The cold war is finally over!!!

In this post I've showed the experiment to adapt an American lens on a Russian camera, but this combination of the USSR and the USA doesn't work:

Than I read this blog, which is a wonderful source of inspiration and I got the idea to save the world peace once more!
I took one of my five Helios 44M lenses and slaughtered it. I've only needed the "body" of it. Into the body came the Kodak Enlarging Ektar 4.5/75mm lens. I stuck it with Loctite, what is a bomb-proof connection!

And yes, I'm very proud, this combination of the USSR and the USA works!
Certainly, I've put it on my East-German Praktica, which was sold in West-Germany as a Porst ;)

This American-Russian lens isn't a macro lens, but probably a good portrait lens!









Here are some test photos!

The MACRO effect with an old ICA-lens!

Today I've shot some pictures with the ICA 6.8/135mm Softfocus-Macro. But the lens doesn't have a softfocus-effect. It isn't sharp, but the real softfocus-effect is missing. It's more like the 2.8/85mm slide-projector lens (see here part 1 and here part 2). Well, let us call it: ICA Macro 6.8/135mm.

I've used my Ricoh TLS 401 and shot on Fuji Superia XTRA 400. The exposure time was 1/250.



Here are the results:




















Here a wonderful blog, which inspired me!

See part 2.

"I never thought I would become...

...a photographer."

René Burri

drawing by Ella N. Schmidt

DIY: A Funny Lens - Part 2

In part 1 I've written that the concept of the ICA Novar-Anastigmat 6.8/135 mm and the hollowed Yashica Auto Yashinon DS-M 1.7/50mm need a bellows or another extension to become a macro-lens.

Now I've made this extension. I've used a piece of a plastic waterpipe - yes like Miroslav Tichý - , which I've painted black in- and outside. After the paint was dried, I've stucked it with silicone sealing among the two "lenses".

Now the lens is a Softfocus-Macro, actually a mixture of a Canon EF 2.8/100mm IS USM Macro and a EF 2.8/135mm Softfocus, but cheaper.

Okay the ICA 6.8/135mm Softfocus-Macro isn't very fast and hasn't got AF and other modern things, but it is a genuine lens of pictoralism.









Here're the pictures!

"A photograph isn't necessarily a lie,...

...but nor is it the truth. It's more of a fleeting, subjective impression. What I most like about photography is the moment that you can't anticipate: you have to be constantly watching for it, ready to welcome the unexpected."

Martine Franck


"at work", brasil, 2011

The Fungus-Effect!

There are many pages, blogs and forums about lens fungus in the internet. There you can read and see how he looks like, what he wants and what he does and how you can perhaps remove or eliminate him. The most people don't like fungus in their lenses.

But in contrast to this attitude, I want to show what effect he makes in the pictures.

I bought many of my cameras and lenses on flea markets in Germany. And of course the lenses of all my cameras didn't have fungus.
But I moved in 2007 to Brasil and after some months a part of my lenses got fungus inside. First I was very angry and desperate, but after a while I decided that fungus isn't the end and had the idea that fungus can be a great new effect.

I took many photos with the fungus lenses, but on the pictures you can't see any effect. After this experience I can't understand the people who upset with lens fungus.

But I didn't want to abandon the idea to find a way to show the fungus effect. I've tried many things and found the way how you can fix the fungus effect on your pictures.
It is the same way which I used to make double exposures with a DSLR.
Now I've used my Leica R4 and the Elmarit 2.8/35mm lens (at f-stop 2.8), both I bought in Brasil. The fungus in the Leitz lens is small and has got a nice structure. The flash was the Metz Mecablitz 20BC6.

Here are the pictures:

“No place is boring,...

...if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.”

Robert Adams

"wirrwarr", germany, 2005