Focal Lenght: 35mm
Max Apeture: 2.8
Lens Mount: M42 (as well as PK)
Min. Focus: 0.5 mm
Filter Size: 55mm
Weight: Several tomatoes (210 grams)
LENS STORY
Did you know Weitwinkel means Wide in German?
Did you know Porst and Revue rebranded lenses and resold them? You often times won’t know what you get.
I love rainy days and most of my visits to Germany were acompanied by a lot of rain! This lens found it’s way to me at a flohmarkt, together with some songs being sung at me in English, by two German gentlemen (in good humour)
Mechanically the lens is in very good condition. Optically it has a bit of dust, but nothing serious, I didn’t feel compelled to open and clean it.
HANDLING
OPTICAL PERFORMANCE
This is one of my older reviews, so format is a bit weird, sorry about that.
Wide Open (f2.8)
When I took this lens out and took a few shots wide open I SCREAMED AT THE SKY. Just joking, but I really didn’t like it. It has strong vignetting and a generally “glowy” feel, center sharpness is not that good – I didn’t really expect that from a prime. Corner sharpness is even worse.
-PLOT TWIST-
After getting a feel for the lens, shooting at all apertures and all that jazz – I actually started liking the results wide open, most of my shots with it after that turning point were wide open – That vignetting makes small woodland paths look magical and mysterious!
Stopped Down
Stopping down this lens does wonders for it – Sharpness improves drastically by f5.6, becoming quite usable by f8.
Goodbye to all that vignetting and that funky glow. Goodbye to any semblence of character.
Distortion
There’s something I’m not really sure about – when shot wide open this lens produced a slight swirl to it’s bokeh – making the subject pop up and stand out.
Bokeh
It produces a slightly swirly bokeh. I quite like it, although it gets pretty busy at times.
Colors & Saturation
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m sitting on the fence for this one. It can be found cheap, since it’s not one of the big names. I’m still not sure if it’s actually worth the money, even when it’s cheap compared to Takumars and Flektogons, overall this lens is in a different league – a lower one.
If you’re looking for a cheap wide option – go for it. If you enjoy heavy vignettng, this is a the lens for you. I usually don’t, but I had a lot of fun with it!
