M42 Lenses

Canon EOS 30D + Helios-44 58mm f/2 lens.

Photographed with a Canon EOS 30D and a Helios-44 58mm f/2 lens.

Photographed with a Canon EOS 30D and a Helios-44 58mm f/2 lens.

This is a photographic challenge if you are a visitor because you run out of space in which to back up. The answer is to take your picture from the field behind the building, which, incidentally, costs nothing to enter. Photographed with a 200mm f/4 Meyer-Optik Orestegor lens on a Canon EOS 30D camera. The Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestegor 200mm f/4 is a preset manual lens, with continuous aperture, which can be limited with a special preset ring. It has 15 blades which close and open very smoothly in the range f/4-f/22. The focus throw is very long. It is all metal and built like a tank. Enthusiasts report difficulty in finding one. Mine just happened to be in a little Zenit-E kit which I bought for the Helios lens. To get the 15-blade Orestegor and a set of three extension tubes was something of a bonus.

Back of an open Zenit-E photographed with a Canon EOS 30D and a Helios-44 58mm f/2 lens on an extension tube.

A whimsical reflection on digital and its analogue and mechanical predecessor. Photographed using a 58mm Helios-44 f/2 lens on a Canon EOS 40D camera.

Zenit-E with a bit torn out of an election leaflet showing acolytes gazing attentively at their Leader (Leader is out of picture) and photographed with a Canon EOS 30D and a Helios-44 58mm f/2 lens on an extension tube.

Photographed with a Canon EOS 40D and a Chinon 55mm f/1.7 M42 lens. This is a very good lens. It might even be better than the Helios-44.

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. In my shed where old things abound I take photographs with an old lens rescued from a mid-1970s Chinon CX camera and mull over the passage of time. Canon EOS 40D + Chinon 55mm f/1.7 + Minolta Close-Up Lens No.1 for SR.

Helios-44 on Canon EOS 30D. Extension tube interposed.

I've got a hot chilly feeling I don't understand. Canon EOS 40D, Helios-44, and an extension tube.

The simplicity of the Tessar lens formula - four elements in three groups - perhaps explains its ability to record scenes in a noticeably different way to other lenses. Canon EOS 40D + Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens.

Canon EOS 40D + Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens.

Canon EOS 40D and Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens.

A photograph of a work by Gavin Turk entitled 'Ajar (Grey)' in a Roche Court leaflet. Art begets art. Canon EOS 40D + Cosinon Auto f/2.8 135mm lens.

Graham Rawle's novel and a Praktica MTL 5 camera photographed using a Nikon D700 with a Nikkor O-C. 35mm f/2 lens. Aperture-priority f/11; 1/100th sec; 6400 ISO.