Marco Aries

Back in 2019 I bought an Asahi Pentax-M 50mm f1.7 and right away I was surprised by how good it was and by the pleasant warm tones it produced. Since then I’ve been slowly putting together a kit, even branching out in the A series and the reissued Takumars, but I always find myself coming back to the M series. The lens is made out of metal, it weights 400g, it is 111 to 136mm long and it has an external diameter of 63mm, with a 52mm front thread. It also has a built in sunhood. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4 to f32 with half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 230 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 2 meters. Flange distance for the PK mount is 45,46mm. The wide focusing ring is very smooth, comfortable to grip and the long throw makes fine adjustments easier. While the lens is fairly light in weight, it is also a bit on the longer side, meaning that on lighter camera bodies, can lead to a front heavy system. Sharpness is good yet n...

By now, you probably know that 1: Canon FDs are some of my favorite vintage lenses and 2: 135mm is one of my favorite focal lengths So when I saw this guy, in perfect conditions and for an honest price, I just had to buy it.  Needless to say, I’m not disappointed. Quick history refresher: the Canon FD mount was introduced in 1971 and updated to the nFD, or new FD, in 1976 and then replaced by the EF mount in 1987. Today’s lens is from the nFD era. The Canon is made out of metal and hard plastic, it weights 300g, it is 87mm long when focused to infinity and 105mm when fully extended, with a 52mm front thread. It has a built-in sunhood, lined with an opaque material to avoid reflections. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f32 with half steps, plus auto. The focusing ring is textured and it turns 230 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 1.3m. Flange distance for the Canon FD mount is 42mm, easy to adapt to mirroless cameras . ...

Soviet zooms are very rare and only few of them were produced; the Granit 11 we are looking at today, is one of them. Manufactured from 1978 in the KMZ and Arsenal plants, it went through at least a couple different iterations, until the 90s when it was renamed MC zoom Arsat. Older models don’t have a letter after the number 11, but after a while it was added to indicate the mount. The letter M stands for M42, just like the Jupiter 21.   This lens is made out of metal with rubberized focus and zoom rings, it weights 780g, it is 157mm long when focused to infinity and 175mm when fully extended, with a 58mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4.5 to f22 with half steps. The zoom ring turns 90 degrees and zooming happens internally. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 300 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 1.5m. When focusing the front element turns as well. Flange distance for the  m42 mount  is 45,46mm   Sharpness ...

There is plenty of good, great, even amazing vintage lenses out there, but very few of them are zooms. In fact, a good chunk of them are just too big, too heavy and produce soft images, but not all of them. For example, the Sigma 35-70 that I’ve reviewed in 2020 is small, lightweight and sharp. Many of you have suggested me to check out Vivitar and Canon FD zooms, so when I had the chance to buy this guy, I didn’t turn it down. The Canon 100-300mm is made out of metal, it weights around 800g, it is 21cm long when focused to infinity and 22.3cm when fully extended, with a 58mm front thread. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f5.6 to f32 with half steps. When focusing, both the external barrel and the front element turn 210 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 2 meters. Flange distance for canon FD lenses is 42mm, so they can be easily adapted to mirrorless cameras.  (affiliate link) Sharpness wide open is good across the frame and that shou...

  Canon FD lenses have gained a lot of popularity in the last few years, amongst professionals and enthusiasts alike. Yet, there are some lenses from this line that everyone seems to forget about and end up being left behind, like today’s subject: the Canon FD 300mm f5.6. I believe I made it quite clear in past reviews of Canon FD lenses that I like them and by now you all know that I prefer longer focal lengths, so when I saw this lens in good conditions and at a fair price, I had to buy it. LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK. The Canon 300mm is made out of hard plastic and metal, it weights around 580g, it is 20cm long with a 58mm front thread. Focusing happens internally, so it doesn’t get any longer, except when you extend the metal sunhood, bringing it to 26cm. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f5.6 to f32 The focusing ring is textured, wide, smooth and it turns 320 degrees. minimum focusing distance is a little less than 3 meters. Flange dist...

Soligor was a supplier of photographic equipment based in the United States and Germany, active mostly between the ‘60s and the early ‘90s. They had a very comprehensive catalog of lenses, made in Japan by manufacturers like Tokina and Tamron, covering a wide array of focal lengths and they were available for all major camera brands. Soligor lenses were also sold under alternative brand names like Hanimar, Porst or Super Carener, in different geographical areas. From my research, the 28mm 2.8 alone has at least 21 different versions, so chances are that yours looks different than mine. Specifically, the one I own is part of the C/D line released in the mid-1970s as a premium line of lenses. The Soligor 28mm is made out of metal, it weights 200g, it is 33mm long when focused to infinity and 37mm when extended, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has six blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22 The focusing ring is rubberized and it turns 180 degrees an...

