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Adapted Adapted lenses, any make, for any camera
- Thread starter Lawrence A.
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Olympus OMD E-M1 w/Tokyo Kogagu RE Auto Topcor 5.8cm 1.8
Went with the better half to an open-market last night to grab some dinner and walk around - so I got to exercise the Topcor a bit (not just around the back yard). Quick impressions - it is light, the focus throw is maybe a bit too short and too light, I can deal with either case, but when you combine it, it is not as enjoyable as other lenses I have (the gold standard as far as I am concerned are the "modern" Voigtlander lenses I own, they nail both focus throw and friction). But it is still a very enjoyable lens to shoot and very sharp in the middle (given how easy it is to get focus peaking even at F5.6 which is what I shot with most of the time).
I still have to shoot it at night and with faster aperture, but from quick inspection of the images, sharpness is excellent in the center, it falls a bit more in the edges than either of my Minolta 55mm, Konica 57mm or Tomioka 55mm. The Bokeh however is very nice, imho - reminds me of the old Yashinon 5cm F2 Tomioka - very painterly while being a lot sharper in the center than that old (early / mid 50s) lens. I guess being a decade later in design / construction helps with that.
Color / Contrast reminds me of the Konica, a bit less punchy than either the Minolta or the Tomioka, but still very pleasing.
Overall, I like this lens, it sure has character.
No, Probably F5.6, did not write it down, just playing with the lens for the first time.
You set the aperture, but the lens remains open until you press and hold that little button at the bottom under the lens, at that point the aperture blades snap into place and you can press the shutter.
AlwaysOnAuto
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I can see me forgetting to press that little button, a lot.
I hope to go out with it soon, we will see if this is an issue for me as well.
Olympus OMD E-M1 w/Tokyo Kogagu RE Auto Topcor 5.8cm 1.8
Spent more time with the Topcor, shooting at night. A lot of the issues I had with it on my first outing seem to disappear with more usage. I really enjoyed shooting with this lens and even the colors it produces seem to be more vibrant at night time. Add the fantastic Bokeh and I can say that I can really recommend this lens if you get a chance to pick one up. I personally find the rendering very much to my liking.
One of those lenses that if being sold online would be marked “parts only”, the aperture is mechanically all over the place and I was on the verge of binning it. But I decided to have a go playing about with it resulting in me very loosely controlling the aperture by unscrewing and loosening the connection between lens and adapter almost to the point of the lens falling off. An unsatisfactory state of affairs however whilst it just doesn’t work properly, I still can’t bring myself to bin this Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm F2.8 as the images rendered through it can be wonderful, making it worth the hassle. These lenses can be had online used for $20 to $30 but even cheaper at car boot fairs etc, so if you see one, do grab it.
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Inphoto
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My Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm F2.8 has also the aperture stuck. Needs a very intense cleaning of the blades as the spring tension in not strong enough. However the minimum focusing distance is short for a 50mm lens and the B/W conversion of the pictures show a dreamy Zeiss rendering.
As do the colour images IME, plus I really can't complain about the coatings:
Seems like the f1.8 is more than "enough".....as demonstrated by your photo samples in this thread as well.
