Pen-F Zuiko 38mm F1,8 Lens on Sony A7R

I don’t remember why this lens was still here.  This Olympus Lens

has been in the end of shelf many years.  It was a Olympus Pen-F’s

standard lens though, Pen-F was a half frame camera (24×16) and its

flange-back was 28.95mm, the lens couldn’t have a focus other than

a macro use, I might have had a test of close-up photo on Canon 5D.  

— The funny history of this lens was, on late 80s, one of my friend

photographer who wanted to experiment, “To get a rough-grain soft

image, using a Push development on a Cross-process” = In order to get

rough Grain, he wanted to use even smaller original = hence Half-size. 

—– So, he asked me to make an adapter to use Nikon Lens on a

Pen-F body.  =  I made it out of Nikon close-up ring and a Pen-F

mount from this 38mm lens = So that, this lens lost bottom mount.

= in normal sense, it is an utterly useless junk

—– though, while Googling the Net, I found the people using Pen-F

lens on the Full-frame Sony camera !    (Unlike the lenses for the

Cropped size senser DSLR camera, those Olympus Lenses has

been made to cover (well almost) the full-frame image circle !) 

To modify this lens for a Sony E-mount camera, I found a M-39

Leica lens to E-mount adapter has the almost a right size. 

So, I screwed  M-39 ring to the back of Pen-F lens (+ some

adjustment for infinity focus) = = = Voila, Pen-F lens on A7R.

The test shot on general

distance was usable but

not bliliant.

(The lens might have 

sold as a spre parts =

damaged goods)

Still, Close-up photo

was pretty good.

(Photo below, middle)

Though, there isn’t much soft texture (It may be because

the Sony A7R camera or its image process.) (Photo right)

Olympus Pen-F Lens is very small, (In comparison to such as

Nikon lens + adapter on Sony) pretty nice match to the A7R,

so that, I’m quite happy to have this  F1.8  wide-angle lens.

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What ? – 3/4 second on “B” setting ?

On the 100 years old lens,

an instruction was given,

“On a dull day, use a tripod

with the “B” setting and

give 3/4 second push.

—– What ? ? ?   In 100 years

ago, could a user of camera

give 3/4 second push to

camera’s shutter ? 

—–  Well, my guess was, that the camera user then must have

practiced a lot for the precise push of the shutter lever.  

The English tradition was, to count the second while saying

One Monkey, Two Monkey, Three Monkey ~ ~ ~ ~ !    Therefore,

only say “One Mo” would be half second and “One Monk” would

be 3/4 second !      (Really ?   You must be kidding )   😀

But I’m not sure whether a French photographer ever did

“Un Monkey, Due Monkey ~ ~ ?       equivalent Japanese practice

said to be, say “Obaaachan” (Granny) for one second and

“Obachan” (Aunty) for half second. (— Count many second by

repeating  “Obaaachan” while counting on fingers.)

— Try Count One Monkey ~ ~ ~ Ten Monkey while watching a

watch and get the rhythm.  (One day, you may need it.   😀  )

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Kodak Red Bellows Lens

(Photo left / Kodak folding No.1A — image from CameraWiki)

Well, even if you were a keen photographer and have an interest to the old cameras, you may not know the Cameras with red bellows. — They were 100 (110) years old Kodak Pocket Folding Cameras. (I got two of them though they are in a box, bottom of the pile of 50 boxes = I’ll show you a photo one day.)

— I bought just a lens in a junk box of George’s Camerafare shop in the Portobello Market.

When the camera mean big wooden camera, Kodak started to sell “Pocketable” folding cameras for the consumers.    (Be prepared, the size of a pocket then could take even today’s laptop.   😀  )

We may guess, it was a situation like teaching the people to have a selfy and send it through Net phone.   

