Hanimex 200mm on Praktica Nova I

<p>I bought this lens off Ebay for BP6.00, last week. It had a dent in the filter ring; quite a deep one. Managed remove it [somewhat!] and painted the scratches. Otherwise the lens seems Okay. It is a pre-set lens, made in Japan for Hanimex for their Prakticas. It is 5.5 ins long and heavy. I am still learning to handle and focus it. My struggle will be obvious from the pictures!<br>

Despite that handicap the lens seems good. It helped take pictures of things and people without being noticed. As the lens was big I took most of the pictures from inside the car by resting the lens on a cushion. A small bean bag would be good for this, I think. The pictures are on ORWO film ASA100 and home brew.</p><div></div>

<p>A ground glass screen in a waist level finder with a magnifying lens would serve this lens better I think. That would be available in the Prakticas in the FX 3 or earlier and the VLC series.</p><div></div>

<p>Kids at work being a Sunday. of course some are dropouts after a few years. There is a law requiring children to be in school until middle-school. But it is poorly enforced.</p><div></div>

<p>Temple surroundings are rarely regulated. So the real estate mob works around them, often, with great profitability.</p><div></div>

<p>The auto drivers seem to attract a chat congregation. It is kind of universal in India.</p><div></div>

<p>Sometimes the auto drivers act tough and refuse to ply to certain destinations.</p><div></div>

<p>There is a kind of territorial war between Pepsi and Coca cola companies. They both provide coolers for retailers to store and sell drinks, not always their drinks. Recent times they have bought good cold drink companies only to close them down and open their own factories and processing plants in place.</p><div></div>

<p>I may have to work hard at handling this lens. My favourite is the Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135mm on the Exakta, a much lighter one and easier to focus. However, this one has its potential good points.<br>

Thanks for viewing and your comments. Regards, sp.</p>

<p>Very nice. I especially like the "bicycle repair" and "chat" pictures, even though the negatives might be considered a bit thin. What you do have here, as in other examples, is a nice range of tones in the deep shadows.</p>

<p>Hanimex did sell in the USA, but I rarely saw anything of theirs offered when I was in the deepest part of my Praktica "frenzy". It's certainly a good buy at only £6. My longer lenses are heavily tilted toward another obsession: Spiratone when they're not Zeiss Jena or Meyer ;)</p>

 

Nice shots with good sharpness. The compression that occurs with longer teles really works for your subjects.

<p>I may have had the exact same lens (before I lost it during a blonde moment). I found that it had a tripod mount halfway up, and it was meant to be used. That said, the results were acceptable. The hand held shots that I tried alas, were not. Your's look good. Thank you for the post.</p>

<p>I wonder who made this one...We were beseiged with Hanimex products downunder for many years, mainly in the cheap consumer-grade area, though Hanimex became involved in the distributorship of Fuji products and franchises from 1967. Founded by Jack Hannes in the early 50's, the Company imported a huge range of re-badged products into Australia and later throughout Asia, very much in the same style as Spiratone. Consequently, one never knew the sources or manufacturers of many of the items, though the re-badged Prakticas and Topcons were fairly obvious! When it came to lenses it was always a bit of a gamble.... This one seems to be a good performer, <strong>SP</strong>, not lacking in sharpness. You've used it to your usual good effect; I like the play of light and shade in "chatting round the auto-rickshaw", and both "election posters" and "negotiating for a ride" owe their depth and impact to the longer focal length. Thanks for a fine post.</p>

 

<p>Is it me or are the photos slightly lower-contrast than your usual? Is it the lens, or variations in your developing/scanning? I have found some of these to be a little soft, in the past, and I wonder if it is because of the design of the lens or if something is out of alignment inside? My worst problems were with the (infamous) Vivitar-style 400mm f6.3 (?) lenses, mounted on Canon or Konica.</p>