M42 Lenses

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

Having bought the book in the secondhand bookshop at Lacock Abbey, I felt an unstoppable urge to photograph it under Benjamin Carter's sphinx which is supported by the plinth in the picture. The book is open at a reproduction of Evelyn Hofer's 'Portrait in Windowlight' photographed in 1969. Secondhand books are seldom described as 'used' or (worse) 'pre-loved'. I need to analyse why this is so, and whether it means books are held in high or low esteem generally. Photographed with a 50mm f/2.8 vintage Tessar lens on a Canon EOS 40D.

I used the plinth which supports the columns for Benjamin Carter's sphinx for this shot. The portrait on this page of the book is by Evelyn Hofer, and is entitled 'Portrait in Windowlight'. It was made in 1969. Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

A close-up of the plinth which supports the columns for Benjamin Carter's sphinx in the grounds of Lacock Abbey. Only weathered carved stone, but exquisite. A photograph of this stone including paper is at www.ipernity.com/doc/341635/40044040 - as yet, no image includes the missing scissors. One day, perhaps. Canon EOS 40D +Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8.

It is out-of-focus. It was not supposed to be out-of-focus. However, I think it is probably more interesting than it would have been had it been sharp.

Canon EOS 30D + Nikkor-S 35mm f/2.8 + TelePlus MC7 2X Tele-Macro converter.

Photographed with a Nikon Nikkor-S Auto 35mm f/2.8 lens mounted on a TelePlus MC7 2X Tele-Macro Converter on a Canon EOS 30D camera.

A book covered with the small ads page of the 'Evening Standard' of Thursday, April 7th, 1966, with other bits pasted on top: 'river plunge kills seven' from the 'Daily Express' of Tuesday, April 30th, 1968; a sticker of Picasso's 'Buste de Femme au Chapeau', a linocut from 1962 which I dared to modify; a photograph of a girl on a lone peace campaign I once saw when visiting Lacock Abbey, a strange place to make a protest, but a welcome sight nevertheless. All these things have somehow come together with the help of Pritt stick and watercolours. Photographed with a Chinon 55mm f/1.7 lens on a Canon EOS 30D.

Canon EOS 30D + Chinon 55mm f/1.7 lens + Canon EOS 30D + Chinon 55/1.7 + Minolta Close-Up No.1 supplementary lens in the filter mount.

Reg Lancaster worked for the Daily Express for over 40 years. Photographed with a Canon EOS 40D with Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens.

Johannes Berger of Zeiss invented a 55mm f/1.4 Planar lens in 1957. But the design wasn't used for Zeiss lenses, because Erhard Glatzel invented a 50mm f/1.4 Planar lens, which was better. Berger's Planar, an asymmetrical double-Gauss scheme, similar to Nikon’s Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4 lens of 1961, was licensed to other manufacturers. Amongst these was Tomioka, a Japanese glass manufacturer. Chinon, who made cameras but not lenses, went to Tomioka for a standard fast lens. They got the 55mm f/1.4 (there was also a 55mm f/1.2 supplied in smaller numbers). In appearance, the 55mm f/1.4 closely resembles the more usual offering of a 55mm f/1.7 lens which came with Chinons of that period. Notably, the barrel is all-metal with a strip of thin leather glued on for a focussing grip. The standard of construction is good without equalling Leitz or Nikon quality. Because of the similarity in appearance, some suspect that the f/1.7 version was also a Tomioka product, but that is not proven, whereas the Tomioka involvement in the 1.4 55mm lens is undisputed. Some of them even have the Tomioka name engraved at the front. Others are identical except for the absence of that information. The versions with the Tomioka name are appreciably more expensive to buy secondhand. In this photograph of an advertisement for a Chinon CX from a magazine published in 1976 (the CX was made from 1974 and succeeded by the CX II about two years later) you can see the difference in price between the usual f/1.7 lens and the premium f/1.4. Keep in mind that another £10 was 12.5% extra, and quite a lot of money relative to the overall price - though it would have been a better investment than £10.95 for the ever-ready case, in my opinion. Fast standard lenses tend to be expensive. Even the Tomioka 55mm f/1.4 doesn’t come ‘cheap as chips’ like a lot of vintage M42 stuff. Is it worth the extra investment? The image in the viewfinder ought to be brighter wide open, and even half a stop more light can make a difference in a dark room. But that is theory and I have yet to experience the anticipated superiority of the Tomioka-made 55mm f/1.4 Chinon lens.

Canon EOS 40D + Chinon 55mm f/1.7 M42 lens + Minolta Close-Up No. 1 supplementary lens in the filter mount.

Chinon 55mm f/1.4 M42 lens on a Canon EOS 40D via an adapter.

Canon EOS 40D + Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens.

Available light. Canon EOS 40D at 1600 ISO. Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens at f/3.3. 1/250th.

One of the first M42 Helios-44 lenses. Later iterations were accorded the suffix -2, -3, -4. On this early example you can focus with the lens wide open and then close it down to your chosen aperture using that knurled ring at the front. The Helios-44 lens has a focal length of 58mm and a maximum aperture of f/2. This lens is a Soviet copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar lens and has distinctive bokeh characteristics. So Helios = Zeiss. Maybe. Photographed with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-D lens on a Nikon D700

Canon EOS 40D + Chinon 55mm f/1.4.

Canon EOS 40D + Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens.