First Results: Roeschlein-Kreuznach (LTM Hacked)

[raid]

Here are some snapshots I took yesterday with the Luxon 50mm/2.0 lens which Brian Sweeney adapted into a LTM lens by using a J-3 shell. The results are surprising, the least to say.


At f8.0, the resulting images were good:



The same at f 5.6:



Note the out of focus behavior for this lens.


Raid

[raid]

At f 4.0, we clearly see the bokeh "rings". The Luxon is not a widely seen lens here, so I don't know how this lens performs in a non-hacked way on a Paxette. Is it the "Brian Sweeney Effect" that we are seeing here or is it simply the optical performance of the Luxon?




At 2.8 things get "interesting":



And at f2.0 too:




What do you think about this lens?


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[raid]

I have more "test" results at f 2.0 here:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=708554


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[kbg32]

That is wild Raid! I kinda like it.

[raid]

Originally Posted by kbg32

That is wild Raid! I kinda like it.

Keith: I have quite a few"normal looking" 50mm lenses, so this lens is really special. At aperture settings 5.6-16, the results are kinda normal, but at apertures greater than 5.6 we see very strange looking bokeh.

Raid

[fgb2]

There are some other old lenses that share this characteristic, like this Kino-Plasmat 50mm:

http://oldlens.com/EPSN5206b.jpg


the Hektor 73/1.9:

http://oldlens.com/IMG_7032b.jpg


the specular highlights behind the plane of focus in pictures from these lenses look like footballs with the long axis along an oval centered in the middle of the frame:

http://oldlens.com/EPSN3865b.jpg


the Prominent Nokton has this characteristic wide open to a much milder degree.




Fred B.

[kbg32]

It seems like a very special purpose lens at those wider apertures. I would certainly love to see more portraits with different backgrounds.

Man, I really like that swirly bokeh!

[raid]

Fred: I was just thinking to myself that the Nokton Prominent had a wild looking Bokeh at 1.5, but in a more tamed way. Thanks for the images from the old lenses. Is the reason a design flaw that older lenses did not overcome?

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[raid]

Keith: I will experiment with this lens.I wonder how its bokeh looks like with a darker uniform looking background. Another interesting situation is of course the typical night scene with lights. Fred'si mage with fall colors is a great example of artistic possibilities to create painting like photos.

Raid

[fgb2]

Raid, I'm sorry to give the impression that those are my photos - I linked to a Japanese site with a really remarkable selection of photos from exotic old lenses. Here is the main site:

http://oldlens.com

I don't read Japanese, so can't tell who is the owner of the site to credit them properly.



I have read that the oval highlights come from spherical aberration or its correction, but don't understand the topic at all myself. Here is a thread where the discussants blame it on spherical aberration and then seem to agree that it's too hard to really understand:

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00EiFs

If you google "swirly spherical aberration" you get a bunch of pages with pictures like yours.




Fred B.

[raid]

Originally Posted by fgb2

Raid, I'm sorry to give the impression that those are my photos - I linked to a Japanese site with a really remarkable selection of photos from exotic old lenses. Here is the main site:

http://oldlens.com

I don't read Japanese, so can't tell who is the owner of the site to credit them properly.



I have read that the oval highlights come from spherical aberration or its correction, but don't understand the topic at all myself. Here is a thread where the discussants blame it on spherical aberration and then seem to agree that it's too hard to really understand:

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00EiFs

If you google "swirly spherical aberration" you get a bunch of pages with pictures like yours.




Fred B.

Fred: I meant it regardless whether the images were taken by you or not. The linked images were useful to look at. I will take a look at the last link.

I am not into optical designs but the resulting look. Since I already have a J-3, it was OK to sacrifice a J-3 (by Brian) and for me to give up a Luxon for a Braun Paxette that I do not have.


Thanks.

Raid

[xayraa33]

the original Voigtlander Nokton gives a similar swirly woosh background, but not to the extreme of the Roeschlein glass.
it is an aquired taste.

[raid]

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

Got Nikki Settled down to sleep in the Rocker- quick check for Email's- Eyes Sleepy-

Summarit Swirlies EXTREME! Astigmatism for the out-of-focus areas, and over-correction for spherical aberration. (I read an optics book) My Summarit does this wide-open and close-up. The Retina-Xenon 50/1.9 does not do this, and it has a long back-focus as well. The 1950's Nokton does this, but about the same degree of the Summarit.

