Best Bokeh Lenses - Over 58mm - M42
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- Опубликовано: 13 май 2020
- This video takes a look at some of the best vintage over 58mm lenses for producing great bokeh.
The lenses are all M42 mount - excellent and good value film era lenses that are easy use on today's digital cameras.
I've included projector lenses, adapted to M42 helicoids, because these lenses can produce wonderful bokeh, at a fraction of the cost of some famous "bokeh" monsters".
I've tried to select the best lenses over 58mm from Japan, Germany and Russia. There are, of course, many other highly-rated lenses not in the video - and I've mentioned some of these during the discussion.
Here's a list of lenses worth considering, some of which don't own, or they didn't make my final list - for various reasons, including cost!
Carl Zeiss Jena 75/1.5
Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Primoplan 75/1.9
Helios 40 - 85/1.5
Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 85/1.8 (I have the K mount version)
Super-Takumar 85/1.9
Jupiter 9 - 85/2
Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Trioplan 100/2.8
Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Orestor 100/2.8 or Pentacon version
Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Orestor 135/2.8 or Pentacon version
Carl-Zeiss Jena 135/3.5 Sonnar
Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 135/2.5 Version 2 (I have the K mount version)
Tair 11A - 135/2.8
Super-Takumar 200/3.5
This video is part of a series of videos covering under 50mm lenses, 50mm lenses, 55-58mm lenses and over 58mm lenses.
My photos with all these (and other) lenses can be seen in albums here:
www.flickr.com/photos/9585957...
Excellant images. Very nice compilation.
Another top well made review, Simon. A real treat to watch.
A really well put together and informative series of videos. Thanks Simon.
I have just discovered the beauty of some M42 lenses, so this and your other reviews are very useful to me.
My grandfather gave me a Meyer 135/2.8 in box today and wow! I'm so excited to use it!
You deserve more subscribers. Thanks for your time and efforts. Please do not give up :)
Thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement. It's early days...so no...I'm not going to give up.
Really appreciate your videos. Your understanding and taste in vintage glass is exquisite. Another superb FSR m42 lens is the Jupiter 37a 135mm f3.5 (there a mc variants as well). The 37a is the best affordable FSR lenses that most photographers have never heard of. Design is based on the venerable j11, but much improved. Sharp enough to be a superb landscape lens with bokeh and rendition that make it equally superb for portraits.
Great video. Thank you for the work you put into this.
Interesting final conclusion. I find the Helios bokeh very unpleasant, fussy and annoying but this is a matter of personal preference. Thanks for sharing all the options and describing them so well.
great video thank you for the effort ! very nice to listen and watch.
Nice vid. I have a collection of maybe 50 or more vintage lenses of various focal lengths. For each brand I have the 28mm, 50mm and 135mm generally. But your collection is stellar (and expensive from what I can tell)! Great job. Thanks for the upload. Subbed.
Great review! Thanks!
No words just genius extraordinary video subscribed for life
Thanks for the video, interesting looks on the longer lenses. I really liked the dreamy look of the 90 Colorplan- would be a tough one to mount though I imagine.
Apologies for the slow reply. The Colorplan is not too difficult to mount, if you can use a M42 screwmount adapters on your camera. With the M42 adapter.... I use a "36mm to 90mm M52 To M42 Lens Adjustable Focusing Helicoid Macro Tube" from China/ebay. And I wrap a piece of ribbon around the lens to make sure it fits firmly into the helicoid.
I have a lovely Tamron Adaptall 90mm f/2.5 SP Macro lens. It's very sharp wide open and, being an Adaptall lens, you can get mounts for any kind of camera. Personally, I have a Canon FD mount, M42 mount, and Contax/Yashica mount for this lens. It's not the fastest 85-90mm lens but its close focus 1:2 macro ability means it can be stopped down a bit and still produce fabulous bokeh. These adaptall lenses are also not terribly expensive.
Awesome video
found a goldmine here ，i also like vintage lens with great bokeh， waiting for more review
Excellent video, i got myself a Vivitar Tokina 200mm f3.5 and a 135mm f2.8, with 18 and 15 blades respectively, before this pandemic started and i'm surprised here that they are practically equivalents to those in the video (the 200mm is much smaller tho) but i never got an adapter to try them out, perhaps some other day.
Also how do you think the Helios 40 compares to the famous Zeiss Jena Biotar 75mm f1.5? almost nobody has had them both in the same room at the same time.
When I got the Pentacon, all I wanted to photograph were the blades of the Pentacon. As an aside, Masterpiece Models came out with a 31" Disney 20,000 Leagues Nautilus resin kit. The Nautilus in the film had those aperature windows for both sides of the main salon. Those Pentacon blades are almost the right size....
