An ordinary life in an extra-ordinary place
Lenses
I really don’t know what came over me. There I was, sat having an excellent meal at the polo club, with convivial company and not a care in the world. So why did I turn to the lady next to me and enquire: “would you like to see this lens, it looks like a penis”? It could have been worse, I could have said “do you want to see my penis, it looks like a lens”.
It may have been something to do with the very fine glass of white wine I had just consumed; but more likely it was an enthusiasm to share the beauty of a lens I had just been lent; and in my defence it did sport excellent phallic properties.
The lens belongs to William, owner of a couple of the lenses featured in the micro four-thirds collection; and the owner of several more tasty pieces of glass following an extended and expensive session on eBay. But this lens in particular was so pretty. Being phallic, of course it has to be French, and it is a cine lens made by Angenieux of Paris.
One ring handles aperture, another is the zoom, and the third gives you an orgasm provides focus. I was allowed to borrow it overnight so I could photograph it. But when I tried to return it today I was told I could borrow if for a week, so photos will follow. Feeling very aroused excited at the prospect.
P.S. The lady sat next to me was an Australian so was not at all upset by my request; although her Argentinian husband gave me one of those looks that gauchos give you, just before they kick you in the nuts.
My recent foray into the delights of Russian lenses resulted in the weirdly styled and not completely shit Industar-22.
But the $29 extravagance that was the Industar-22 was accompanied by the slightly more down-market Industar-50 at $17. Again, it took shots that weren’t shit; but it was destined for a higher purpose as a macro machine.
Somewhere on the wide wide world of web, I found reference to a macro lens solution involving an Industar-50, and adapter and a set of extension tubes. The tubes (cost $9) arrived yesterday, and the device was screwed together.
Initial results are not promising, which is why I am not posting any here (but now see update below). There is a light fog drifting across the images, maybe related to the fact that my copy of the lens sports what appear to be air bubbles in the glass, probably not a design feature. Two fellow idiots have ordered the same set-up, so will wait to see their results. Maybe I need to lash out another $17 on another Industar-50, or maybe I need to just junk the whole contraption and forget about it. I remain cautiously pessimistic.
Update:
It’s actually rather good.
It’s a bastard to focus, but it can get really close:
Not bad for $17.
A long time (the 1930s), in a land far away (Germany), a company called Leitz produced a rather fancy looking lens which was stuck on the front of Leica cameras and sold for large amounts of cash.
A Russian company called KMZ decided they could make the same thing with far less precision and for a lot less money, and the result was the Industar-10.
Then came the war and the Germans conveniently lost, and even more conveniently ensured that the Leitz factory fell into the area of Germany claimed by the Russians. There then followed an involuntary “transfer of technology” from Leitz to KMZ, and a revised version of the lens was produced, elegantly named the Industar-22.
Sixty years on and a parcel arrives at my condo from Ukraine.
Inside is my very own Industar-22, a little dirty and dusty, but apparently functional.
You twirl the dial at the front to change aperture, and manoeuvre the little knob at the back to focus. It’s all a little industrial and wobbly; but what else would you expect?
No time to try it out yet, other than on a passing soi dog.
Not expecting pin-sharp images; but maybe some shots with character; more testing to follow once I have cleaned it up a bit.
And how much did I pay for this sixty year old, shiny piece of nostalgia? $29.
A bargain you say? Indeed, but it was more expensive than another lens which arrived in a separate parcel from Moscow; of which more later.
The French are so annoying; not least because they are annoyingly stylish, even in areas where function should reign supreme. Camera lenses for example.
The rest of the world makes mundane-looking lenses in black or grey with a plastic body. After all, it doesn’t matter how they look; all that matters is the photos they produce.
Pah! say the French; and lots of other words said with much shrugging of shoulders and waving of hands. If you are going to make a lens in France, it better look good. Like this:
It was made by Angenieux, some time in the last seventy five years. I wish it was mine, but it belongs to Nik and he kindly let me touch it for a while. Naturally I spent more time taking photos of it, than with it.
Damn the French, now I want one.
Having cash in the camera gear kitty has turned me into an eBay legacy lens junkie. The potential for sticking alternative lenses onto the front of my GF1 is much larger than I realised, and I spent too much time every day researching the possibilities, and stopping myself from bidding on impossibly expensive Leica rangefinder lenses.
I have already acquired the quite beautiful Contax 45mm, have taken nearly five hundred photos with it, and been very impressed.
So it only seemed right to get another Contax, this time the equally highly rated 90mm. A little bigger and therefore even more beautiful, and at a cost of less than 8,000 baht.
A quick check indicates it also takes lovely sharp photos. Unfortunately, the adapter thingie that allows me to fit a Contax to the GF1 has started making grinding noises and has gone back to Hong Kong to be fixed. So all I can do with my Contax lenses for the next week is just look at them; but more photos taken with them will follow in due course.
My final acquisition, which cost a wallet-emptying 2,500 baht, was a Canon FD 50mm F1.4.
This purchase was particularly pleasing because Camberley has recently thrown out a complete collection of Canon FD lenses. not knowing that the M4/3 crowd are snapping them up on eBay. For a Yorkshireman, there is no greater pain.
Anyway, the camera kitty has been pretty much emptied now, so I need to sell some more gear or earn some cash taking photos. Won’t stop me lusting over Leicas on eBay though.
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