The Kodak preloaded the teaching App on the camera body = all the instruction were written there. =Such as : Use 1/100 for Moving Objects or Gray day, Use Tripod and with B setting for 1/2 second !  ETC. ETC.  (Shutter was triggered either by pressing a lever  or using an Air pump ! )  In fact I was rather impressed to see the quality of the manufacturing standard = after 100 years, they are still working ! )

The camera was made by Eastman Kodak Rochester USA though, the Lens was made by Bausch & Romb Optical Co. Rochester, USA (once before, Sunglass, Ray-Ban was a part of this company) of which they call, Rapid Rectilinear lens. ( though, it only meant, no distortion)

The second photo above center shows the lenses = front and rear element seems to be identical (both showed the same focusing length = symmetrical design)     And each lens seems to be a single lens.  

Mounting the lens on a bellows to have a test shot = the image seems not bad ! 

Thanks to the bellows extension — have look a close-up.

Then to see the So-called Softness on the same test bench.   It seems this lens showed no Zeiss kind of softness.  (The photo left was taken by Sony A7R —– to be fair, I did the same shot on the Canon 5D Mk3 as before (right) —– in comparison, Sony showed much higher crispness and Canon seems softer) —– Still, this matter needs more critical test to find the reason.

Much more serious question over this old Lens IS, = No focal length was found still, the extension of the bellows showed it is 175mm.   Even though the front plate was saying F4, the diameter of the lens IS 24mm = F-aperture should be F7.3 but from a measuring of the exposure indicates that this lens got a brightness of only F10. —– It is quite puzzling.

= To see the old lens is fun in deed, still it is not necessary a gold mine to find any nostalgic image !  (Unless, use a homemade emulsion on a glass plate together)  😀

Such as a photo of dried Rose by A7R above — this sharpness might be created by the digital process in the camera, not an original optical image.)

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Portbello Market / George’s Camerafare

Situated in a bit west of London, Portobello is a peculiar place. 

Because of their fundamental poorman’s mentality, (in comparison to

the French, Spanish, Austria-Hungarian Empire, untill a victory

over the battle of Trafalgar, (and took over the dominance on the sea)

the England was a poor country)  the English tend to keep junk

= try avoiding to buy new one and spend the money for drink. 

Then, when they die, house cleaner emptied the hose and sold off all

those junks.  Junks came to a sunday market kind, such as Brick Lane,

Bermondsey market etc and bought by an antic dealer and the object  

end up Portobello market.   ( = A rubbish sold at Brick Lane  £5 goes to  

a dealer for £10, then bought by an antic dealer of Portobello for £20 

and sold to a tourist for £50 as a collectables  = everybody made a profit,

and happy = life goes on !)

Though, thanks to a TV program such as  the “Antic Road Show” and

people can find the information in the Net then selling it in eBay.   

So that, good salable item has disappeared from the market. And

these days, what was sold in the market were fakes, copied items,

just fancy, strange designed goods (from China, India, Africa etc).

So, the shops were filled with fancy room decorations.

And I found a shop selling the hand painted = customized shoes.

Strangely, Portobello has only two camera dealers. (as far as I know

since 70s = one in Admiral Vernon Arcade and the other open stall.) 

The dealer used to be in the arcade was my friend Brian. 

And after he retired about 10 years ago, George took over the position.

On the 80s, when Japanese got a boom collecting antic cameras, in fact

it was staged by an antic shop “Soul Trip” who started to sell thousand

of old cameras along side the many magazine articles campaign.  

And the supplier of those cameras from England was, the man in

Portobello, Brian.   Old camera boom in Japan made both

Soul Trip (Mr Segawa) and Brian rich.

The man running the antic camera shop now, George is dealing with

much humble items / junk — still unmistakably it is an Aladdin’s cave.

(simply because, the good collectables has been already sold and not

much left circulating on the market.)

In old days, I bought many old cameras from Brian (include modified

Robot camera using Leiz 50mm F1.5) and I translated the Japanese

article about the first SLR with penta prism = Duflex for him.

(I’m going to write about a 100 years old lens I found in this shop.)