Interesting! Sadly, my Pentacon's aperture blades are sitting in a pile at the bottom of an old expresso coffee cup. They came apart during a repair (two of the blades had come loose). I've repaired a Tair 11A like this, but not the Pentacon. I just can't face trying to get the Pentacon's blades back together in the right place/order. So its wide open all the way right now.
This is a great video! I'd love to know if the Meyer Gorlitz 135mm f2.8 (the earlier version of the Pentacon 135mm f2.8) is just as good?
very nice video!
Another great review, Simon! Your reviews give me a bad case of GAS 😖
thanks for your video about those amazing lenses, it really helped me on deciding which lens to buy. However, it mill be much better to watch this video in resolution higher than 480p, in order to appreciate these beautiful photos.
Thank you! I really appreciate you feedback, and I've been working on up-loading better resolution videos. My latest up-load is better quality, I hope! It's a shame I can't just replace this video, but that's not possible.
Great comparison. I'm jealous of all your lenses... I don't own a vintage glass between 55 and 135mm. The comparison is coming in quite handy for me though :)
Your thoughts on the new version of this lens? Zenit MC-Helios #40-2 85mm f/1.5 Lens for M42...
One of my favourites is the Meyer Primotar 135mm f/3,5 with 15 aperture blades. It is a long focus (not telephoto) lens that was originally designed for the 6x9cm roll film format. So only a small central area of the image circle is used. As a result the corners show little difference from the centre on full-frame & APS-C sensors. It works best with the deepest possible hood & I like to use it with extension tubes or bellows. My copy would not qualify for your review as it is in an Exakta mount. But I have come across rumours of M42 versions for the Praktica.
Many thanks for this. I've got a 50mm f3.5 Primotar that I like very much. There is a M42 version of the 135mm (there's one for sale right now on eBay), but I didn't know about this lens until your comment!
The Jupiter 37A f3.5 is a great lens. Very very sharp wide open, great colour reproduction and hardly any chroma smearing.
Thank You.
Have you looked at or tried the A Schacht Munchen lenses?
Hi, thanks for movies. Great job. I have a question. What are You use to connect Leitz Colorplan 90mm F 2.5 to a camera? For example Fuji X-T3?
I'm using a Helicoid with a M42 mount. Search for something like this: "M52 to M42 36-90mm Adjustable Focusing Helicoid Adapter Macro Extension Tube." (And then I use an adapter for the M42 end). You will also need to wrap something around the projector lens to get it to fit snugly into the M52 end. Someone who sold me another projector lens had used a sticky tennis grip...but I prefer things I can remove. Even thin card strips will work.
I have the h40 similar to yours but only a double zero. And the cheapest 40-2 I could find focus was siezed (eazy fix) and glass has scratches , only recently got the front ring off to clean some fungus off the rear of front element, had to remove dents from filter ring, then put lens wrench in a bench vise and rotate the lens while wearing thick rubber builders gloves from wickes , all the time adding iso alchol and penetrating fluid, the noise was horrendous and I slightly bent my lens wrench.
Looking forward to the wide lens bokeh video.
That sounds like a challenge. It's a strong lens! I use rubber Wickes builders gloves too for extra traction/safety, they work well
Hey Simon, how did you adapt the Leitz Colorplan 90 f2.5 to your camera? I'm at a loss as to how to do that for my Fuji X mount or Nikon F mount. Any pointers or tips? Thanks.
Hi! I use M42 mount solutions - and then adapt M42 mounts to my cameras. The first, rather clucky solution is a set of Russian M42 bellows. If you unscrew the front ring of the bellows (you'd need to check this is possible and the size with the vendor) then the Colorplan should fit into the front.
The second solution is to buy a Heliocoid - mine is a "M52 to M42 36-90mm Adjustable Focusing Helicoid Adapter Macro Extension Tube". You'll need to wrap something around the lens to secure it into the front - I simply use ribbon.
I've also used the inside of a toilet roll, taped to a narrower lens adapter to my cameras! With the Colorplan I've not got a focus anywhere near infinity, but its enough for head portraits etc., and well worth the effort. Good luck!
My newer (not new manufacturing) version of the Helios 40 has 18 blades.
I just ordered a 200 mm f4 meyer Orgestor curious to know if you have ever tested one of those?
