Industar-50 3.5/50 Russian Lens, Cheap and sharp!

I got my copy of Industar-50 50mm f3.5 lens from online (Ukraine) for 16 USD.

It's a M39 copy, very small and a sharp lens.

I was mildly surprised by the lens quality in a tiny body. 

It is a pancake lens, in silver (aluminum alloy) body. It looks nice and looks good with my Olympus O-MD- E-M5 Mark II camera, steampunk kind of. 

The colour it produces looks natural without any special casting which many old lenses have like blue, green or yellow casts... 

The lens is M39 mount but with a different registration meant for SLR cameras, I had to use a converter adapter - M39 to M42 and used it with M42 to M43 adapter for my MFT camera. 

It's nice and handy because of its size and I have always been a fan of smaller size cameras and lenses because of being just 5 feet nothing who likes to carry light and small while shooting...

The lens didn't focus to infinity because of the adapter's registration... I've found an ingenious way to make it work. I filed down the adapter to maybe 1mm (trial and testing). Now the lens focuses to infinity! 

Few of my M42 lenses too didn't focus to infinity which I believe will do now...Cannot test them as I am away from home now.

I've rubbed the adapter in rough surface like cement floor and wall....also on the block of stone as shown in the photos below. It took me sometime to file it down to the right registration. It works beautifully now!

 Voila! Infinity focus works now! The photos looks dull because of the constant rain and fog...

Below are sample photos, resized from 16MP to 5MP. No real time comparisons with other similar lenses or technical lens review... Just another share to show that old Russian lenses can be used very much even today. All the photos were taken at f3.5 the widest the lens has to offer.

MINOLTA MC ROKKOR 1:1.2 f=58mm

I won a bid on MINOLTA MC ROKKOR 1:1.2 f=58mm lens with the No. 2768478 from ebay.in for Rs.10,000 plus Rs.450 Shipping fee. The price of the lens is on the expensive side (for me). This is the fastest lens that I have had or even used till date and also it will be my 4th 58mm lens after the 3 HELIOS lens that I have. Pretty much excited about it. 

I picked it up from the courier service- Bluedarth this evening and it was only a while ago that I could test it so here are few of the test photos with the photo of the lens.

I have used my cousin- Hukpi and my big Barbie as models.

 MINOLTA MC ROKKOR 1:1.2 f=58mm under the light for inspection. It had few fungus marks on the rear side of the lens but it doesn't show even in small aperture so I am happy with the lens. 

***Tips: When buying old/ used lens, inspect it under strong light and see through it or if there are no natural light then lit a torchlight through it and check for possible fungus, dust and scratches. Usually small scratches and even few dust and fungus marks doesn't affect the photo quality but look out for the major damage which may soften the image.

Taken with Canon 40D and Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4 lens. ISO-200, Exposure time 2.5 Sec, Aperture- f/8 with a macro tube.  MINOLTA MC ROKKOR 1:1.2 f=58mm  on Olympus E-Pl2. The lens is large and stands out but like other Minolta Manual lens, it is built well and looks good.

 ISO- 400, 1/2sec, f/1.2, pattern metering.

Hukpi, my 10 yrs old cousin. Taken in the widest aperture f/1.2, I am not dissapointed. It was taken in  very low light situation, handheld and for me it is quite sharp enough. 

ISO-200, 2sec, +1 step, pattern metering, f/1.2. Set on a tripod. 

Barbie under the distant street light. 

 ISO-200, 1.6sec, +1 step, pattern metering, f/1.2. Set on a tripod. 

 ISO-200, 0.6sec, +1 step, pattern metering, f/1.2. Set on a tripod. 

 ISO-200, 2.5sec, +1 step, pattern metering, f/1.2. Set on a tripod. 

 ISO-200, 1.6sec, +0.7 step, pattern metering, f/1.2. Set on a tripod. 

 ISO-200, 4sec, +0.3 step, pattern metering, f/2.8. Set on a tripod. Here, I decreased the aperture to f/2.8. One can see the polygonal bokeh pattern behind because of the 8 bladed diaphragm.

 ISO-200, 1.6sec, +0.3 step, pattern metering, f/1.4  Set on a tripod.

ISO-200, 2.5sec, +0.3 step, pattern metering, f/8. Set on a tripod. It is a sharp lens at all the apertures. 

Seen here is a Yashica 35 GSN, a common, affordable and very popular rangefinder camera with a telephoto and wideangle converter filters.

*Note: All the photos were shot in JPEG and re-sized to a smaller size in Photoshop to share online since my net is slow and also contrast +5 added in PS4. Otherwise no other editing/ post processing done.

I have not extensively tried the lens but after testing it today, I am very happy with the lens. It is sharp at all apertures. Worth the money and the hype.

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24.08.2013, Saturday

I went out and clicked few more trials in daylight at the widest aperture f/1.2.
The lens and sharp and I am happy. Best thing about the lens is at all aperture values the exposure value is not compensated but at f/8, f/11 and f/16 I see change in the white balance which can easily solved with manual white balance (not shown in the photos).