Marco Aries

  It was probably late 2016 when I first stumbled upon mirror lenses, on Amazon, of all places, and I was quite intrigued by them, but they were too expensive to justify buying one for the sole purpose of satisfying my curiosity. So I kept pushing the thought aside, until a few weeks ago, when I saw an ad for this Zenit 500mm f8, reasonably priced and in good conditions. MC 3M-5CA 800mm f8 Well, to be precise, it’s the MC 3M-5CA made by LZOS and there’s always a bit of confusion when it comes to soviet brands and factories, but luckily the original owner’s manual has survived so we know that this lens came out of the Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant on the 06 11 1996. The Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant, or LZOS, was founded in 1935, producing mirror reflectors for anti-aircraft systems. In 1952 they created an internal division for civil and educational production, like microscopes, binoculars and camera lenses. Since 1960 it has been producing mirrors and optics for massive astronomical

Last summer I reviewed the Pentacon 50mm 1.8, which has quickly become my single most used vintage lens and I’ve been looking for more Pentacon lenses since then so when, a few months ago, I saw an ad for a box of lenses and cameras among which was this Pentacon 29mm I just had to buy it. For those of you who are not familiar with the brand, it was founded in 1959 in the German Democratic republic and it mass produced cameras and lenses, popularizing the m42 mount. It still exists, by the way, but now it is in the injection molding and cnc turning business The Pentacon 29mm weighs 220g, it is 44,5mm long when focused to infinity and 50mm when extended, with a 55mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22, with a switch to select auto or manual. The focusing turns 160 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 25cm. Pentacon lenses come with an m42 mount .  (affiliate link) Sharpness wide open is good in the center, but it doe

  When you get into buying and selling vintage lenses, you are bound to end up with some that are in bad conditions and when, a few months ago, I bought a box with a few lenses, well, I wasn’t surprised to find dust, scratches and one straight up broken lens.  The Cosina 28mm we are looking at today comes from that box and has the front element clearly bent and deformed, and it could use some lubrication at the focusing helicoid, but overall I had a good feeling about it, given that it still works perfectly and the glass elements are clean.  Although this is the first Cosina lens that I own, I was already kind of familiar with the brand as a third party manufacturer, founded, by the way, in 1959 in Nagano, Japan. What I didn’t know is that in 1999 it acquired Voigtlander and it is still active to this day.   The Cosina 28mm weighs 225g, it is 38mm long when focused to infinity and 42mm when extended, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 5 blades, the aperture is clicked and