Industar-61 L/D 55mm f/2.8 lens review

Industar-61 L/D 55mm f/2.8 lens is an interesting lens. What I like the most about the lens firstly is it's small size. It looks very cute on my Olympus M/3. I am sucker for small sized lens since they are handy for me. Secondly, It's a sharp little Russian lens.

What I may not like is the inconsistent colour cast the lens gives at differing light condition. It's a handy little lens for everyday use for subjects you don't want to be very close to and be somewhat discreet.

Since it's a Russian lens, there are inconsistencies in the models as well. I've got few collections of Industar-61 for sale on my ebay account (lilac_may). I got them in lot from Ukraine. I personally serviced them for stiff focus and cleaned any remaining fungus and dust from the inner glass. I've seen that few of the lenses are sharper than others and few have more blueish cast than others.

On Olympus M4/3 it becomes 110mm telephoto lens.

Since I am in a remote place called Longding as mentioned in my earlier posts, my photographic events may look somewhat "has already been done and seen". Please excuse me for this. In coming days, I promise to share more variable sceneries.

Few samples from Industar-61 L/D 55mm f/2.8 lens (one wet day)

RCC building house amongst the thatched traditional houses. Economic differences can be seen in the house type and life style in Arunachal Pradesh. It was just noather foggy and wet day.

  

A child crying because his older sisters left him behind.

  

Wancho vegetable vendor

  

Wancho vegetable vendor. Rain or sun, they always come from distant villages to sell their products. The vegetables are cheap, sold in Rs.10 or Rs.20 categories here.

  

Two very young sisters selling their vegetables

  

A young boy mending the chicken shop

  

Mainland Indian labourers or labourers from Bangladesh are abundant here. The road condition is very poor in this region. 

  

A tree growing from the road of the craft-centre building. 

DIY Plastic lens-hood for Industar-69 28mm f2.8 Lens

Industar-69 28mm f2.8 lens is a tiny pancake lens. It's cute and very pocketable! The lens comes without any coating so it has less contrast than the coated lens. Using a lens-hood at times increases contrast so I've found a cheap way to make a lens hood for Industar-69 28mm f2.8 using plastic bottles!

Online, there are many ways people have made lens-hood for Industar-69 but mine is the cheapest way especially for people without much tools and materials at hand.

So it was a trial and error for me. Not yet perfect but it works well. You can make neater one than mine.

The materials I’ve used:

1. Three (3) empty bottles of 1/2 litre sprite (a kind of aerated drink). Any such bottles will do. I too three bottles for trial and testing and also making various sized lens-hood.
2. marker pen
3. bread knife/ blade/ or any sharp cutting tool
4. small scissor
5. Black enamel paint 
6. small flat paint brush

I've made a mark using the marker pens around the neck of the bottle by guess the diameter of the lens and sliced through it with a bread knife. You can find a better way than this or do a trial and error way like mine. The cut shouldn’t be bigger than the lens because then it will be too loose to fit on the body of the lens. The cut should be more or less same as the diameter of the lens.

Then, I've cut through the body of the bottle to make an appropriate sized lens hood.

Got the edges trimmed with a small scissor for a more neater looks

Three slanting small cuts towards the male side of the lens hood/ bottom of the lens hood were made so that it fits around the Industar-69. This way it holds the focus ring snugly and moves along the focus ring while focusing.  

Painted the lens hood black and let it dry. Viola! It's ready to be used.

 

I've done a before and after testing with the lens hood and the contrast changed dramatically adding to the overall sharpness of the picture.

RESULTS below: 

The photos effects are raw. No post processing done except resized for sharing and cropping the edges slightly to show the before-after using lens-hood difference better.

All the photos were shot at Manual mode, i-Enchance and at aperture f/2.8 wide.

Before

After

The above photos of before-after lens-hood was taken against the strong sunlight and it is obvious that using lenshood improved the overall contrast of the photo.

Before

After

The above before-after photos were taken in normal sunny circumstance and here too it shows that using lens-hood improves the contrast and minimizing glare to a certain extend.

Street photography with Industar-69 28mm f2.8 lens on Olympus OM-D E-M5 II

Industar-69 28mm f2.8 lens is the cutest lens I've ever seen or used! It's so thin, a pan cake lens! The copy I have is sharp enough for everyday used though I have read on various blogs that the lens lack sharpness. I've fixed the lens for infinity by a simple operation followed by browsing online (I have not linked it because I don't remember where but if you are interested, you'll easily find after some Googling).

I am postedin a remote place called Longding which is place towards the India- Burma border. Here, you'll find Wancho people who were earlier well known head hunters. The Wancho people are creative in wood craftsmanship and are known for their various colourful patterns and bead works.

This is again not a technical lens review. Just a walk around photography I've done one day when I went shopping for vegetables in the market.

The lens is prone to vignetting and has swirly bokeh which some likes, some avoids.

All the photos were resized from the standard 16 Megapixels to 3 mMegapixels and some contrast was added on Photoshop before sharing.

 This one is a test photo taken at f2.8. It shows the swirly bokeh and vignetting.

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The below photography was done when I went to the market to get vegetables. All the photos are taken at aperture f5.6. I used a DIY lens hood to add to the contrast made of coke bottle which I will share in my next post.

 Abandoned hospital vehicle. I live in the medical colony as work as Psychologist here.

 Next door granny returning form the market.

 Cute boy in the bakery with pierced earlobe as is the customs here among the Wancho people.

 An astrologer from the mainland India predicting a shopkeeper's fate.

 Wancho vegetable vendor. Women of Arunachal Pradesh are very hard working and enterprising. Most ladies run their household by selling vegetables. 

 A vendor showing a beetle nut to a customer

 A man getting his hair trimmed at the barbers'

 It started raining while going back to my quarter. A cute cat resting behind a thatched house.