In Praise of the 50mm PC

[michael_dimarzio]

I had a M645 (among a lot of other gear) robbed and replaced it with

a C645. I am finding that I really miss the 50mm PC lens.

 

I bought the lens used in Isreal and it was perfect for travel

photography in ruins, buildings and of course architecture. It makes

an excellent alternative to other Mamiya WA's as a general purpose WA

lens. PN is filled with photos of buildings with barrel distortion,

easily eliminated with this lens. I won't comment on edge softness

as I never really looked at it criticaly, but didn't find it to be a

problem at normal print size. The lens will vignette, but you have

to really crank it to make "fail" there.

 

With faster film, it was perfect to handhold also.

 

Is there any one else there who is passionate about this lens? I

really miss it, and am thinking of getting a beater M645 just to have

this lens.

 

Cheers~md

[avid]

Michael,

 

You CAN use this lens with the Contax 645. I was actually planning to buy one of these lenses for my C645. You need an adapter and Zoerk makes one. Check it out here:

http://www.zoerk.com/Zoerk%20info/product_guide_current.pdf

 

Go to the bottom of the page, right before Lens Obscura.

I use some of the Zoerk systems and they are extremely well built, fit enough to be on a Contax.

[joachim_hildebrand]

Michael,

 

I use this lens (adapted by Zoerk) with my Hasselblad F-Series cameras and I am very happy with the results. You can use the full shift with 6x6 and will see unly slightly darker corners which usually adds to the composition. In those corners You normally have sky so softness not an issue there. Zeiss lenses or the great 60-120 Zoom are a little bit crisper - but they have no shift! If You want or need shift this is more important than the last little bit of crispness. The Hasselblad solution 1,4x Shift Converter combined with the 40 mm lens is besides cost no alternative if You want to travel with Your kit. The Mamiya 50 is a really tiny lens and can even be used without tripod, as You know.

 

Mr. Z�rkend�rfer (the owner of Zoerk) is nice to deal with. You can visit him in Munich (Oktoberfest is comming soon ...).

[kevin_ing]

Not the same lens, but a related story...

 

For a number of years I was using the Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm Flektogon as my main wideangle lens on my Kiev. Camera body aside, the 50mm Flektogon is a pretty good lens. I also have a 50mm CF Distagon and 50mm Bronica SQ lens to compare it against, and the Flektogon holds its own regardless of the political situation existent in the former East Germany when it these lenses were made.

 

But recently I've been taking a 55mm PCS Arsat along instead of the Flektogon. While the Flektogon was good, the Arsat is outstanding! And it's a shift lens to boot. The Arsat is not quite as wide, but it's sharper corner to corner and still good in the corners even at full 12mm shift. I don't know the origin of this lens formula, but they really got it right.

 

Of course, the lens can be used on Mamiya 645, Pentax 645 and Contax 645 cameras with a simple and cheap adapter (around $20 to $25). Another nice thing is that it has a preset aperture which makes using it about as easy as these lenses go, short of a full electronic camera-lens interface. Even when using it with an adapter, you can open the aperture for focusing and then stop down to the correct shooting aperture without having to take your eye away from the viewfinder.

 

The down side is that it's a bit large, and being a Ukrainian product it suffers from Rodney Dangerfield syndrome -- it gets no respect. Barrel build quality can be somewhat variable thanks to the infamous "creative quality control" at the factory... and while generally okay for usage, it's usually not up to the smoothness of Japanese and German lenses.

 

But for making pictures it's really nice to have a sharp lens with shift capability. Now I wonder how I got along without it.

[michael_dimarzio]

Hi guys, thank you for the answer. I'm glad that there are other enthusiasts of this lens there, including Contax/Blad users.

 

The Zoerk solution looks pretty cool, but it appears that they supply the lens and adapter? It is on my wish list. I was thinking of a 45mm lens to plug the gap between 35mm and 80, this is a better alternative.

 

Joachim, are you going to Oktoberfest? Work is 100% travel, I only get to go where I'm told...I was in Germany and Holland last year but only for a visa. Well, ok, Germany for a visa and Holland to uh, see the canals!

 

Thanks again-md