Thursday, October 9, 2014

Thursday Night Photography: Pentacon 135mm Prime Lens

#GetOlympus #Pentacon #Fotodiox #Photography I recently picked up an old prime lens made in Germany around the 1960s. The Pentacon 135mm f/2.8 (Meyer Orestor 15 blades) lens is also known as the Bokeh Monster due to the creamy blur it creates when you use it. Even though the lens is old and uses an M42 mount (screw mount), I was able to find an M42 to Micro Four Thirds mount from Fotodiox. The person who I bought the lens from took care of it like it was a newborn child and it is in excellent condition. Since my #Olympus OM-D E-M1 has stabilization on the body, I don't have to worry about blurring caused by the lens. The new Olympus bodies are probably the reason why old lens prices went from dirt cheap in 2010 to pricey today.

When I was reviewing the lens with a coworker, we didn't realize there were several different versions of this lens. As a result, I actually ended up buying 2 different lenses on accident. The one that is very nice has 15 blades and the one that people say to avoid has 6 blades. I'll take some photos with the 6 bladed lens and put up some pictures in my next post or two. Both lenses are old and require the use of manual settings which means no fancy auto focus. I still have decent eyes (or so I think) and can toy around with the manual focus for now. For anyone curious, the red stuffed doll which belongs to my kids is from a popular TV show in Japan called Youkai Watch. The top of my IKEA TV cabinet which is white also produces some nice "product" photos.