  When it comes to vintage soviet lenses many will tell you that you must get the Mir 1B, the Helios 44 and the Jupiter 9 to have the perfect kit; some would add the Tair 11 to the list. Yet, there are many more interesting lenses that end up being left out of the conversation and the Jupiter 21 is one of them. Not long ago I found this beast of a lens at a local flea market, and I was surprised to find out that the owner manual and warranty is still mostly intact. I asked my Russian friend Masha to help me out translating part of it and we discovered that this lens came out of the Vologda Optical and Mechanical Plant, or VOMZ, in June 1993. VOMZ was founded in the city of Vologda in 1971 and between 1977 and 1986 was part of LOMO. The factory is still active to this day, producing thermal imaging cameras. Coincidentally, my Mir 1B comes from the same factory. Jupiter 21M 200mm f4   The Jupiter is big. It weighs 980g, it is 15,5cm long when focused to infinity and 18...

Those of you who follow me on Instagram  might remember that a couple months ago I bought a box of... stuff, and one of the items inside was this Avanar 135mm. There is no information on the internet about this brand, although some people speculate is was a European rebrand for Chinon, a Japanes manufacturer founded in 1962 and later acquired by Kodak, and, in fact, the Chinon 135mm f2.8 looks identical to the Avanar If by any chance you happen to know anything mote about the brand Avanar, feel free to share your knowledge in the comments; meanwhile, let us take a closer look. The body is made ot metal and it weighs 400g, it is 87mm long when focused to infinity and 101mm when extended, with a 55mm front thread. Plus, as many vintage 135s, it has a built in sun hood. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22, with a switch for automatic and manual aperture. The focusing ring has a nice rubberized grippy texture and it turns roughly 240°, minimum ...

We made it to the last of the three Yashica lenses I bought last winter: the 50mm f1.7 ML. If you want to check out the reviews for the 28mm  and the 135mm you can find them here on the blog and on my channel . I gotta say: it is no that easy to review 50mm lenses, because there are so many of them and most are just as good as the next one, with only a few really standing out and the Yashica is, well, one in the bunch. The body is made of metal and it weighs 220 grams, it is 40mm long when focused to infinity and 48mm when extended, with a 52mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f1.7 to f16. The focusing ring turns 180 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 50 centimeters. Contax Yashica flange distance is 45,5mm and adapters are easy to find In terms of size, weight and build, the 50mm is basically identical to the 28mm 2.8 that I have already shown you, minus some aesthetic differences and the different coating, being single on the...

  Last winter I bought three Yashica lenses and this 28mm is one of them, along the 135 and the 50mm; it’ the most “humble” of the trio, being part of the basic, single coated DSB line. Yet, it doesn’t fall behind it’s sisters, in fact I would say it is better than the 135mm.  The body is made of metal and it weighs 220 grams, it is 40mm long when focused to infinity and 44mm when fully extended, with a 52 mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f16. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 180 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30 centimeters. Contax Yashica mount flange distance is 45,5mm and adapters are easy to find.  Sharpness is good wide open and it gets even better by stopping down a bit. Same goes for edge falloff. Background blur is not the softest, but it is not distracting either.  Chromatic aberration did show up in some really high contrast areas, but I only noticed it because I was activel...

 My first fast prime was the Fujian 35mm f1.7, a lens made for security cameras with a quite unique look, and today we are trying out another small and cheap lens but, this time, specifically made for APS-C cameras.  The lens comes in a nice and padded black box that contains the lens itself, obviously, a pouch, a microfiber cloth and some documentation.  The body is made of metal and only weights 165 grams; it is 59mm long when fully extended with a 49mm front thread. It has 6 optical elements ins 4 groups.  The iris has 12 blades, the aperture is stepless and very smooth, with an nice resistance so you won’t accidentally move it, and it goes from f1.6 to f22.  The focusing ring turns 180° and minimum focusing distance is 25 centimeters.  Not needing and adapter is a nice change of pace for me, and the combination of this small and lightweight lens and my Sony APS-C camera bodies makes for a really compact and nimble setup.  There are two reasons that...

