Taking a spin through spring …

… using …

• Rollei Zeiss HFT Distagon 1.4/35,

  

  

• Tamron SP 8/500 (55B),

  

  

• Sigma Telemax YS 2.8/135,

  

  

• Rollei Zeiss HFT Distagon 2/28,

  

  

• Helios 2/92

  

  

• Meyer-Optik Primoplan 1.9/58

  

  

• Contaflex Pro Tessar 4/115

  

  Adapted Contaflex Pro Tessar lens mount (including the rear element of the lens) plus Pro Tessar 4/115 front element on a simple m42 focussing helicoid.

  

After a winter that at the end just wouldn’t stop I’m very happy that spring has finally arrived. In fact here in Bavaria, Germany it has arrived late, but in a rush. Four weeks ago there was not one leaf to be found on any tree. Just two weeks later everything was green. I’ve never experienced the flourishing phase to be this short (at least not being aware of it) .

One day a tree is in full bloom and you’re thinking: “Great, I need to go out this week and take some shots”. Two days later, most of the blossoms lost their fresh appearance and share the branches with many leaves. Another week later: All blossoms are gone. After two weeks pretty much all of the flourishing is over.

Even though this short period of spring was hard to catch, I was lucky enough to have had some time to go out there and capture the blossom frenzy. Much of it was simply in a radius of 100m around my house before, after or in between work. The rest stems from two short bike trips to the closest mountains around Rosenheim. One of them “hosts” the yearly blooming of the crocus that attracts a lot of visitors even driving down from Munich.

Like always I enjoyed using several lenses on the way, each of them giving my images a little something special with their character traits.

First off, some shots taken on a MTB trip to the near mountains (all with Rollei Zeiss HFT Distagon 1.4/35).

I don’t have this lens long, but I already know that I will very likely never part with it. It has beautiful contrast and color and wonderfully smooth bokeh. Sharpness isn’t too impressive (not bad either), especially wide open or at lower aperture numbers, but it produces a nice 3D feel with its blur quality and contrast.

The colors rendition feels very natural to me, much better than what I get from Sony’s new glass. Although I process all my images, I’d say that I could use many of them without any further adjustments. Well, see for yourself:

 

The second most used lens in this spring presentation is the Tamron SP 8/500 Mirror lens. I got this lens about 2 years ago when I was hunting for special bokeh lenses. I was after the donuts it produces. But I have been more than surprised by the lenses’ other qualities: I find it plenty sharp and very useful with its low minimum focussing distance which enables you to take 1:4 macro shots at about 5 feet. Certainly it’s a questionable challenge to try and hunt bugs with it. But for a close up of flowers or blossoms on a tree that might otherwise be out of reach, it offers new possibilities. All that is true, provided that there is enough light, since it is a 500mm lens. It is also a light lens in comparison. Thus I’ve managed to get a few sharp shots at 1/250 handheld (for instance leaning on a tree).

 

The third lens in this mini-review is the Sigma Telemax YS 2.8/135. Actually in normal scenarios the lens is nothing special. Prices are low for a good reason. It isn’t remarkably sharp or contrasty. I’d say it’s an average lens at best.

It does have one quality though that sets it apart from other lenses. Just that character trait might appeal to you too. It has a macro focussing feature with which you can move the front lens group. This enables you to get faily close and with enough light you can take nice sharp images. You would have to stop down to at least f/8 to get them. This is because wide open or even one or two stops down the lens shows an abbundance of spherical abberations. BUT this is actually why this lens is more interesting than you’d think at first. The spherical abberations lay over the image like a soft white veil which can be used for dreamy portraits of people – or flowers. Since this article is supposed to show the beauty of spring, that is what I used it for.

Also the bokeh is very smooth if you use the lens wide open with macro focussing. Well, see for yourself:

 

Four other lenses got used that I’ve also come to like a lot. The Meyer-Optik Primoplan with it’s very special and smooth bokeh. The Helios 2/92 projection lens is performing quite similarly (as far as the quality of the bokeh goes). I got the latter lens fully adapted for M42 from a russian seller on Ebay. The seller also installed a simple yet effective focussing mechanism.
Also the Rollei Distagon 2/28 Hollywood got some use. I did use it outside of its special area: for closeups of plants, where it shows plenty of sharpness but also wild bokeh. If used creatively that is a good thing in my book.
The last lens that I have to give credit to is the Contaflex Pro-Tessar 4/115 that I adapted to the A7. Because it isn’t adapted without some effort, prices for this great lens are still low. I’m pretty stunned by the center sharpness this lens can produce when stopped down. Also it has very special bokeh wide open. The samples here don’t really reveal it, but you can find a nice sample here.

Here are the images from the last mentioned lenses:

Helios 2/92 – Think Pink!

Helios 2/92 – Nature’s lampions

Primoplan 1.9/58 – Pure

Contaflex Pro Tessar 4/115 – Green Part I

Contaflex Pro Tessar 4/115 – Green Part II

Rollei Zeiss Distagon 2/28 – A few drops of light

Rollei Zeiss Distagon 2/28 – City sunset

All images have been taken over the period of two weeks in a quick spin through spring :-).