New light in some old glass

This is a guest article written by Daniel Ellwanger, a young German photographer.

A little while ago I visited my grandparents in their house. When we ended the very delicious meal I went into their basement to get me a German beer. I looked into the glass cabinet I could not believe what was in there.

What I saw was a pile of old cameras and lenses. Some old Pentax, a couple of old Voigtländers and some Exakta cameras in great condition. Most of the lenses I found in the cabinet were made for Exakta-Mount. Because of this fact I decided to ask my grandpa for the permission to use these Exakte lenses. As soon as he said yes I immediately opened Amazon and ordered a Photodiox A-Mount to Exakta adapter.

Some days later I went back to their house to pick up the lenses that he was willing to borrow to me. This is a list of all the Exakta lenses which I am going to test in the next couple of weeks.

Brand	Type	Focal Length	Aperture
Meyer-Optik Görlitz	Primoplan	58 mm	1,9
Meyer-Optik Görlitz	Telemegor	300 mm	4,5
Schneider Kreuznach	Tele-Xenar	90 mm	3,5
Schneider Kreuznach	Curtagon	35 mm	2,8
Carl Zeiss Jena	Biometar	120 mm	2,8
Carl Zeiss Jena	Flektogon	25 mm	4
Carl Zeiss Jena	Flektogon	35 mm	2,8
Carl Zeiss Jena	Flektogon	35 mm	2,8
Carl Zeiss Jena	Pancolar	50 mm	2
Carl Zeiss Jena	Pancolar	50 mm	2
A. Schacht Ulm	Travenon	135 mm	4,5

 

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The Meyer Optik Görlitz Primoplan 58mm f1,9

In this first blog entry I am will introduce you the Meyer Optik Görlitz lens named Primoplan. With its focal lengths of 58mm and a maximum aperture of 1,9 it has some really unusual specs. The lens was manufactured between 1952 and 1959 in East Germany.

 

 

These are some test shots I took with the Primoplan 58mm at f1,9. The camera I use is a Sony A77II and the adapter of choice is a Photodiox Exakta to A-Mount adapter.

In my opinion the bokeh of this tiny piece of German engineering is one of the most beautiful bokehs I’ve ever seen. The soap-bubble look of the Meyer-Optik Görlitz lenses is really unique and famous. This is also the for a Kickstarter project produce a reworked Meyer Optik lens for DSLR and mirrorless cameras[1].

 

I hope you liked my first blog entry. Special thanks to Jorgen Guldmann who features me in his Blog. If you have any feedback please feel free to tell me whats good and whats bad.

 

Here you can read my second post about 2 of Carl’s lenses made in Jena.

 

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2061029467/bring-back-the-legendary-trioplan-soap-bubble-boke