The followig article is a guest post by Murok Marci
The following lenses will be shown
Porst Color Reflex PK 50mm f1,2
The following article is a guest post by Jim Headley.
Battle Between Two Cult Classics, the Kyoei Super-Acall and the Soligor
A few years ago, I was rather bored and went onto the Internet for some entertainment.
I often type Leica in the auction website and just browse the closing auctions for a bargain.
I quickly located a Leica IIIC stepper and bought it for under $400, with a clean 50mm collapsible Elmar. During my browsing I also located two 135mm lenses for sale. Both were in 39mm Leica Thread Mount and the auction was about to end with no bidders. I slapped down a $27 bid, only to find out in a few minutes that I was now the proud owner of these two 135mm lenses for a paltry $19.99. I quickly paid for them ($24.99 with shipping).
I really didn’t care about these lenses as my big prize of the day was my fourth IIIC stepper to add to my collection.
The lenses showed up the same day as the coveted IIIC, so they didn’t get much attention until later that evening. I searched the Internet only to find that both the Kyoei Super-Acall and the Soligor lenses are very loved by their owners. Many call them “sleeper lenses.”
Okay, I did become excited at this point and even found one reference calling the lenses, “better than the Hektor 135.”
I could not sleep that night as visions of the two lenses danced in my head.
The weekend came around, so I decided to put the two “sleepers” to the test. I’ve always hunted for the perfect M-mount 135mm lens – even to go as far as cutting off the eyes of a Leica 135mm f:2.8 Elmarit. The eyes were scratched beyond use, so please don’t gasp.
My Elmarit performs well but it doesn’t focus accurately on the rangefinder patch of my M8. It’s great at infinity but difficult to focus on anything very close. I was using it on a Micro 4/3 camera and it was splendid.
I have always struggled to find a great 135mm lens and with the 1.3x crop of my Leica M8 chip, the 135 effectively becomes a 175mm. That is a “nice” focal length to use.
I took the two sleeper lenses down to the local dam on the Little Blue River as well as performing a test on the top of the local courthouse.
WOW! I am amazed by both the Kyoei Super-Acall and the Soligor. They are indeed sleeper lenses and better that all the 135mm Hektors that I have owned.
I first gravitated to the larger and heavier Kyoei Super-Acall but I finally relented and picked the less-impressive Soligor. I mean come-on with a name like Soligor it can’t be that great.
To my surprise the Soligor rated and tested as the best of the two when I went through a series of detailed head-to-head quality tests from wide open at f:3.5 to f:22.
The Soligor was tack sharp at f:11 while the Super-Acall was a little softer. Both lenses had fantastic color retention but I found the little Soligor was a little warmer while the Super-Acall had nicer blues and cooler tones. At f:16 and 22 both lenses were sharp with great color retention but the Soligor was just a little better.
So if you have been hunting for a reasonably priced 135mm lens to snap onto your digital (or film) Leica, please take a look at the Kyoei Super-Acall and the Soligor 135mm f:3.5 lenses. They are sleepers and many are discovering their unique charm and quality, so they are beginning to rise in price a little.
I was incredibly lucky to find them together in one auction for $19.99. The Kyoei Super-Acall normally is in the $200 to $400 range while the “better” Soligor is $200 to $300 if you can find them on the used market.
They both make a great telephoto on an M-mount Leica with a good adapter.
The following is a guest blog by Jorgen Guldmann:
Everyone needs at least one GOOD 50mm lens (I got a fair amount). In my opinion a good 50mm lens must be versatile, with a nice bokeh, fast to accommodate for less available light, and sharp when stopped down to aperture below f2. There are a lot of 50mm prime lenses on the market, both old and new. In this little blog i am comparing 6 different pieces.. I hope you enjoy their attributes and expressions.
Today I took some test shots to compare the Zeiss Flektogon 20mm f2.8 and the Zeiss Flektogon 20mm f4.
Both of these old vintage lenses have the m42 mount and can be adapted to every modern camera (Sony, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji etc.). The M42 mount is the best to adapt.
The design of both lenses is almost indestructible. They are completely made from metal and glas.
When it comes to the price, the f4 version (160€ at ebay.de) is about 100€ cheaper than the f2.8 version.
When you compare the optical quality of the lenses, you soon realise that the Carl Zeiss Flektogon f2.8 is the better lens.
click the image to enlarge it
The Flektogon f2.8 is sharper even wide open at f2,8 compared to the f4 version at f4.
This better sharpness continues through all apertures.
The vignetting is almost the same when you compare f2.8 with f4. But when you stop down the f2.8 version to f4 its almsot gone.
The sharpness in the corners and with subjects far away, the Flektogon 20mm f2.8 is better wide open compared to the f4 version. From f8 there are no significant differences between the both. At f16 the f4 version is almost a little bit sharper.
click the image to enlarge it
Last but not least a comaprison of the “star” both lenses create.
Its hard to tell which of these two lenses is the better one. In my opinion the Carl Zeiss Flektogon f4 is a really good lens for landscape and architecture photography for all Sony, Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Panasonioc (and all others) photographers. When you use a tripod and can stop it down to aperture 8 or 16 there is almost no difference to the f2.8 verison.
Because the f2.8 version is way way better wide open, i recommend this version for astro photography.
As this is my first “lens review” I would kindly ask you to leave a comment how you liked it. I’d love to read some lines of wishes, criticism and suggestions.
Daniel