My 90mm f1.8

Not even kidding. Right on the heels of my 28-70 f3.5-4.5 Macro mod, another oddity has fallen into my lap.

At the local electronics surplus warehouse, a lens that appears to have been used on a copy machine turned up in the shop, it's a 90mm f3. Solid metal construction, big and beefy, it has at least 20-something aperture blades and with a little modification opens up to what appears to be a 90 f2 or 1.8, the rear element is absolutely huge, larger than a 70-200 f2.8. It appears to be slightly smaller than a 50mm f1.2L rear element. Wide open it has comparable DoF to an f1.4 or 1.2 lens.

I'm going through a few of the test shots, just freelensing my 5D, but 100% sharpness is very impressive, almost on par with my L series 24-105.

There are a few issues though. There is no way to focus it without using an auto-bellows of some kind, which would be relatively easy to fab. I also have to modify the actual lens to get it past f3. The end of the lens has to be cut off to allow infinity focusing with the 5D.

The good thing, is it appears to be relatively easy to adapt to EOS, the rear bracket is pretty close to an OEM EOS mount and I could fab something up to make it fit.

Test photos should be up in a few.

I want to see a photo of the lens and with the lens.

Wide open @ 1.8-2, whatever wide open is on this thing.

ChuckingFluff wrote in post #14177127
I want to see a photo of the lens and with the lens.

I'll be sure to grab it, probably should have gotten a picture of that too. duh

ChuckingFluff wrote in post #14177127
I want to see a photo of the lens and with the lens.

ditto.

So far it's interesting, was this one free lensing?

ChuckingFluff wrote in post #14177150
So far it's interesting, was this one free lensing?

yep freelensed and wide-open, I'm very much interested in making it work.

f3 sample, freelensed. ISO 1600, 5d1

Light leaking aside that looks pretty good! Very interested in seeing a pic of it.

Yeah not the best at freelensing lol.

Should have some shots up tomorrow of the actual lens. Forgot to grab it on my way home.

What kind of ergonomics would a copy machine lens have? Is it even machined for manual adjustments?

Forgive my lack of enthusiasm, but with all the great 85mm primes out there that are easily adaptable or native mount - why bother? My experience is that these kind of projects are fun as projects, but result in something you use for real photography like 1 time.

Sometimes you find a rare gem that can get results that can't be reproduced with the more common lenses. When you find one of those lenses your work stands out from everyone else's. This is one of the reasons why free lensing is getting popular. Some may ask why bother even pick up a camera if you lack the imagination to experiment? To each there own.

tkbslc wrote in post #14182106
Forgive my lack of enthusiasm, but with all the great 85mm primes out there that are easily adaptable or native mount - why bother? My experience is that these kind of projects are fun as projects, but result in something you use for real photography like 1 time.

If the lens was aquired cheaply, it's a bit of fun playing around with something so unusual.


Some years ago, before digital, a mate who was heavily into macro adapted a 50mm f2.8 Rodenstock enlarger lens to mount on a set of double bellows, then to his Nikon film camera. He was getting 5:1 magnification. Everyone thought him crazy.

He exhibited 20 x 24 print shot on 25 ASA Kodachrome, then printed on Cibachrome, of a dragonfly, and I kid you not, you could count every hair on the insect. You could even see the hairs on the hairs. I have never seen anything as sharp since.

Some photos of the lens

j-dogg wrote in post #14192882
f8, counted 18 blades

f16

Nice!