M42 Lenses

The Methuen Arms, Corsham, Wiltshire, photographed with a Canon EOS 20D camera and an old M42 50mm Carl Zeiss Jena f/2.8 Tessar lens. Fitting, perhaps, that this photograph of an old Cotswold building adorned by a non-matching classical-style porch has been taken by a digital camera adorned by a non-matching lens from another age of photography. This photograph is quite severely cropped and needed a lot of contrast and exposure compensation adjustments. A lot of that was necessitated by poor photographic technique, but using old lenses on modern digital cameras is not totally dependable.

Two people walking in step photographed through the classical porch added incongruously to the front of the Georgian building in Corsham housing the Methuen Arms hotel. I used a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 20D. This lens is a Tessar design of just four elements and was a lower cost option to a Pentacon equivalent on a Praktica camera in the 1970s. It was slower of course; f/2.8 compared to the Pentacon's f/1.8. Yet in good light the Carl Zeiss was every bit as good, better maybe. Certainly a sharp lens, and capable of closer focussing than many other standard lenses. I bought mine second hand for £12. I doubt if a lens in good working order and engraved with 'Carl Zeiss' could be found cheaper.

Things noticed at the margin of a relief road.

Like many former pubs built to serve a neighbourhood, 'The Castle' closed and was converted into apartments. It had been a friendly, vibrant sort of place where people would nod and greet you without your having to serve an apprenticeship of several months before being accepted. It would often be full and seldom dependent on just a few patrons. But things changed. A new road bisected the street 'The Castle' was in and it was less easy to get to it. Pub beer increased in price whilst supermarket bargains competed for the business. Social habits changed. Residential values increased relative to other real estate. Smoking in pubs was banned. A British institution was lost to many neighbourhoods and communities. Do they miss it? Probably not. Photographed using an Optomax 35mm f/2.8 M42 lens. Not the crispest of optics. Lightroom was used to put in many adjustments.

I bought this Optomax lens on eBay. It was very cheap and the seller had pointed out its deficiencies, or at least most of them. I used it via an adapter on a Canon EOS 20D with some success, where the field of view was similar to a standard 50mm lens on a full frame camera. Sometimes results lacked a bit of bite and contrast, as here, where the software has supplied what a good lens would have provided in the first place. Eventually I gave it to Oxfam so that someone else could have fun with it, whilst making a modest contribution to helping hungry people.

Photographed near Lacock, Wiltshire, with a Canon EOS 20D camera and a Pentacon M42 50mm f/1.8 lens from a Praktica MTL5 camera.

I used a 50mm Pentacon f/1.8 lens on a Canon EOS 20D to make this picture of a gate in Lacock. The lens was originally supplied with a Praktica MTL camera, although some dealers offered the Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar instead for a few pounds less. This lens is a rebadged Meyer-Optik "Oreston" 1.8/50mm.

According to Wikipedia, Sterling is the largest selling cheap brand in the UK and is the eighth biggest selling brand of cigarettes in the UK. They appear to disgust their users so comprehensively that they cannot wait to put the empty packets in a dedicated litter receptacle. Here, a pack has become a part of Autumn's rich and colourful tapestry. Photographed with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm M42 f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 20D camera.

"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept". (Henri Cartier Bresson) I used a Canon EOS 20D with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens deliberately missing focus for a watery effect.

In 2013 on a whim I bought a Carl Zeiss Jena f/2.8 50mm lens for £12. It has an M42 screw thread and initially I simply held it tight against the lens throat of a Nikon D50, with better results than expected. By the time I photographed this ivy I had graduated to using it on a Canon EOS 20D camera via an adapter. (M42 lenses are happier on Canons than Nikons. Yet the previous Canon FD mount lenses are problematic to use on the successor EOS cameras. Camera mounts are a bit bonkers). The Carl Zeiss Jena f/2.8 50mm lens is a simple Tessar arrangement of four elements originally designed by Paul Rudolph in 1902 while he worked at the Zeiss optical company. For the modest investment and the optical clarity I would recommend this lens.

The Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 M42 thread lens coupled via an adapter to a Canon digital SLR is perhaps not the ideal landscape lens. It gives a field of view of 80mm: more suited to portraits, really. I gave up the pursuit of M42 thread lenses and sold the Canon - an EOS 20D, and a remarkably well made instrument - but the only M42 lens I truly miss is the humble CZJ 50mm f/2.8 Tessar.

A misty midwinter morning when the sun did not break through until midday. Photographed with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens on a Canon EOS 20D camera with an adapter.

A misty midwinter morning when the sun did not break through until midday. Photographed with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens on a Canon EOS 20D camera with an adapter. Improved in Lightroom.

It’s autumn again Leaves whisper the sound of our past In loss they pay a descent To the ground we fall It’s autumn again Our song is sung by the wind Echoes of loss and grief Through chilled air we wade It’s autumn again The waters grow as cold as our hearts We are alike – crusted in ice In ourselves we freeze It’s autumn again Flowers vanish from our sadness Our beauty grows weak Covered in frost we wither It’s autumn again The rain falls like our tears Can’t dry our eyes From the sky we descend It’s autumn again The sun shines then fails like us Our sight becomes a wintry gray Lost in darkness we will fade It’s autumn again Andrea Rieck

I bought a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens and teamed it with a Canon EOS 20D camera; all eBay acquisitions. The Tessar is so venerable (designed in 1902) that it engendered visions of the past when used at Lacock Abbey.

Photographed using a Canon EOS 20D with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens. According to Wikipedia, Superkings are primarily marketed towards the working-class female smoker, and the brand is the ninth most popular cigarette in the UK with 3.3% of the market.

Photographed with a Canon EOS 20D and a 50mm Carl Zeiss Jena f/2.8 Tessar lens.