and A7R.

One key item to check in infinity focus ... I have tested some of them but not all. For daytime uses they seem to work excellently well. For point source light ie stars in the nightsky, I've only managed to test the Leica R Summicron 35/2.0. The rest remains to be taken out one of these clear nights and their capability tested.

I tested a Leica M Summitar 50/2 sometime ago and was quite chuffed with the results.

Minolta Rokkor 85/1.7

Minolta Rokkor 58/1.2

Nikon AIS 35/1.4 using some generic wide lenshood

Voightlander M 40/1.2

Leica R Summicron 35/2

Leica R Elmarit 90/2.8

Olympus Zuiko 28/2.8 on a generic wide lenshood