Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 - an imperfect jewel (according to my taste anyway)
Many photographers are fascinated by old gear.
Some photographers find it both interesting and creatively rewarding to shoot with vintage lenses.
Some do this for fun while others do it to find lenses for professional use that can give a desired look to their images.
I have been shooting a little bit with vintage lenses over the years but not much.
So I wanted to scratch the surface of this theme a little bit more.
The first thing I had to do was getting myself one of these old lenses.
I started searching the web for old glass that could be interesting. Straight away I found an old Praktica film camera with a Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 lens attached to it.
The camera had no interest to me, but the lens made some bells ring so I bought the combo for about 35$.
The Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 is kind of a “cult-lens” from the old East Germany.
The lens was produced with two mounts. First came the M42 screw mount and later the Praktica B-mount which was launched in 1978. The B in the latter reflects the change from the screw mount to the bayonet type mount we find on modern cameras.
The Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 is the first descendant of the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston 50 mm f/1.8 lens.
There are a lot of different versions of the Pentacon 50mm:
The oldest version with silver stripes on the aperture ring and branded “electric” or “auto”.
The second version with two silver rings at the front of the lens and no stripes on the aperture ring.
The focus ring of the third version has a spiked profile and it still has one silver ring at the front.
The last version is all black and perhaps the most common version.
My lens is the oldest version with serial number 6630225.
The Pentacon f/1.8 50 mm was mass produced in several million items from the 1960s into the 1990s.
It was the standard lens for the Praktica SLR (single-lens reflex) and one of the most produced East German Prime lenses ever.
It has 6 lens elements and minimum focus distance is 33 cm with 55 cm on some lenses.
Aperture settings goes from 1.8 to 16.
My lens is from the generation with two silver rings at the front and is marked “auto”.
It has been well taken care of. Even though it is probably older than me and between 50 and 60 years old it still looks new!
The only thing that can tell it was not produced yesterday is a few specks of dust inside. As far as I can tell this have no impact on image quality. The glass is flawless and both the aperture and the focus ring moves smooth like a hot knife in butter!
The build quality is very good and all parts are made of metal. Except from the lenses itself of course ;)
At the time this was a rather cheap lens - and still is - so neither the build or optical quality is not up to par compared to high-end brands.
Nowadays you can pick up a Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 for under 30$ on the web.
Don’t be fooled by the lens` low price – it still is a good performer without ever being outstanding, but has some very interesting characteristics. That is if you dont have a fetish fro extremely sharp lenses with traditional buttery looking out of focus areas.
This lens is “famous” for its bokeh. It has the type of out of focus characteristics that people either seem to love or hate.
I find it quite interesting and I will not be surprised if I love it when I get more familiar with it.
The bokeh of this lens has a strong outline in some situations and can be very harsh or sharp with strange shapes. In some situations even hexagonal shape can be observed. Whether you like the bokeh or not depends of course on your taste.
Sharpness… What about sharpness?
Well, what can I say?
I would not accept a lack of sharpness like this on any of my Fujifilm lenses! That is for sure.
My first impression is however even though the lens is being far from sharp, it is still pleasingly soft at the same time. That is because details and contrast are still present.
The Pentacon is kinda of sharp in its own strange way, without being sharp. I know this sounds crazy.
It is not unsharp in the same way as modern lenses if you get what I mean. My first thought are that the unsharpness has some kind of cinematic or dreamy look to it, instead of just smudging the details the way a cheap modern lens often do. There are contrasts and there are details but they have a dreamlike softiness.
I don`t at this point know of any other way to describe it.
But sharp like a modern and well built fast 50 mm is something that the Pentacon definately is not!
Still, like I said it is soft in a vintage way which I like with this lens.
Colour rendition is very pleasant to my taste as they are vibrant and true without some hues or colours being oversaturated.
The Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 is a great piece of gear if you want to try out manual photography with a vintage lens.
Beware that you will need an adapter for this lens.
Since I shoot with the Fujifilm X-t3 I had to buy a M42 - Fujifilm X adapter.
I bought mine from the Norwegian language store of K&F Concept
However the item was shipped from China so it took a few weeks to get it. The first impression is that the adapter is tight and well built.
I have a couple of other adapters from K & F Concept which have worked well for several years, so their quality is ok based on my experience. They`re cheap too.
You will of course have to focus manually, but that is no problem with the X-T3 when focus peaking is activated.
With the x-t3 you also will have to turn “shoot without lens” to ON (because the camera will not be able communicate with the lens) and set “mount adaptor setting” to 50mm (to get correct focal length in your exif data).
Pentacon’s extensive focus wheel allows getting very precise shots although the shallow DOF will not be very forgiving if you miss a little bit on where you put the focus point. Especially if you shoot wide open or with a fairly open aperture.
Flare resistance is close to non existent and field curvature is also a bit visible. Not too much thanks to the X-Trans CMOS sensor in the X-T3.
To me these things not a problem so far, as I - with this lens - appreciate such flaws and characteristics which gives an organic and perfect imperfection.
Anyway….
I have only used for about a week so a lot more testing has to be done.
All in all my first impression of this lens is that it is a rather well performing vintage glass with lots of personality.
It is kind of beautiful in its imperfection and the way it is sharp without being sharp. Without too much to compare it with, I can understand why so many people are fascinated by this lens.
Some old lenses may be full of dust or have issues with focus ring becoming loose.
This video I found on You Tube shows how to clean and repair the lens - but do it at your own risk ;)
I`ll get back with some more thoughts on the Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 when I get some more experience with it.
It will be very interesting to try it for filming!
