…uickly snapped up that set and bought the adapter. A few days later 3 tiny Russian lenses arrived at my doorstep. I think I’ll call them a Mini Russian Trio, as on paper at least they are so much more suitable for the pocket camera than the “Full Size’ Russian Trio. They are really small comparing to common photo lenses which makes them look perfectly at home on equally small BMPCC. So lets take a closer look at each lens: MIR-11M 12mm F2 – This i… Continue Reading
…at popular retro, low contrast, slightly de-saturated look, found on other Russian primes like MIR-20, MIR-1, Helios 44, Jupiter-9, Tiar-11, etc, therefore it’s goes nicely as part of a Russian M42 Set. The setup I used to shoot the video above Optical Performance: My version of this lens has a very simple coating, so even the very nice, integrated lens hood does very little to improve the contrast and vibrancy, but this is probably the lens that… Continue Reading
…at very well, easily handling the 4K resolution. Built Quality & Usability Russian lenses are known for having a questionable built quality and I found my LOMOs to be a real mixed bag; some are fine, while others have stiff/loose focus rings & aperture rings, etc. This particular copy, which was made in 1987 (first two digits of the serial number), has a fairly smooth focus ring and aperture ring isn’t too loose either, which is all I could really… Continue Reading
…did I know that he shot the whole thing with his 3 very affordable vintage Russian primes, so when I found out I’ve asked Adam if he could write a little blog post about his experience using these lenses for his professional shoot. He kindly agreed and here is what he has to say: Back in around June 2012 I was asked to direct and shoot a short brand film for Tullamore Dew called “The Furnace of Resurrection”. The brief from the agency was to creat… Continue Reading
…e. Make sure to check out his web series (links above). As a bit of a of a Russian lens “fanboy” myself, I’m rarely critical of them, so it’s nice to see a slightly different perspective and add another point of view to the subject. I’ve also never heard of anyone inverting elements on these lenses, so that is something that I learned from Phil as well. There has been a lot of discussion about adding follow focus gears to Russian lenses on the our… Continue Reading
…translated), but these lenses can also come in all sorts of other unusual Russian mounts that you won’t be able to find adapters for and you will most likely have to splash out on a PL remounting service which will sometimes be available straight from the seller, but is also done by many companies around the world. That is additional cost of $200-400 per lens, so unless PL is something that want to go for anyway, keep that in mind. PL or OCT19, a… Continue Reading
…years ago in 1914 in Saint Petersburg, as a cooperative effort between the Russians and the French. During the First World War it supplied the Russian army with weapon sights, and in 1933 produced its first film camera. Russian – and later Soviet – optical plants operated under different names over time as a result of their reorganization: WTOMP; WOOMP; GOMZ; and in 1962, they took the name LOMO, only soon after to change it again to LOOMP. Throug… Continue Reading
…s and types of lenses I use the most, so if you’d like to learn more about Russian lenses check these posts out. If you’d like to build an affordable set of Canon FDs, check out this post. I’ve just finished cine-modding my Zeiss set, so a separate post dedicated to these lenses is coming very soon too. For now, make sure to share your 3 most used lenses in the comments section below! I try my best to make this website a great resource for people… Continue Reading
…1A 135mm f/2.8 prime lens. Tair is an old, but very solid and very unusual Russian lens. I have two of these myself and although I haven’t tested them yet, this video really makes me want to have a ago at it. Not only does it produce some very impressive, film-like shots with Canon 5D MKII , but also has some very impressive specs: 20 Blade Circular Aperture (Can there be any more blades in a lens?) 330 Degree Focus Rotation (This is close to 360… Continue Reading
…r choices like GH2/GH3. My original idea for the setup was to use a set of Russian taking lenses including MIR-1 37mm, Helios 44-2 58mm & Jupiter-9 85mm, but the filter thread sizes mean that I couldn’t mount them on my Redstan anamorphic clamp and will have to buy a step up ring to try this setup. For now I had to use something that would work right away, so my setup consisted of Proskar-16 mounted onto Canon FD 50mm F1.4, which is an obvious cho… Continue Reading
