Советский объектив порно

That's "Soviet lens porn" in the title, according to Google Language Tools.


Helios-44-2, 58mm f/2 Zeiss Biotar clone. This one was manufactured by Valdai, Val­dai Op­ti­cal-​Me­chan­i­cal Fac­to­ry, located in Val­dai (may be cur­rent­ly known as Val­dayskaya), about 250 miles NW of Moscow.




Jupiter-37A, 135mm f/3.5 Zeiss Sonnar clone, single-coated. Manufactured by KOMZ, Kazan Op­ti­cal-​Me­chan­i­cal Fac­to­ry. Kazan is lo­cat­ed about 435 miles due East of Moscow, in what was, or is, the Au­tonomous Re­pub­lic of Tatars.




Jupiter-9, 85mm f/2 Zeiss Sonnar clone. This model manufactured by LZOS (Лыткаринский завод Оптического Стекла), Lytkari­no Op­ti­cal Glass Fac­to­ry, based in Lytkari­no, 100 kilo­me­ters north of Moscow.




Mir-1V, 37mm f/2.8 Zeiss Flektogon clone. This is the later, less valuable black MC version. Manufactured by Volog­da Op­ti­cal-​Me­chan­i­cal Fac­to­ry. Lo­cat­ed in Volog­da, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 250 miles NE of Moscow.




All photos taken with a piece of tissue paper as flash diffuser for the built-in pop-up Pentax K10D flash, manual exposure, Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/1.8 Pancolar at around f/11.

Incidentally, "Jupiter" comes from the Greek Zeus, which sounded kinda like Zeiss. Creative, comrades!

Although, "Helios" is the Greek name for the Roman Apollo, god of the sun. The Zeiss Sonnar was such-named because it was very bright and fast for its day (which was the early 1930's). However the Helios-44-2 is not a Sonnar, the Jupiter-3 is.

Commodore Lives?!!

Apparently, they do!

Commodore Gaming, complete with the age-old C-and-thingie logo.

I just logged on to EVE Online and was floored by the Commodore ad that appeared on the login screen. And my first thought was the title of this post.

Ghetto Studio

Strobist has got nothing on me!

At least, in the ghetto, scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel area. Here's one setup (I have yet to get the other strobe working reliably):

• Vivitar 283 with variable-power mod and low-voltage trigger protection circuit (3500 pesos, not so cheap, when all the shipping is factored in)
• hose clamp
• cheap tripod from CDR-King (750 pesos)
• Cactus wireless trigger borrowed from Dennis
• 36-inch umbrella from JT Photoworld (400 pesos)
• 6V gel cell from Ace Hardware (500 pesos)

The Vivitar 283 out of the box has a pretty narrow light beam, not enough to cover the 36-inch umbrella. One has to use the XWA attachment to cover the entire umbrella; unluckily I only have one of these attachments so my other flash has the narrow beam. Useful as a hair light, maybe.





Result: one light only, and no backdrop or anything. It's amazing how sharp any lens is at f/9.5!



Which only goes to show, after you buy your DSLR and kit lens, buy a flash or two or three! Fancy f/2.8 lenses won't affect picture quality as much as good, controlled light. So in this regard the new Pentax K2000D with bundled external flash is actually a great move on Pentax's part. But I'm sure everyone will say "Pentax introduces a bottom-of-the-barrel DSLR at Photokina? they're sinking!!"

But the reality is a K2000D plus kit lens and kit flash will probably outperform a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with its kit lens in most cases where you can use flash.

Home Alone

Lalai is off attending a Financial Services Summit being thrown by her employer in Hainan, China. Actually she left early Wednesday morning and will be back on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, I get to stay at home by myself. It does get lonely and it's hard to sleep, so I while away the time with all my usual useless trivial pursuits.

I was digging in my camera and lens drawer (as I don't have a dry cabinet) and dug out my ancient Canon EOS 50 (Elan II) film body. It has no batteries but the last time I used it, it was very much alive. I popped open the back and found a roll of film inside!



Of course all of the film still outside the canister (maybe ten shots) got ruined, but I'm curious what's on the roll. Will have it developed.

Here's my latest (and last) acquisition: the somewhat-rare and somewhat-prized Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/1.8 Pancolar, this one's from the 1967 - 1971 era:





Photos taken with this, the Helios-44-2, another semi-famous normal lens:



I actually got the Pancolar for $30 plus shipping, didn't expect to win at that price because they normally go for much more. This one had fungus inside but a few minutes with rubbing alcohol fixed that. Fungus no more!

It focuses really close (to 0.35 meters), much closer than my other 50mm lenses (and I have lots of those). Well it's a Zeiss, a "zebra" model, single-coated, and the focus ring is somewhat gritty and not buttery.

The Pancolar is supposed to be fantastic but I haven't gotten to use it for much of anything. I actually can't say anything about it except I think it's sharper than my Pentax and Helios normal lenses. But not as sharp as the Rollei Planar.

It's funny, eight months ago, I actually wrote:

I guess I know what normal lens I want now; I can forget about the Zeiss Pancolar or the Helios-44. A 50mm f/1.4 lens on an APS-C DSLR is pretty much equivalent to a conventional 85mm portrait lens on 35mm.

Today, I have all the normal lenses I mentioned. Got them all for giveaway prices.