The little bokeh wonder
The Meyer Optik Görlitz Trioplan 50mm f2.9 was the first ever soapbubble bokeh lens I discovered and I like to call it a gateway drug. With its price about 150$ its not that expensive and way cheaper than the newly released version. The most common mount is the EXA Mount. It is easy to adapt to digital cameras without a mirror (Sony E, Panasonic, Olympus, Fuji, Canon EOS EF-Mm […]) . To use it on a digital mirror reflex camera you either have to accept loss of quality or infinty focus or buy a more expensive M42 version of the Trioplan 50mm f2.9.
Optical performance
The Trioplan 50mm f2.9 is for sure neither the sharpest nor the most colorful lens but with its characteristic bokeh bubbles its definetly awesome. Everyone should have a copy of this lens in the cupboard.
Opinions
Because of my instagram posts of photos I shot with the trioplan 50mm several of my followers asked me about it. After I had some requests i decided to buy the Trioplan in Germany and ship it to friends all over the world.
All of my friends who received a copy of the Trioplan became vintage lens addicts and bought many more lenses.
Ian C. (@sackofsoul)
The Trioplan is the lens many people first fall in love with when they discover bubble bokeh. When my first one arrived I took it on holiday with me, and spent a day in the mountains photographing the sunlight through the leaves of trees, laughing to myself, gasping at the difference between what my eyes could see and what the Trioplan 50 could see, whilst getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Totally worth it.
Ricardo B. (@rbayon)
Ahhh, the Trioplan 50! Even if it isn’t the first vintage lens you buy, it is the first one you really, really want. You see all that wonderful bubble bokeh and you think to yourself “what sort of wizardry is that”. Often that bokeh is the result of a Trioplan —most of the best bubbles come from this Meyer Optik beauty. So you go on e-Bay, you look for the Trioplan. At first you look at the Trioplan 100, but that is too expensive for a first vintage lens (unless you have more money than sense), so you look around. You find out there is a Trioplan 50. You see that it gets you 95% of what you want (those bubbles!) so you take the plunge. If you are smart, you buy one from Daniel (like I did). And then it arrives: beautiful, silvery, with that solid mechanical feel like no lens you’ve ever seen. And it seems small at first… small that is until you take your first photos. Then you download them to your computer and you are blown away. You can’t stop giggling at all those bubbles. But what surprises you is that even those photos that don’t have bubbles. Even the shots of people, or buildings, or whatever, they are ALL magical. The way this thing captures light is like nothing you’ve ever seen. You are hooked. You want more. Your appetite for vintage lenses becomes insatiable. Truly a vintage lens photographer’s life can be defined in two eras: Before Trioplan (BT) and After Trioplan (AT). It is just that transformational. Like coming of age. Sure, after the Trioplan your budget takes a hit from buying every vintage lens you can get your hands on, but on the inside you can’t stop smiling, and your photographic world is the better for it.
Melissa L. (@petitcanard)
My first experience with vintage lenses was the Trioplan 50 (bought from Daniel) and what an introduction! One look at the gorgeous bubble bokeh and I was hooked! The Trioplan takes the ordinary and transforms it to extraordinary There’s no going back!
At the time I wrote this blog, I have three Trioplan in my cupboard which I would let go. Feel free to contact me if you want one.
Have some experience with 42mm. from „the old day’s“.
My old Sears with a 55mm f:2,8 that I had to buy back in 1968 after my Zenit was soaked inside the underwater box at 35 meter depth.. Lost my lovely 35 mm f:2,8 at same instance and the replacement Sears never was as good as the trusty ruined Zenit.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c8/45/48/c845489259163e8b05eac29262028617.jpg
Now something you maybe find exiting ; old Telephoto lenses.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s Telephoto lenses were mainly huge but simple lenses of some 400mm. to 1000 mm. Usually with an aperture lens with a diameter between 60 and 80 mm. I found a really neat one for the lens 80 mm 500 mm f;6,3. But they can be found second hand on Ebay, just one detail to remember; the 42mm. can easily be nistaken for a tread that looks a lot like it, the „T2“ that also are 42 mm. but a different type of tread. They almost fit together but you will destroy both, trying to force them together. T2 are today mainly used for Astro, that is telescopes but of course, you can also find adaptors for T2.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/16/0a/73160ab3de61ca018c9c1570574ecb9e.jpg
I made some very good photos of the moon with that with the Nex. Here with the Sony 7RM2. Got a 2X Teleconverter making it a 1000 mm and adding a crop of 1,5, it will be up to 1500 mm. But as you see, not very handy. But this is one of the 42mm. vintage lenses you can find. Most of that type of telephoto lenses today are with 60 mm. aperture they are not expensive but has faults such achromatic aberration. — So I has the 42mm. to Nex adaptor and recon these will not be the only 42mm. lenses I will use.