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New bokeh monsters or classic & cheap adapted glass?


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In the last few days some members have been showing their enthusiasm for their new bokeh monsters which they bought, and why not?

 

After all we are all proud of our purchases and there’s nothing wrong in showing them off on this forum, it’s one innocent pleasure we all take next to our hobby or professional interest.

 

I did wonder though if I would ever find any reason, in my heart and or pocket, to buy a very expensive new lens in order to get the creamy “ bokeh” which all manner of people talk about these days.

 

Of course buying a lens that has an incredibly open aperture value could be done in order to shoot things at the limit of visibility because of incredibly low level of light, but, given the incredible performance at high ISO of modern camera I rather doubt that that is necessary, so one buys these lenses for the effect they give, which isolate the subject for the background.

 

So I shot a picture of two with my cheap ( and I really mean cheap charity shop prices category! ) Göerz Meyer Orestor f 1.8 ( at 2.8) with the K&F adapter.

 

Yes it is an old lens, and yes it doesn’t have the same feel of a modern lens but it ain’t half bad!

 

Given the results I am rather happy with this bokeh 

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I think cheap adapted glass will win in most cases, just because it's more affordable and usually produces great (or better) results.

Also many people like more the old classic look of shots comparing to "digital" and "razor sharp" modern lens rendering.

 

I've noticed one more trend - some old cheap adapted glass can suddenly grow in price once people discover it's potential on mirrorless systems.

 

E.g. Olympus Pen F Half Frame glass was very cheap, super compact even when adapted, and very nice quality.

Unfortunately, that factors quickly increased purchase demand and as result exhausted market.

It's hard to believe, but relatively inexpensive in the past Olympus Pen F Half Frame 60mm F1.5 sells now for insanely high price ($600 and more).

 

Adapting any glass usually is a compromise of: price, weight, size, quality, etc.

SLR glass usually requires quite thick adapter, however it's not a big deal if the price matters. I've personally spent a lot of time with different adapted glass, enjoying results.

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In the last few days some members have been showing their enthusiasm for their new bokeh monsters which they bought, and why not?

 

After all we are all proud of our purchases and there’s nothing wrong in showing them off on this forum, it’s one innocent pleasure we all take next to our hobby or professional interest.

 

I did wonder though if I would ever find any reason, in my heart and or pocket, to buy a very expensive new lens in order to get the creamy “ bokeh” which all manner of people talk about these days.

 

Of course buying a lens that has an incredibly open aperture value could be done in order to shoot things at the limit of visibility because of incredibly low level of light, but, given the incredible performance at high ISO of modern camera I rather doubt that that is necessary, so one buys these lenses for the effect they give, which isolate the subject for the background.

 

So I shot a picture of two with my cheap ( and I really mean cheap charity shop prices category! ) Göerz Meyer Orestor f 1.8 ( at 2.8) with the K&F adapter.

 

Yes it is an old lens, and yes it doesn’t have the same feel of a modern lens but it ain’t half bad!

 

Given the results I am rather happy with this bokeh 

 

 

Nicely done; very smooth!  It would also nice to see how that lens works with portraits.  It would be really good if everyone were to post nightime shots as well, to show how points of light get rendered.

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That lens woks great on portraits. There are many versions of it and much variation from copy to copy. I am sorry to hear that you weren’t happy about yours Johan. I was just lucky with this, a lens with no coating and riddled with some  little transparent impurities on the lens rear elements which might be droplets of something or even minuscule specs of glass dust, they are translucent.

 

So much for “ clean" lenses!

 

The depth of field is not only shallow at a relatively open aperture ( and much more completely open), but  as you will see it is very sharp at 2.8... but only where it was focussed ( eyebrows and eyes) but tip of the nose and ears are out of focus.

 

As for price, yes, it is true that some lenses which you can use on mirrorless cameras ( such as the Olympus) are very expensive now while a few years ago you couldn’t give them away, but there are still many street markets and charity shops where you can luck out, yet, especially in central and East-Europe there were truck loads of these more humble lenses, although they have their own rarities as well, but I am not a collector, and some people kept them well and used them until not so long ago on analog cameras, instead of having been chucked out as many did in the West.

 

So, yes, all manner of “ zebra” lenses are NOW sold at relatively high prices ( always lower than a new lens) simply because they are old and look the retro part and you get the paradox of people shooting with the latest technology in “ film” ( camera bodies are in fat the film you shoot with)  and the oldest one in glass.

 

So people argue the maximum result obtainable from a raw converter and then use the camera with one of these lenses. But that is another thread altogether.

 

I am not proposing to use these lenses for everyday photography, although yesterday, I took a portrait of my father in law and just before he was just sitting with my wife talking about  his administration that my wife helps him with and I quickly shot a picture of them two together which was very nice indeed.

 

By the way the adapter that I’ve used in this case is a “ dumb” adapter ( one that doesn’t do anything els than adapting bayonet with the M42 thread of the lens) by K&F. So the  full frame focal length equivalent of a 50mm is 80mm, which makes the humble 50mm one of the ideal focal lengths for a portrait although for some reason now people have taken to shoot portraits with much longer lenses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pentax Takumars, yes, very good lens.

 

My 100mm macro f4 ( 1:2) is one of the sharpest lenses that one can use on a mirrorless camera and certainly capable to rival with my 60mm macro  (1:2 too) 

 

Used properly (here with my lens turbo II) it too is capable of great bokeh at a fraction of the price of more contemporary , here a couple of tulips shot at f 8 minimum of post processing in the one with the triangular background to enhance the structure a little bit.

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Edited by milandro
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My X-E1 with the cheap K&F adapter using a beat up $20 Super-Takumar 50mm F1.4, probably at about F2.8 or so. 

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Edited by bradsarno
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  • 4 weeks later...

in the only possible way.

 

You look into the evf  or ovf and you focus the lens.

 

You may use no focus aid or you use one of the several offered by Fuji.

 

My preferrred method is to push on the “ focus assist” button of the X-T1 or the wheel of the X-E2 ( they have the same function if used this way in this context).

 

This will enlarge the area selected (which normally with the autofocus lenses is the areas where the autofocus is set) and you can focus there.

 

You may use other systems offered by the camera: Digital split image or Focus peak (they are in the menu and obviously in the manual). I prefer the simplest method described before.

 

Some lenses that I use are not classic lenses but are nevertheless manual focus lenses ( 8mm and 12mm Samyang) do not really require any focus but you can try to focus them the same way.

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