This is a lens that has become legendary by now. There are various versions of it, I won’t go into detail about the variations, but the one I have that I am reviewing here is the 44M version. M for M42 mount. It’s not the oldest version but after this one there came 7 (or 8?) more versions with minor tweaks and changes.
The reason this lens is famous is probably due to its tendency for swirly bokeh, and in general quite different style of bokeh compared to what we are used to. Here are a couple of examples. Look at the pillow on this first image, the bokeh is wild. On the second image you can see how the background has a sort of swirl.
The lens is actually pretty sharp too. Okey, any modern 50mm lens would blow it out of the water, but for my purposes it is plenty sharp at f 5.6-8 in the middle of the frame. The edges are not that great, no matter the aperture. Here is an example.
You can see how the branches get less defined towards the edges but it’s razor sharp in the middle area of the image. This is also a pretty good example of how the lens handles contrast. It is pretty much what you can expect for a 70s era lens, it has some coatings but it clearly loses contrast towards the upper edge of the frame where it’s much brighter. Due to the way the lens is constructed, where the front element is quite deep into the body of the lens, it does not flare very much. It is like you are getting a built in lens hood. So even if you are shooting in the sun you could expect decent results. Example again:
I am actually shooting towards the sun here, it is in the upper left corner (as evident by the shadow coming from my dog). While the snow in the upper side of the frame has lost a lot of contrast, the rest of the image is not bad actually. I was quite surprised how well it handled this situation.
Handling wise, this lens is a heavy beast. Just metal and glass, and feels incredibly well built. Reminds me a bit of K-era Pentax lenses. Focus is a bit stiff but smooth, aperture has clear clicks. Auto/Manual aperture setting, so it works great with Spotmatics.
Price wise, the value/price ratio was much better a few years ago. The prices of these lenses have gone up a lot, but they were manufactured in massive numbers so if you are patient you might find one in a flea market or something like that. Currently they go for about 60-100USD, depending on version and condition. The early ones seem to be more popular than the later ones.
Alright, that’s it for this time. Please take a look in my shop, and support this blog in some way. All revenue goes into paying hosting bills and buying more gear/film/chems to test and write about!