useful links i found:
- compatibility list of m42 and manual lenses on canon eos 5d dslr
- history of the czj pancolar 1.8/50
- history of the meyer oreston 1.8/50 pentacon
my dslr, lenses and stuff:
february 2024:
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after watching someone else's slideshow of their vacation pictures on a big screen,
i found myself wanting to own a camera myself. however, after a brief look at prices for dslr's,
i was shocked and rejected the idea for the time being. as a student, it's not easy to casually
spend 500 to 1000 euros on a (used!) camera.
it was clear from the beginning that if i were to get a camera, it had to be a canon. all of my family members who own a camera, whether it's a film camera, dslr, or mirrorless camera, have a canon.
with several trips planned for this year, i revisited the topic of canon cameras. a brand-new camera was out of the question for me. additionally, i didn't want a camera with a crop sensor – a feeling that is hard to explain, but for me, it was important to buy a full-frame, if at all. i read reviews, watched youtube videos, and eventually had a few strong favorites. it came down to either an eos 5d (mark ii or iii) or an eos 6d. in the end, the wi-fi function of the 6d was more important to me than other advantages of the 5d models. and with that i headed to ebay. the 6d's sold at auction for 300 to 500 euros, just for the body.
and then i found my camera - way too cheap - supposedly with 200,000 shutter counts (200% of the releases that canon guarantees), but the 6d looked surprisingly new. i didn't even think twice about it and bought the camera.
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honestly i was prepared for the worst, there was no way i was going to get a working camera.
i opened the package and was pleasantly surprised that the camera was lying in its original box.
it looked almost brand new - so the seller wasnt lying. i connected it to my computer and read
the shutter counter with "canon eos digital info - v1.4."
again, i was surprised. the software read: 37182. i mean the ebay listing
said that the shutter counter wasn't read and was only estimated, but still.
then i looked for some glas, and again, so expensive! :'( i wanted early satisfying results and i also wanted to take photos of sleeping cats on the street without waking them, so i felt like i needed something to zoom with. i found a relative cheap listing for the canon ef 24-105mm f/4 l is usm (2005). expected from a nearly 20 year old lens, the 24-105 had really strong zoom creep. i read some old forum posts about this lens and followed a tip. the person took a seal washer (30mm diameter, 1mm thickness) and put it over the lens, slid it into the gap between the lens and the zoom ring. this creates enough friction and even when i hold the camera down, zoom creeping no longer occurs. this tip has proven to be extremely effective. thanks guy form 2009 :)
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i wanted a nifty fifty prime lens, but since there are so expensive, i bought a really
well-preserved
pentacon (meyer optik görlitz) electric 1.8/50 multi coating
for 20 bucks (including shipping) on ebay. i checked the compatibility list,
but this lens was not on there at this time, but i took the gamble.
upon opening the package, i discovered the lens snugly housed in a charming retro leather container. after inspecting the lens, i noticed some dust inside, but considering the price i paid, it didn't bother me much. i'm only in for a few bucks for this lens, and eventually, i plan to upgrade to an autofocus ef lens. alternatively, if i develop a fondness for this hipster manual focusing thing, i might acquirie a carl zeiss jena 1.8/50 electric.
at first, i thought i got really lucky because the camera took pictures even at infinity, and the mirror seemed to work fine. but then, at one point, i heard the mirror snap back... i checked... and yes, when i flipped up the mirror while not on infinity, and then when i was at infinity, it sounded different. so, the pentacon gets really close to the mirror. afterward, i examined the mirror, and everything seemed to be okay. oops.
anyway, i started filing the well-preserved pentacon's last millimeter with a nail file. i checked the inside of the lens again, and now there were more particles inside. some of the material, some filed down particles, must have found their way inside somewhere. looks like i have to open up my first lens somehow at some point, and clean the old glas. but thats alright, i wanted to try opening and cleaning one anyway. but that's a task for future kev. for now, everything works, and the mirror doesn't sound different when i flip it up (so it doesn't hit the lense anymore), even when the lens is set to infinity.
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i really enjoy taking pictures with the pentacon. here are one of the first pictures i took at
f/1.8 on the evening i got the lens, with kinda bad, unnatural, lighting conditions:
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a day or two days after i got the pentacon i got out to try it out with natural lighting (but still cloudy and gloomy). the pictures i took don't earn me any prizes, but i liked the feeling of finding the focus spot manually. i felt like a real photographer, haha.
- yesterday, i watched a youtube video titled 'mistakes beginner photographers make' or something along those lines. one point the person in the video made was that beginners often only shoot at the fastest aperture their lenses can do; more often than not, the extra sharpness is more valuable than the 'ridiculously' soft and smooth bokeh. they were right (obviously), stopping down the aperture gave sharper results, and it was easier for me to get the focus point.