This is the lens for men that like portraits of the women in their lives with the world revolving around them.

The lace on your wifes shirt looks in focus in all of the pictures. What did you use for focal point with the RF spot?

Brian: This is really a case of severe swirlies. It will come in handy at times.

I focused on her eyes and eye lids. I need to check focusing again with this lens after I return from my Germany trip next week. It could be my eye sight.

Greetings,

Raid

[raid]

Originally Posted by xayraa33

the original Voigtlander Nokton gives a similar swirly woosh background, but not to the extreme of the Roeschlein glass.
it is an aquired taste.

I have the original Nokton, and it is much better controlled for such swirlies when stopped down a little. When used wide open, it does show a "strong"bokeh bahvior.

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[raid]

I took another look at other photos I had taken on the same roll at 2.0 [not posted here]. I now recall that I could not focus well on my wife's eyes in the shade and I used the edge of the blouse with the lace as my focusing target,which threw off the teeth and the eyes at times.I also have images where I focused on the eyes and they came out sharp. The lens is fine with that respect.

Raid

[John Shriver]

Summar on crystal meth!

[Gabriel M.A.]

That's pretty wild.

I've always wondered what the Helios-103 would be like in LTM. Hmmmm...

The Summarit does give you pretty wild bokeh like the one above in the same conditions; seems to be an "epoch" thing?

[Gabriel M.A.]

BTW, guess who's getting a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 in LTM next week in the mail?

I hope I can close focus it properly.

And I hope to catch up with you Raid, with the 50s collection. If only I hadn't sold my Canon 50 f/1.5

[raid]

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

Well that is a relief for me!! I checked the lens at 5m, 3m, and close with the TTL viewer and my Canon IIf that I use for all the J-3 and J-8's. After seeing the images I was worried that the focal length was shorter than anticipated.

However, from now on use your wife's beautiful eyes for the point of focus.

Or else I'm going to set all your lenses to focus 4" closer than what the RF indicates.

Brian:

Your point is well taken.

I just picked up a CD with new photos taken with the Luxon. Maybe the swirl will be less obvious since photos were taken with a darker background and at f 4.0~5.6.

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[raid]

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

I also have a lot of 50's in LTM. Not a Luxon! I'll be looking now. More swirlies than a Summarit. I love the effect on a Portrait.

The Helios-103 has a very smooth Bokeh, nothing exciting like this one. I can use the Helios on my Bessa R2 with the M adapter. The rear module of the Helios does not fit into a J-3 mount. Else, I would have an LTM Menopta by now.

I'm looking at hacking a Zeiss Jena Tessar module from an M42 mount into an Industar 61 Mount. I put the Industar optics into a Nikon S-Mount.

On a humorous note, last night Nikki was wound up like a top and had a hard time relaxing. So I told her the "relaxing Place" Story... Navarre Beach.

Brian: I have been thinking of getting a Contax mount 50mm/1.5 into an Industrar 61. Can you do such magic? I would still need a 50mm/1.5.

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[raid]

Originally Posted by Gabriel M.A.

BTW, guess who's getting a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 in LTM next week in the mail?

I hope I can close focus it properly.

And I hope to catch up with you Raid, with the 50s collection. If only I hadn't sold my Canon 50 f/1.5

Gabriel: I still need to get the Canon 50/1.5 one day. For now, I am targeting the classic Zeiss 50/1.5 to be Frankensteined by Brian. I need a donor lens!


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[raid]

Originally Posted by John Shriver

Summar on crystal meth!

John: You are underestimating the swirling action here! We may have on our hands a Summarit on Cocaine and Opium!

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[raid]

Here are three additional photos taken with the Luxon [underexposed] and a Leica IIIc in need of shutter work. I used Fujicolor 200 print film with aperture settings 4.0~5.6. The results are under-par in quality, as can be seen.

I have a trip tomorrow to Germany for a week, so my Luxon adventures have to wait until I get back.

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[raid]

I tried changing one image to B&W-Sepia to improve the effects of color film underexposure a little.


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[raid]

Here are more shots taken at f 2.0: