Chinon 55mm f/1.4: (1)

Chinon 55mm f/1.4 Lens

The Japanese Tomioka company made this lens to a Planar design by Johannes Berger of Zeiss, which Zeiss never themselves used, having something similar which they considered superior. I bought this lens still attached to a Chinon CX from an eBay seller. It is engraved ‘Auto Chinon’ but in all other respects is identical to 55mm f/1.4 lenses badged ‘Tomioka’ which Chinon were supplying before 1974…  (read more)
Seen and Unseen

Seen and Unseen

26 Oct 2021 6 3 136
Canon EOS 30D and Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens.
Fly

Fly

16 Jan 2022 4 130
Camera: Canon EOS 30D Lens: Chinon 55mm f/1.4 Supplementary Lens: Minolta Close-Up No. 1
Tomioka Lament

Tomioka Lament

28 Nov 2018 9 5 126
The plastic A/M slider has broken off my venerable Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens dating from circa 1976 (a £10 upgrade when bought with a Chinon CX). To mark this milestone in its decline I have edited an earlier photograph made with this lens presumably wide open. I ought to take contemporaneous notes but it seems a nerdy thing to be doing for a cool guy like me. Non-contemporaneous notes (the cool type of notes); The photograph was taken through a gap in a hedge (green bits). Beyond the hedge was (and still is) a busy four-lane road (blurred bits). Beyond that again is an old wool mill, imposing and built of stone (white bits). There is an inexplicable red bit. My best guess is that it was a red lorry. The leaves in their final days leave me feeling melancholy. If I were not a photographer, I should scarcely have registered their existence.
In the Cells

In the Cells

02 Aug 2023 1 37
During June, 2017, I visited Lacock Abbey to try out a few old M42 screw-mount lenses on a Canon EOS 40D DSLR. I got some nice pictures of bees and insects feasting on the flowers in the garden, and an especially satisfactory result photographing a lavender bush using a Cosinon 135mm telephoto in the abbey yard - the place where Fox Talbot did his photo of a fellow up a ladder. Later I took a walk around the inside of the big house built on top of the abbey, just to prolong the visit really. And from an upstairs window I observed a party of girls arriving under the supervision of a harrassed-looking teacher-type of woman. They were probably there for the Harry Potter experience in the cloisters, because that was where they were about to enter. I had a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 on the camera and clearly no time to change it, so I shot a few speculative shots of the melee beneath the upstairs window. I might have done better with a longer focal length, but as it turned out one of these pictures included this girl swerving in a right angle to enter the cloisters. She had the perfect expression of a young person in high spirits on a summer outing, bringing back all sorts of buried memories of joy and freedom. She makes a good subject for experimental photography in which I am currently indulging.
Nature is Taking a Winter Break

Nature is Taking a Winter Break

14 Jan 2016 3 45
Canon EOS 30D + Chinon 50mm f/1.4 lens.
Crowded House

Crowded House

06 Sep 2023 6 2 65
Photographed using a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens on a Fuji camera via an adapter. This lens was an alternative to the more usual 55mm f/1.8 when Dixons were selling Chinon cameras during the early 1970s. They aren't that plentiful on the second-hand market so I guess not many customers paid the extra. After all, this was the budget-conscious end of the market. There is nothing wrong with the f/1.8 version, but the f/1.4 was definitely worth the extra.
Fabergé Pear

Fabergé Pear

06 Sep 2023 3 71
This pear had interesting pattern and texture and made me think of a Fabergé egg. Unfortunately, it was not good eating, but you can't have everything. I photographed it using a Fujifilm X-E1 camera with a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens attached via an M42 - Fuji X adapter and with a Minolta Close-Up No. 1 supplementary lens in the filter mount of the Chinon lens. Then I cropped it and processed it in Lightroom to highlight the pear and eliminate its less interesting companions.
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