No, I haven't try one, but I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Hi Simon, great review! I watched it twice:) which helicoid adapter I should look for the Colorplan lens? You mentioned you use m42 helicoid. Are they different? My relative has this projector lens and I really now want to use it:)
Hi Elena, Many thanks for your kind words. The Helicoid I use with the Colorplan is a "36mm to 90mm M52 To M42 Lens Adjustable Focusing Helicoid Macro Tube Adapter". Purchased on ebay. You may need to wrap something around the lens to make sure it fits firmly into the helicoid, but that's easy (I just wrap around a piece of cotton ribbon). It's a fun combination to use!
My brother bought a Panasonic and gave me away all his old gear including bunch of vintage Helios, Zeiss and other lenses. I need to find some time to go have fun with them..
Lucky you!
I really liked this. Could you list the lenses you've reviewed in the description?
Thank you! Good idea - I'll list the lenses...
original miltary version of helios 85mm was the 1st gen night vision lens of a binocular, cyclop. it has no apreture control and does not need becaus eof its nature and it was designed to use IR light other than a starlight intensifier. so that weird bokeh is the result of large aperture IR lens. civilian version is helios 40 and actually very low resolution on higher openings of aperture during daylight. when you stop down to 8, it is tack sharp but wide apertures are dreamy.
when i think about best bokkeh, what i remember is the result 50mm 1.9 Isco Westromat.
Interesting. I was about to purchase a night vision cyclop, with the attached body. It was a lot cheaper than a full Helios lens...and I'd be happy to use it with no aperture blades...but then a good value Helios 85 turned up.
@@coskuarsiray Many thanks for this - I'll take a look!
@@Simonsutak when using APS-C camera, to utilize cycplop better than expected, cut a circle from black vinyl and attach it to back element then this will reduce the light reflecting back from CCD surface to lens and will also help to get sharper images. on full frame this may not work very well. i sold cyclop and got a f1/2.5 90 mm tamron SP macro.
У меня только 40-2 1973-го года. Тяжёлый как пушечный лафет. Несовершенный.. Пипец какой несовершенный. Но есть что-то в нём такое.. Попал мне в руки переточенный под Никон. Ну как переточенный.. там картонки стояли)) Пришлось самому на токарном станке юстировочное "колечко" делать. Колечко получилось большим. Грамм на 50 (латунь))) В итоге -центр - бритва, край - ужас-мрак. На FF чт не заметил повышения резкости как говорили от середины к краю. Но я не эталон - пиздоглазик по возрасту, а очки не привык носить. Мужики, поругайте если не прав. А вообще, гордость распирает, что у басурманина наши стёкла в первых рядах стоят) в 50-58 у него 44-2 в финал вышло. проиграло радиоактивоному японцу f1,2. ну.. с такой светосилой тяжело бороться.. почётное второе место) я их разобрал и перечистил уже кучу. готов на Швабе идти убеждать восстанавливать производство 44-х. Но они вряд-ли конечно согласятся.. Военка всё-таки, у них задачи другие.. Но знаете что характерно на ютубе? вот есть Йеновские объективы, ну типа мы у них у немцев попёрли и т.д... но обзоры то на наши в основном) И на красногорские Таир-3 и 11, и на Арсеналовские Гранит-11 (Арсат-М) Киевские, и на Гелиос 44-3 Минские. Ребят. Нам всем есть чем гордиться. Националисты. Идите НА...Й!! Для меня одна страна всё это делала. Одна и неделимая и остаётся. Мы поссорились - мы и помиримся. Технари и не ссорились. Я не прав?
Yes, you have a lot to be proud of.
@@Simonsutak Нам всем есть чем гордиться :) Фотография - коллективное изобретение просвещённой Европы.
Hi, what's the lens at 2:05?
Hi, its a Pentax SMC ('K') 135mm f2.5.. the same lens as a M42 Super-Multi-Coated Tukumar 135mm f2.5, second, 6 element, version.
Thanx Simon, inspiring stuff and superb coverage on these vintage lenses!
Wish your video is more than 480p.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably be re-doing them in much higher definition soon.
I wonder why are you uploading at 480p, it's not beneficial for the examples given to be observed by us at such low quality.
hard edge bokeh balls and onion rings bokeh balls are two different things.
Yes, you're right...next time I'll make this clear...I wish I could change the video narrative, but I can't....However, at least I included photos to show what I was trying to say!
image quality doesn't match with the vidéo quality
Hi, and many thanks for your comment. I agree. After posting this and a few earlier videos, I've been working on improving the image quality. The problem is that I can't replace this video with the better IQ version. Perhaps I should up-load a better IQ version along-side it?
Another top well made review, Simon. A real treat to watch.
Thanks t, much appreciated...even five months later!! Cheers