What's old is new again: Chinon 135mm F2.8 prime

Among my ancient-history film lenses picked up last week, I ended up getting two 'Chinon' lenses when picking up the Konica stuff. ; It was a throw-in deal, and not something i was necessarily looking to purchase, but the lenses looked in fine shape, and despite not knowing much about the brand, I knew they were Pentax K-mount lenses, and I already had a K-mount adapter for my NEX. ; So I decided for the money I was spending, getting 6 lenses and assorted other goods for $100, it was a no-lose situation. ; Noone online seemed to know too much about Chinon, but optically they looked in amazing shape...so this weekend I decided that the 135mm F2.8 would be a good backup lens to bring on the NEX to compliment my DSLR with 300mm prime - the 135mm could kick in and cover the closer stuff, and I'd see how sharp or clean the lens was (or wasn't). ; Good news: the lens is sharp enough to cut glass! ; Gorgeous contrast and color for a 37 year old lens too, with nice smooth OOF blur. ; Manual focus and aperture only, which in this case I stuck on F8 as it was good daylight conditions. ; A few shots to demonstrate the old lens' abilities:

First, a flower:


An anhinga...so sharp you can cut yourself!:


Cormorant hanging out on a rail:


Of the 6 lenses I've now tested out, 5 are unbelievably sharp and can use every bit of the APS-C sensor's resolution...one more needs a slight tune up, which will be my next cleaning project. ; All in all, if I were to even leave that last lens out of the equation, I've paid $20 per lens for 5 extraordinarily sharp and solid old lenses!

 

That's one of the neat things about the mirrorless cameras - they will function in both M and A priority modes - so you can either do everything manually, or let the camera meter for shutter or ISO or both. ; I find it very comfortable shooting in A priority - set the aperture on the lens ring, focus manually, and usually set my ISO manually, and let the camera choose the shutter...a quick aperture ring adjustment to bump the shutter up or down if I need it. ; When I do long exposures, I tend to go full manual.

 

To a certain extent the SLTs will do the same thing as well. ; It helps that your viewfinder and the LCD are both feeding from the sensor, so you get a decent live-view. ; Except when you're in manual.[nb]A few times I thought my camera was broken because the viewfinder was black but the camera was on. ; OH! ; f/22 and 30 sec exposure! ; Duh![/nb]

 

Yeah, I have gotten used to keeping my aperture wide open when focusing in low light (like what DSLRs do automatically) so I can get focus, then stopping down and metering to shoot.

The big advantage the NEX/M4:3 cameras have over DSLRs or the SLTs is that they have the smallest registration distance of any interchangeable lens camera (and the NEX is the smallest of all)...which means that they can be adapted to any lens ever made with nothing more than a spacer ring to match the registration of that mount. ; SLR, rangefinder, security camera, medium format, Russian knockoffs...any removable lens will work on the mirrorless cameras.

 

Thank you Howie. ; Those birds always look so glorious in their glossy black when they dry off in the sun.

 

Thanks Gary - many of those older lenses are awfully solid. ; Canon of course had some excellent ones in the manual days.

Check out the adapters for each too, before you buy - the lens adapters vary in size from just 1/4 inch thick to a good 3 inches, depending on what mount they need to match the registration for. ; If you don't care about the size or appearance, any adapter and lens will work equally well, but there's something to be said for looking for the lens mounts that had smaller registration distances, as the lenses with adapters can still look slim on the M4:3 or NEX bodies. ; I went with Konica mount because they were about the smallest registration of all the SLR mounts. ; Others that are extremely popular are Leica's M mount and screwmount, both of which have adapters that are scarcely bigger than step rings, the Leica Rangefinder (as well as Nikon and Canon Rangfinder which shared the mount), and the Contax G mount. ; All can look small and snug when mounted with adapters.