When you see the open stalls selling food, vegetable started to appear,

it is the end of So-called Portobello market.  (further down the street,

you may find the open stalls selling the junk from the daily life. 

Cups and pan sort, even a lady’s underwear.

Is it anything to do with IS terrorists, the polis is taking rather hi-profile.

And this must be The John-Bull.  How shiny !   😀

(Except only one Canon Fisheye, lest of all other photos were taken by

a homemade Mag Lens on Sony A7R.)

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Yet more Homemade Lens — KodaFun Lens

 

As you can see from the following photo, this lens came from a Kodak

fun camera.  Originally, the lens was mounted on the F8(?) sized hole

on the camera body though I used this plastic lens with fully opened

condition. (Hence more halation and the aberrations which I want !)

Even Fun lens needs to be mounted in the precise position.   😀

Basically as a omunifocus lens, it’s creates a kind of certain image

in any distance = in other words, no fun on the Bokhe !

Still the matter is, where to use it.

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Homemade Lens – Mag Lens

Now I got quite few homemade lenses = call them just a fun camera

lens would be confusing, which one ? — I should call them in their

individual name.   So, the lens here happen to be originated from a

SLR’s view finder magnifier, I name it Mag Lens.  

Unlike the other Fun camera lens which is often omunifocus, this

lens has one focal point, its mean needs to be focused by means of

helicoid or a sort.    And I found a zooming helicoid of a Nikon

compact camera will do the job.   So, I hack-saw out the

helicoid part of the camera from its body frame. (Photo above)

With a test of the lens, I found the lens needs to be mounted 40mm

from the image sensor.   Then, I struggled to mount the helicoid to a

body cap, and to mount the lens into the helicoid.  (The photo above,

middle shows how the position of the fixing screw was marked

on the cap.  🙂  )

With a good extension of the helicoid, the lens can give a focus from

the infinity to the x1 macro.  Though, this lens found to have the

biggest halation among all of my homemade lens.   😀

Since the lens was originally a magnifying lens, the quality of the

macro image was quite good.

(Lens itself was F2.5 —> If I put an iris 5mm = F8, image would be

even better.)

And, it has a fade and dissolve like beautiful out of focus Bokhe !

With its shallow depth of field, a face on the card changes a lot.

This lens was a hit.

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OM Cap

Some post ago I mentioned that the lens and body cap of Olympus

OM can fit to the other cameras.   A very funny story behind was,

since I needed a body cap of Micro 4/3rd camera as I wanted to make

a lens for M4/3 camera (MD-E).  I ordered it through eBay, as I found

one bender is selling the lens and body caps together for £0.99 !

While I was waiting the cap arrive here, I changed Olympus MD-E to

Sony A7R = since, compare to 10 mm x 16 mm M4/3 image sensor, A7R

got 35mm full size.   Why settle with tiny toy.  —  Then, I realized

that the body (and lens) cap I received was not for M4/3 camera but

out-dated OM (film camera’s)  = “A’ha that’s why it was so cheap”

This could be a serious trouble though, before I start to complain to

the bender, I found that the OM cap can fit to the latest Sony

E-mount body / A7.  (Anyway, on that moment I no longer had

Olympus but Sony. )

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The three caps on the first shopping run out soon to make yet another

Pinhole Machine and Toy camera lens. 

Therefore, I re-ordered to the same bender yet more three caps.

—– And, I waited, and waited while having quite hi-tension because, 

the bender might have noticed that he (she ?) made a mistake and would

send me M4/3 cap instead, it means I may need to buy E-mount cap while

paying 4 times more money.  But, I received the old OM caps again !   🙂

I’ve tested few plans to make other strange optics etc to use those

lens caps.   In fact, I got the M42 to E-mount adapter for the same

purpose still, they are more expensive and awkward to work with. 

— anyway, back to the funny story, = I still don’t know whether 

the bender was knowingly selling OM cap as the M4/3 cap or

honestly believing that was M4/3 cap. 

