Old Glass Rules! ..... the phenomenal Jupiter 21M (Image heavy).

This f4, 200mm Soviet lens was made by an obscure factory (Vologda) in the 1990s and is therefore 'modern' in terms of Soviet
lenses. They ruined it by sticking a huge flat plate just inside the mount to cover the auto pin mechanism. This splattered
light everywhere and wrecked the contrast. Very few were made and those that were had a bad reputation - not helped
by the inadequate, built-in hood! It is stuffed to the gills with glass, making it a really heavy beast to lug around.




If you stick some black, light absorbing fabric over the offending plate and screw a decent 58mm hood on the front of it -
(I use the big plastic one off an Adaptall 80-210mm - a super hood) - the thing is transformed. Its very long focus throw
enables considerable accuracy and its resolution is phenomenal.

There are lots of autumn themed opportunities presently. These were all taken this past week .....
1. Our acers have been magnificent this year.



2. The silver birches have been dripping with colour.


3.



4. The foggy mornings have left things dripping with dew.



5. Both of these represent severe 100% crops from a full frame original - the quality remains spot on.



6. The robin was good as gold and posed for me about 6feet away, just inside the minimum focus distance.



7. The smallest details are captured, even high up in the trees.


8.



9. Or high up on a 9ft sunflower ! (We had some whoppers this year - Sunflower "Titan" )



All taken with a K1, handheld, ISO 800 and most of them around f4, f5.6. The birch trees were f8.

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Both the *istDS and the K5 are incurably addicted to old glass

My page on Photocrowd - link

Classy Glass. I think number 5 is superb

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Barrie
Too Old To Die Young

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/barrieforbes
https://www.flickr.com/photos/189482630@N03/

+1

Stunning. I too love old glass and these photo's are a perfect reason to.

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C.O.L.B.A.S victim
(Compulsive Obsessive Lens Buying Addiction Syndrome)

What you need are lenses, more lenses, bigger lenses, better lenses, faster lenses, and when you have these, your pictures will be perfect!

I really like no.1 and no.5. Nice glass and lovely bokeh also

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Gareth
Welsh Photographer

My outfit: K1 gripped - Pentax D FA 24-70mm - Sigma 70-200mm OS HSM - Pentax modified DA* 60-250mm f4 - Irix 15mm Firefly - Sigma 50-500mm - FA 50mm f1.4 - Tamron SP 90mm macro - Pentax AF 540 FGZ Ii

My Flickr
My PPG
My 500px

Can't argue with the image quality.

No.5 is phenomenal and really like the Robin as well.

As you mentioned Soviet lenses can be very 'hit and miss' quality wise but if you get a good'un they seem to be exceptionally good value for money.

regards

Karlo

A great set David - I really like no 5 and the way you have caught the subtle light in no 2.

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Andy

That is seriously good, especially no.5

Thank you everyone. I'm pleased that you like it. I think it will be a little while before one shows up on E bay though!

One final example is a simple snapshot of a telecoms mast. The enlargement to 100% hasn't been touched in any way. The detail is amazing and would be more so with a bit of processing.

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Both the *istDS and the K5 are incurably addicted to old glass

My page on Photocrowd - link

+1

Philip

5 certainly pops, yes - beautiful colours in addition to the quality of detail.

Those results are superb and a little unexpected

I'm sure it was one of these that I owned when I got my first K5, the results were so lacking in contrast that even severe PP couldn't revive them - but that was well before I read your tips on how to get the best from it - and as for sharpness - well Yes

I'm pretty certain I gave it to a Charity Shop

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LennyBloke

The plate inside the rear mount is about 1inch x 3/4inch and it sits flat against the barrel to cover the stop down lever. Any passing light just gets splattered all over the place resulting in complete washout. I really don't know how they dared try to sell it. Stick some matte black velvet over it - job done.

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Both the *istDS and the K5 are incurably addicted to old glass

My page on Photocrowd - link

Seeing this post I thought I would look on e-bay and there seem to be many of these for sale, mostly from the former Soviet bloc.

One of the posts above suggests they are rare.

Are they in fact common outside the UK or were these lenses made in several different factories and only one source is good?

Does it require disassembly to get to where the plate is?

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LennyBloke

No disassembly needed at all. If you are dexterous, you can do it, as is. You can, if you wish, remove the rear mount (two small screws that secure it and then a very long unscrewing job to take it off) which will allow you to remove two more small screws to release the plate entirely.

As far as I am aware, only the one factory made them. I never look at the 'buy it now' section of EBay because prices tend to be highly inflated. But roberrl is correct - there are indeed dozens of them, mainly concentrated in the Ukraine. So if you want to spend 70 or 80 quid ...... ? I got mine for a fraction of that.

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Both the *istDS and the K5 are incurably addicted to old glass

My page on Photocrowd - link