Tag: micro four thirds

The Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Lydith lens ~ 30mm of vintage sharpness

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Some years ago, I made another blog that was about film cameras, vintage lenses, and digital cameras. That blog is long since gone, but having discovered a few recent archived posts, I’m resurrecting some of them:

When Hugo Meyer founded his optical works in 1896 in the town of Gorlitz, little did he know that many of his lenses, including the 30mm wide-angle Lydith lens, would become cult classics in the years following the digital camera revolution. These days, Meyer-Optik Gorlitz lenses are very popular amongst legacy lens enthusiasts and often go for high prices on well-known auction sites. After 1971, Meyer lenses were branded as Pentacon. You can even buy a new and up-to-date Lydith from Meyer-Optik ~ same name but not the same company…that’s brand acquisition and marketing for you.

The Lydith 30mm 3.5 lens is not a fast lens. Nor is it especially resistant to flare, due to the early glass coating methods in place at the time of manufacture. But what it lacks in speed and light dispersion qualities, it makes up for in excellent acuity and sharpness.

Olympus OMD EM5 Mark 1 and Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Lydith lens with an adapter

The Lydith lens is well-made and solid, whilst not being overly heavy, and the zebra pattern adorning the aperture and focus rings on my version make it an attractive lens. The wide 30mm focal length translates to a 60mm field of view on Micro Four Thirds cameras, and a 45mm equivalent field of view on APS-C sensor cameras.

The floral image above demonstrates the centre sharpness of the Lydith. On a crop sensor digital camera, like Micro Four Thirds, the sharpness of the lens will be immeditealy apparent due to the fact that the sensor uses only the central area of the lens. Using such a crop sensor camera with old lenses like this is an advantage if you’re the kind of photographer to whom sharpness is important.

Whilst the Lydith is not especially fast, with 3.5 being the widest aperture, it still produces pleasant and smooth out of focus areas. Edge acuity is generally impressive for such an old lens at the widest aperture setting. The bokeh could be considered distracting, but there’s enough subject seperation to make it acceptable, I think. It’s smooth enough, and background highlights are well rounded. The 10-bladed iris helps. There is also no serious chromatic aberration to speak of from the 5 element Lydith in these samples. These photos are all straight out of the camera JPGs on the Natural colour preset from the Olympus, without additional editing.

Squeezing the most from old lenses ~ the Clubman 28mm 2.8

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I’ve used many old manual lenses on my Olympus EM5. It’s a great way to explore old glass, even if the lenses weren’t made for modern mirrorless digital cameras. One of my favourite lenses is the Clubman 28mm 2.8 – a mass-market cheapo lens that was made by a Japanese optical manufactuer and then rebranded to be sold in camera shops and department stores at the height of 35mm film photography in the 70s, when colour film rose to prominence and new artistic styles found voice. It can also be found under the Ensinor name and likely some others. Many cheap lenses from that era were equally cheap in performance, but the Clubman is surprisingly good.

Like all of the lenses from back then, it’s an all-metal build and features an aperture ring and manual focus – quite hefty when compared to the plastic lenses we often find today. One of the best things about it is that it has a kind-of macro mode where you can focus down to about 30 cm at a 1:5 ratio. The other surprising thing about the lens is that it’s quite sharp after stopping the aperture down to f 5.6-f 8.

The lens also benefits greatly from the small sensor size of the Olympus because the softer edges and corners are mostly chopped out on the Micro Four Thirds format. This lens wouldn’t be so good on a larger format, like APS-C or 35mm, because those mushy edges and corners would form a bigger part of the visible frame. On the Olympus, I get the central part of the lens, where it’s sharpest.

On a hike , Litchfield National Park – Olympus EM5 Mark 2 with Clubman 28mm lens and Circular Polariser

For the photo above, I stopped the lens down to F 5.6 – the sweet spot for this lens/camera combination. I also used a circular polariser to cut out stray light reflections on the rocks and the foliage. This also deepens the colours.