  If you've been around my channel or this blog for a while you'll probably know that I've been building a kit of Konica Hexanon lenses, more by chance than by choice, let's be honest. Yet I now find myself owning the well-known 40mm f1.8 “pancake”, the 135mm f2.5 “big boi” and the 50mm f1.7, along with two third-party lenses, the Tokina 135mm f2.8 and the Sigma 35-70mm. Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7  I bought this lens at the end of last summer from a kind old man, a retired semi-professional photographer, so it was well kept and maintained, clean lenses and no mechanical issues.  The body of the lens is made of metal and weights 210 grams; it is 40mm long when focused to infinity and 47mm when fully extended. The focusing ring is rubberized with a nice grippy texture and it turns 180 degrees. Minimum focusing distance is average at 55cm, the iris has six blades, the aperture is clicked and goes from f1.7 to f16. Past that it goes into auto exposure mode and you have t...

  Since my review of the 40mm f1.8 everyone has been telling me to check out the 135mm, but as I soon found out, there are multiple versions of it and the general consent seems to be that the f3.5 version is the one to get, sharper, lighter, more compact and so on. Obviously, the only one I could find was the f2.5, but I got it anyway. Since I bought it, I've found myself coming back to it time and time again, it's a lens that keeps giving, I really enjoy shooting it and, as you probably all know by now, I prefer longer lenses to short and wide ones, and this one really reminds me of my Tokina 135mm f2.8, they are really similar although this is a bit bigger, but we will discuss more about that in a dedicated video, if you want to.  Anyway, this “big boi”, as I like to call it, has a metal body and weighs around 650 grams. It is 93mm long when focused to infinity, 118mm when extended and when you pop out the built-in sun hood it gets to 134mm; the front thread has a 62mm dia...

  There’s a bit of a story behind acquiring this lens. In the summer of 2019 I went to a different flea market, one I had never been before and on a table I saw a camera and a couple lenses. I quickly inspected them and while they seemed in great conditions, but I barely knew the Konica name and had no knowledge on how good, or bad, it could be, so I left it there. Considering that I usually buy almost anything, it was pretty uncharacteristic of me. By the time I got home I was still thinking about that lens, so I looked it up on the internet and realized that at least the 40mm was supposed to be a good lens, and the price was fair too. “Well”, I said to myself, “you lose one, you get one, I’ll find something else next time”. A month later I went back to that flea market and, lo and behold, there it was, still waiting for me, so I bought it, along with some paperwork, a small catalog, the Kenlock 100-300mm, an Autoreflex TC camera, which I will eventually try, and a focal multiplie...

  After I got into vintage lenses in 2017, I started looking for some Soviet ones, to see for myself if the hype was real, but for a good couple years I could never find one in good conditions or for a good price, until the day I stumbled into a mint Mir 1b. It's a pretty well-known lens, one of those everyone on the internet recommends, so I was quite interested in trying it out.  It’s a fairly small lens, 52mm long with internal focusing and a 49mm front thread, but it has a nice heft with its 200 grams of weight due to the all-metal body.  The focusing ring has a nice gruppy shape and it turns 270 degrees, but minimum focusing distance is a massive 70cm; some people disassemble the lens to remove the screw that stops the ring from turning all the way and achieve a shorter minimum distance, but I still haven’t tried doing it myself.  The iris had ten blades and the aperture is… confusing. To be honest, when I recorded the video review I still couldn’t wrap my...

  The Industar 50-2 it's a very, very small lens made for SLRs and rangefinder cameras starting from 1959. Is has a screw mount, either M39 or, as mine, M42 and a stepless aperture, which is kind of interesting.  Although the name is 50-2 it's not a 50 millimeters f/2, it's actually at its widest an f3.5, which means it's not the brightest lens.  The construction is quite simple, I took it apart to clean it and, well, I had no problems doing so. I actually had to clean because it needed to be lubricated a little bit, but since I have put some oil in it, it works just fine.  The metal body houses three optical elements, it weights only around 80 grams, it is 19mm long when focused to infinity and 25mm when extended with a 34mm front thread. Aperture, as said, is stepless, with seven blades and goes from f3.5 to f16. The focusing ring rotates more or less 310 degrees, which usually means that it is easy and precise to focus, but this lens is not sharp so it ...

  The Pentacon 50mm was mass produced and it was sold as a standard lens on Praktica and Pentacon cameras, usually with an m42 mount; they are usually pretty easy to come around and cheap to buy. Yet, this is the only one I’ve found so far, here in Italy.  As we saw with the Petri 55mm, just because a lens came as a standard kit, it doesn't mean it is bad. In fact, the Pentacon is really, really good and for me it was love at first shot.  Let's be honest, I haven't done much research this time, I more or less know the brand, I like the lens and it was fine for me, so I didn't need to dive deep into researching. Plus the good old Mark Holtze has already published a very in-depth, and as always very well done, video so check it out.  What I did found is that the one that I got, the version with the double chrome rings and the stripes all around, should be the earliest version, the one closer to the original Meyer Gorlitz Optics design.  Now, the lens itself ...