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(18.03.2024) i opened the pentacon with a "set of 6 pieces of vacuum pads" by japanhobbytool and a "lens wrench." opening the thing was pretty easy, but actually cleaning the lens pieces was harder than expected. i tried glasses cleaning cloths and microfiber cloths, but cleaning it without any residue was basically impossible. regardless, i think they are cleaner now than they were before, and i managed to close the lens up just fine. afterward, i took some pictures, and i think if anything, i at least didn't make it worse. i still wouldn't dare open a €100 plus lens at this point, but if i ever see a lens infected with fungus, then i'll buy it and try to clean it too.
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march 2024:
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april 2024:
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i came back from france, and i only used the ef 24-105 lens once or twice because i found the
camera too heavy with the lens on it. on top of that i was too lazy to keep changing lenses,
so i basically had the 50mm f/1.8 on the entire time.
plus, i prefer manually adjusting the aperture. still, i'll keep the lens for now. having 105mm
with image stabilization feels just too handy for when i really need it.
but while i was in france, i wished more than once that i owned a 35mm flektogon (actual focal length 37mm). i mean the 50mm is not bad, but i found myself wanting to shot landscapes. and so the first thing i did was look for one. i found one on ebay that came with an old praktica mtl 3 film camera, which i plan to sell again, making the flektogon lens technically cheaper.
the flektogon 35mm f/2.4 was a bit sticky, and unfortunately, it didn't have lens caps anymore. but maybe i'll find some for cheap somewhere. i opened the old lens up and cleaned it a bit on the inside with glasses cleaning cloths because there was really strong grinding when zooming, probably due to old dust and sticky grease. after reassembling it (putting things back together is always trickier than disassembling, haha), it rotates more smoothly now.
i'm looking forward taking photos with the flektogon :)
surprisingly, even though i bought the lens for landscape photography, it turns out that the flektogon's focusing distance (which i didn't research beforehand) is actually pretty close. i think you could even consider it macro.
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i believe i've developed a fondness for night photography, particularly long exposure. just last
night, on may 10th, 2024, my little brother and i ventured out in hopes of capturing a few
images of the solar storm. we
were aware that we wouldn't achieve breathtaking shots - berlin lies just around 30 kilometers
north of
us, so light pollution remains a significant obstacle, compounded by the cloudy weather.
nevertheless, i wasn't willing to miss this once-every-20-years event. the resulting pictures
won't impress anyone, i mean you can barely see the northern lights, but they've led me to a
realization: i genuinely enjoy night photography
- and that if i want to do it again, properly, then i have to invest in my own tripod, haha.
both pictures are unedited, the left one was taken with my 50mm 1.8 pentacon, my brother took
the right picture with his camera's kit lens late at night after i already went to bed
haha.
i also noticed that the stars looked more like short little dashes, i assume that's because when i pressed the shutter button, i moved the camera one my brothers tripod ever so slightly.
additionally, i'm considering purchasing a proper shoulder bag to comfortably carry all my equipment. the current 5 euro one barely accommodates my 24-105mm lens and camera, along with one of the vintage lenses i own.
(15.05.2024) i bought another lens - a helios 44-2. it's a declicked kmz one. this time, i did my homework and checked the compatibility list. and the list said the lens should work. however, after taking pictures with my 6d, i could hear the mirror scratching the back of the lens. so, i will probably file away a millimeter again, and then it should work flawlessly.
in preparation for a big trip, i got myself a nova 180 aw ii shoulder bag. arranging the lenses and the camera was a bit complicated, but i played a bit of tetris, and now not only does everything fit, but nothing flies around in the bag when i bump into something. i've been using the bag for a week now, and so far, i have no complaints.
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may 2024:
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the shoulder bag was a great investment for travel and storage, and the tripod was perfect for getting some practice shooting fireworks while i was in japan.
i definitely need a 50mm f/1.4 autofocus lens. manual focusing is fine and does feel professional, i guess,
haha; but i don't think i ever mounted the 50mm görlitz lens while i was in japan. i mostly used the
helios for its swirly bokeh or the zeiss for the 35mm shots.
if i were to use a 50mm lens in the future (which is a great focal length), i'd prefer it to be an
autofocus lens - for moving subjects or to quickly snap a picture.
the 24-105mm lens seems to have broken - it isn't as sharp anymore. in fact, it's become quite bad. but it could be the 6d, right? i mean, the older lenses still seem to be fine. another problem i still haven't figured out is: when i shoot through the viewfinder, the pictures always turn out brighter than they appear through the viewfinder. why is that? lastly, if i come across a second-hand lens hood, i'm going to get it and see if i get better results.
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