Turist-FL Spotting Scope
November 5, 2016I came across this unusual looking lens accessory while browsing eBay for early M39/M42 gear. It’s a scope designed to attach to any M42 mount lens and adds additional magnification to whatever it is attached to. It wasn’t hard to find one on eBay located in Russia and at only £30 including shipping, worth having a play with.
MTO-1000AM 10.5/1100mm
I’ve spent days getting to know the MTO-1000, both its limits and its strengths and have enjoyed using it. The MTO-1000 is by a considerable margin the largest, heaviest, longest, slowest most intimidating and difficult lens I have ever used.…
Industar-24M 3.5/105mm
On the continuing quest to fill in the gaps of my early Soviet M39 SLR lens collection, I’ve managed to finally pick up a copy of this rare lens. Not only do few of them come up for sale, the…
Tair-11 2.8/133mm
It occurred to me when comparing the Telemar-22 to the Tair-11 that I have not done a write up yet about this lens. I’ve owned it for about 6 months and it’s among my favourites within the M39 SLR family.…
Telemar-22 5.6/200mm
Having exhausted the faster, more desirable primes from the vintage Soviet M39 SLR family of lenses, I’ve set my sights on some of the more obscure offerings just to complete the collection. The Telemar-22 falls firmly in this category. At…
Prototype Industar-22 3.5/50mm
This unusual little Industar-22 has certainly become an intriguing purchase. I believe this was actually a prototype for the first Zenit SLRs...primitive ergonomics, narrow focus range, soft edges, relatively slow aperture of ƒ3.5, heavy vignetting and low contrast - all…
The Legendary Helios-40 1.5/85mm
Although the Helios-40 is sharper even shot wide open, it’s 3 times the size of the Jupiter-9. When it comes to flare, the Helios-44 has it beat hands down (as in producing a prominent flare) - the Helios-40 is rather…
Jupiter-6 2.8/180mm
Ergonomics aside, this is a stunning lens. It feels like it’s built for battle - in outer space. Unsurprisingly, it exhibits the same weaknesses as the Sonnar design it's copied from - green/magenta chromatic aberration, strong vignetting wide open and…
Can vintage lenses be radioactive? Yep!
Interestingly, a student at school mentioned that they heard old vintage lenses were radioactive especially the crazy Soviet ones. I'd never heard that one before. Working at a school means I have easy access to test equipment so I thought…
Jupiter-11 4/135mm
This Jupiter-11 was a curiosity purchase. They seem almost as common as the Helios-44 and can be had for almost as cheap even though Russian sellers insist on calling it "rare". This is a decent lens. It’s almost too decent…
DIY Motorised Camera Slider
I’ve been eyeing out motorised sliders for some time but I’ve always been put off by the price or complexity. Having built my own 3D printer and getting to know the ins and outs of stepper motors, drivers and the…