What so ever, I was lucky to have this mishup — and that’s why 

on the postal package, the Omen of that number appeared.

(on the top photo, in the red circle = 1085 )  😀

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Tim Lewis exhibition

Last night there was an opening PV of Tim Lewis exhibition at the

Flowers gallery, Cork street, London.

Despite the kinetics is rather odd in the art world, quite a number 

of visitors filled the floor and they were curious to touch and rotate

the gear —– and amazed to see how the things move.  🙂

Some of his creations are pretty small but, some are big. 

Still overall concept is always the same, like grand dad made

a toy for a small boy.  In the digital techno age, his creation

stays stubbornly analog and rather rustic and moves purely

for the sake of move. 

Normally, the things move for the purpose of something

= (nature or economics never waste the energy)

car moves, in order to take the driver or passenger A to B. 

The machines do their works.  Apple had to drop because the

gravity pulled him.  But Tim’s Machine moves only to show

its movement.  That’s all.  They were made just for the art.

= So, the visitors seems not a kind of Geek or Otaku.

The exhibition was addressed by the curator, Ann Elliot who 

saw “His work is beautiful” but only wonder the mechanics. 

(Photo above, from left = James (gallery director) Ann and Tim)

Tim (photo middle) and his kids playing with Dady’s toy !

(I would say, he must be much happier than playing with Pokemon.)   😀

People kept talking and talking — even outside (it was a hot day)  🙂

—– The most of the photos here were taken by the Pinhole, either with or

without Fisheye adapter.

Sharper photo was made by a Hand made Toy lens on Sony A7R camera.

 

Covent Garden (2) (by the Lens)

All the photos in this post were taken by, most of them were by 

the 18mm Zeiss Distagon for Nikon, on D810. But few of them

were by the Homemade Toy Camera Lens on the Sony A7R.

Covent Garden IS the place the most changed its guise in London. 

When I came to London, here was a vegetable market.  Still, for the

planned move of the market, some businesses were started to move.

When the wholesale market kind of business moves, they leave

huge stock space behind. 

Then, the people who needs huge space moved in. = Photo studio kind.

And the related business, such as film processing etc. =

That’s how I came here = to have my E6 film developed.

What a bad taste.  Is this what they call Spiritualism ? ? ?

Simply because of a Film, My fair Lady (Audley Hepburn’s Flower girl !)

the tourists started to come Covent Garden, so, the area has been changed

 to a “Fashionable Tourists Place” —– still, it’s interesting to see why the

area attracted occult / spiritual shop = quite few of them are here.

In 1974 (?) probably the first vegetarian restaurant in central London

“Food for thought” opened here.  (I was taken there by a vegetarian

friend who does the Buddhists Meditation)

(thence, he started to have the troubles on his leg).

—– it was a well-known story, that the all the High Priests 

of Zen end up on wheel chair.

Gautama Buddha left a rank of hard astir monk, thinking that to

torturing the body wouldn’t bring any High Awareness to him.

(But, my friend didn’t convince and said, that the trouble on his leg

was nothing to do with Zen practice, instead, need more effort for

the meditation to save his life.) ! ! !

So, may be those stubborn vegetarianism was the origin of

“Spiritual Covent Garden” (Food for Thought twisted the belief ! )

And a corner of the Covent Garden, Neals Yard became a holy place

for the vegetarian. — By the way, vegetarianism came from Hindu.

Lord Buddha eat anything offered and died for food poisoning of fish.

Buddhism doesn’t have such arrogance, “Killing the plant is OK”.

Killing and eating animals, plants are part of unavoidable Karma.

Round the corner, two pictures above, were in fact, China Town.

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Covent Garden (1)

I had some shooting around Covent Garden with a friend who

also got pinhole on his Alpha 7-II camera.

(But a photo here on top was a comparison, shot by Nikon

D810 with Zeiss 18mm lens.)

The same objects by the pinhole on A7R camera.

And so on.

Whether you like those moody image or not.   😀

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