The effect of the polariser is obvious in the above photo when you look at the water. The reflections have been minimised, creating transparency and deeper colours. You can even see the cliff visible below the water’s edge and some of the rocks on the riverbed. This is when a circular polarising filter is most useful and helps to maximise the optical properties of older glass.

Here are some of my other most-used manual focus lenses:

  • Takumar 35mm 3.5
  • Takumar 28mm 3.5
  • Macro-Takumar 50mm F4
  • Fujinon 55mm 1.8
  • Petri CC Auto 55mm 1.8
  • Micro-Nikkor 55mm 3.5
  • Nikkor 50mm F2
  • Zenitar 16mm 2.8 Fisheye
  • Minolta Rokkor MC 50mm F2
  • Minolta Rokkor 55mm 1.7
  • Vivitar 28mm 2.5

Exploring the Nikon Z5

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Many people think that 35mm, or so-called full-frame, sensor cameras are the final destination in terms of photo gear. Nikon, for example, has pursued a marketing strategy of dragging users towards entry-level full-frame cameras over the years, with the DX line of lenses suffering as a result. Of course, a 35mm sensor is simply one size, and certainly not even the largest size that photographers use. Lets not forget medium format or large format film.

Glow above the Arafura Sea  – Nikon Z5

I’m no stranger to APS-C cameras, Micro Four Thirds, and smaller. I have plenty of film cameras, including medium format. The idea that 35mm is the ultimate has never been of much concern to me. So, why did I buy the Nikon Z5 only several months ago?

Why use a 35mm camera?

I don’t think that a 35mm digital camera is the right choice for everybody. In fact, I don’t think it’s the right choice for most people who enjoy the more casual side of photography. And even then, superb images can be made with smaller cameras and smaller sensors, especially due to the kinds of advances that have been made in sensor design.

Here are some reasons why I was interested in the Nikon Z5:

  • Better low-light performance: A bigger sensor means that more light can be soaked up by the photo-sites, making low light photography easier at lower ISOs, thus resulting in less noise. In practice, I found myself still using my Nikon Z5 at 100 ISO at dusk with reasonably fast shutter speeds.
  • Depth of field: Though a 50mm lens is still a 50mm lens whether it’s on a Micro Four-Thirds camera or a Nikon Z5, you need to move closer to your subject to get the equivalent field of view with that same lens on a 35mm format camera. This also means that you can get shallower depth of field more easily because you’re closer. That said, I’m really more of a deep depth of field kind of person, mostly.
  • Old lens character: Not only do I get to use a nifty-fifty (or any other focal length) and see what that field of view actually looks like as it did back in 35mm film days, but I also get to see the entire character of the lens rather than just use the central portion of the glass, as I would when using a camera with a smaller sensor. Though, most of the time this character equals mushy edges and corners.
Cahill’s Crossing looking the other way – Nikon Z5

Is the Nikon Z5 replacing everything?

No, the Nikon Z5 is definitely not replacing my other cameras. It’s just another tool that provides certain benefits that are useful at certain times. And there are also some growing pains for me when using it. I’m so used to using smaller sensor cameras like the Olympus OMD EM5 Mark 1 and 2, that the mindset change, especially around setting the aperture, can be challenging at times.

As someone who uses a lot of deep depth of field, the idea that I can’t always set the aperture at f5.6 or f8 challenges my habits. To maintain the same depth of field at the equivalent focal length on the Nikon Z5 as I would have on a camera with a smaller sensor, I often find myself reaching for any F-stop between 8 and 16. Yes, there are times when my Micro Four-Thirds Olympus is the best camera for the job.

Having lunch among the trees – Nikon Z5

Despite the challenges around depth of field, my Nikon Z5 can produce wonderful images and I find myself thinking longer about every photo, likely because I have to also seriously think about my aperture setting versus distance to my subject. And that 24 megapixel sensor, when combined with good Z glass, is very sharp indeed.