Industar-61L/Z-MC

[Dr. Harout]

A Soviet made kind of macro lens of 50mm focal length and 2,8 aperture. The name stands for Lantanium/Mirror.
Look for yourself.





and it has a star shaped diaphragm

[Dr. Harout]

Though it's not easy to make fine focus adjustments with the standard screen of the A700 (or my eyes ) but I leave the verdict for your decision.



Shot with high shutter speed 1/1000s and the aperture closed (probably at f/8 or so).
More to follow...

[Dr. Harout]

Continuing with the same Santa, here is posted a shot wide open (at f/2,8 that is ) along with a 100% crop. shutter 1/160s



and 100% crop



More to follow...

But since Christmas is near, along with Santa Claus, me, my A700 and the Industar-61L/Z-MC wish you happy shooting during the holidays.
Oh, and Merry Christmas along with Alfonso's thread here: http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... =40&t=1536

[Dr. Harout]

Today's final picture will be a Hibiscus flower shot inside hand held at 1/25s wide open.



and a 100% crop



So you're the judges now (of the lens, of course).

[sury]

Dr. Harout,
I am very impressed. Somehow I have been skipping Industar as some cheap lenses to avoid. Looks like
I was much mistaken.

With best regards,
Sury

[Armen Gharib]

Thank you for nice and detailed images Doctor.
Details are amazing!

[MFS]

They look pretty sharp to me. Nothing wrong whit your eyes I guess. Even the bokeh doesn't look that bad Paul. I reckon this is a low budget lens. Not bad at all. TFS

[UrsaMajor]

I am very impressed. Somehow I have been skipping Industar as some cheap lenses to avoid. Looks like
I was much mistaken.

I have several Industar lenses in Leica Thread Mount that came on Soviet rangefinder cameras, purchased very inexpensively on e-Bay about 6-7 years ago. My experience was that some of the lenses were very satisfactory and some copies of the same lens were very disappointing. If you got a good copy of a Soviet lens, it could be very good indeed, but there was no way to tell what the lens would be like without shooting a roll of film.

One of the Industar lenses is very, very sharp and I loaned it to a colleague at work whose ONLY outside interest is photography. After he mounted it on one of his Leicas and used it for a roll of film, he offered to buy lens from me, as he was very taken with the results it produced. It was the standard lens that came with the FED-5 cameras, which were very basic and inexpensive cameras, but my colleague and I both considered the results it produced to be outstanding.

I also have an 85mm "Jupiter" lens (a Soviet-made Zeiss Sonnar) that has produced some very, very satisfactory results - especially portraits - on a Kiev 4a rangefinder. (A Soviet-made Contax II with some design improvements.) I was so happy with that lens that I made a special effort to buy the same lens design in Leica Thread Mount to use on other cameras. The LTM version was in absolutely beautiful cosmetic condition, but to this day I have never managed to get it to produce a satisfactory photo.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Dr. Harout]

Hi Tom,
I absolutely agree with you. There are real decent Soviet made lenses out there.

[aster]

Hello to you all from the first day of 2009!

And hello and welcome to you Armen, I hope you enjoy the forum.
There are some similar words and sounds between Armenian and Turkish, so after giving it some thought I decided that your family name starts with the 'ğ/Ğ' sound in Turkish alphabet. I may be wrong but I think it also has the identical meaning like our 'Garib' which means strange; out-of-the-ordinary; or one-good-soul in some cases. Like Kashickchian is actually Kaşıkçıyan and actually means Spoonmaker in Turkish. Well, so much for my trying to place the meaning of your name, I shall stop now...

Do you guys, Dr. Harout and Armen, think that this wonderful market place of yours in Yerevan have some under-the-counter A900 that are built like tanks by the Russians? You know, they are famous for almost undamageable metal and equipment work...maybe they already have a good work-around of the A900 and for no more than $500 too?

Ok, just kidding of course but all these tank-like-built lenses have a way of working around with one's imagination. Once, Soviets did it all...and let the world see.

Yildiz

[Dr. Harout]

And hello to you Yildiz from 2009.
For the family name of Armen, which is Gharibian, the pronunciation is quite right and yes it has that meaning: strange and stranger. This word derives from Arabic and got further spread beyond their boundaries. It is a semitic word as origin.
As for the cameras, during the Soviet era they made good cameras (just after WWII) copying them mainly from Contax, and in the late 70s and in the 80s they manufactured robust metallic 'things' called cameras . Lenses were fine, but IMHO they remained on the quality of pre-war German lenses.
Now, after the fall of the Soviet empire there isn't any "under-the-counter" bargain.
And if they just do such a camera now I will definitely not be their consumer. Lenses are different, I might buy one if cheap and play with it for a while. They are doing some in Ukraine, called Arax lenses (which, yes is the name of the border river between you and us). They have a tilt-shift lens that fits A-mount too http://www.araxphoto.com/ and I have seen some pretty good shots with it on Dyxum.com.
Honestly, I am considering that lens, though in my opinion it's a bit overpriced (but still hoping that Sony will spoil me bringing on the market a good one).

Oh, BTW, if you're considering B&W pictures, I think old soviet lenses will do great.

[aster]

Thanks for clearing the name's meaning Dr. Harout.
Tonight I'll sleep nicely tight with no thoughts on the names finally!

I've been looking at T/S lenses during the day, and like yourself expect one brilliant sample from Sony. But I may have to get one sooner and prices can be very high for some. I grew up with mechanical, optical, and otomotive goods that originated from Germany, therefore have more confidence in German industry. I don't know of other brands that are manufactured on other lands.

Would be nice to hear your views on T/S lenses as you come along some worth mentioning.

Thanks
Yildiz

[Armen Gharib]

Thank you all for your good acceptance me to this nice forum!
Yildiz, I agree with Dr. Harut concerning the mean and roots of Gharib.
I have friends from Iran and Arabs from Egypt which have already represented the roots of Gharib!
I have never thought that my surname can be an object of such interesting discussions, thank you !
What about the USSR's tank like lenses I like them all, they are low budget lenses which can get every mortal !
I have got some of them recently and I like them! Best choice at extra low prices, if Soviet produced some auto focus M42 lenses , our VerniSage would be the nirvana for photographers

[Dr. Harout]

Yildiz, take a look at these:

http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17098
http://www.dyxum.com/reviews/lenses/rev ... IDLens=260

As you notice both are from Dyxum.

[Dr. Harout]

Oh, I nearly forgot. One of the reasons I switched to A-mount was CZ. I was a former Nikon user (film era).
It was very hard to choose, either keep on going with Nikon (and I had a lot of lenses and accessories) just changing/adding a DSLR or change the system.
It was a long and tough decision. You know where I stand now.
So I believe and have faith in German products too (but some say CZ lenses are made/assembled in Japan, who knows?).