Here's a 100% crop from a shot of the cat, again at f/0.95, minimum focusing distance, to give a sense of the DOF (look at the back eye). Contrast is somewhat low coming straight out of the camera, so this one I jacked up a bit in PS.

Here's the original from which I took the 100% crop, resized and sharpened a tad, but otherwise unprocessed. Here the bokeh is without specular highlights, so you don't get those weird crescents. Here it actually looks pretty smooth. (I'm not sure about that row of missing pixels on the left. I haven't cropped this image. Maybe a PS/camera interaction.)

And finally a somewhat post-processed version. That's it for now. Happy Halloween.

Damn that lens is sharp.

Nice find.

I LOVE the look of the lens with the shot of the three kids! Who cares about the vignetting...that looks great!

Oh, and the cat shot is also fantastic.

Wow - now that's cool - I love the rendition of some old lenses - you get what you get & sometimes you get uniqueness.

Thanks for posting these!

the first cool thing to happen to M4/3 is C-mount lenses.

What, K, M, L, F, EF, FD, OM, R, MD, M42, T2 and Contax weren't "cool" enough for you?

cost vs cool vs sensor size.

You go ahead and put (several-)thousand dollar M lenses on a M4/3 PnS... and i'll just be laughing.
EF lenses work really well on EOS cameras. Oh so do K, F, OM, R, M42, C/Y, and T2 lenses.
F lenses are so awesome on Nikon Cameras, it is like they were made for it.

ISO1600 wrote:
cost vs cool vs sensor size.

Um, a lot of the more desirable C Mount lenses are very expensive and they're hard to find in good condition. The cheaper C Mount lenses have major problems with vignetting, etc.

ISO1600 wrote:You go ahead and put (several-)thousand dollar M lenses on a M4/3 PnS... and i'll just be laughing.

Not all M Mount lenses cost thousands of dollars. There are plenty of lenses well under $1,000 from Zeiss, Voigtlander - and even Leica.

ISO1600 wrote:
EF lenses work really well on EOS cameras. Oh so do K, F, OM, R, M42, C/Y, and T2 lenses.
F lenses are so awesome on Nikon Cameras, it is like they were made for it.

And MFT is the only system on which you can use all of the mounts listed in this thread at infinity. If you don't like the format, fine. But your smarmy attitude towards it is unnecessary and tiresome.

smarmy haha

I know plenty about M Mount lenses and cameras, and know they currently are best-suited to Film M-cameras, unless you have no objections to the M9's price.

Most of the more affordable Voigtlander or Zeiss lenses aren't that special as far as size/speed/optical character.
I have little to no aversion towards shooting film, and could get a mighty fine (real) rangefinder and decent lens or two which would be awesome, for the price of an average M4/3 setup.

ISO1600 wrote:
Most of the more affordable Voigtlander or Zeiss lenses aren't that special as far as size/speed/optical character.

That's your opinion. I've really enjoyed shooting with the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.4. It has a really funky character wide open and puts me in a different mindset than I usually shoot with my dSLRs. I'll like buy up more M Mount and M39 glass in the coming months - laugh all you like.

ISO1600 wrote:I have little to no aversion towards shooting film, and could get a mighty fine (real) rangefinder and decent lens or two which would be awesome, for the price of an average M4/3 setup.

Been there, done that. I have no interest in shooting film ever again. MFT is a great format since it has a combination of great "native" glass and an unprecedented amount of flexibility in the amount of glass its compatible with. I hope that some of the adapter manufacturers wise up and realize they have an opportunity to build mounts that work around one of the largest complaints with current Rangefinders - the relative long minimum focus distance with most lenses. With MFT you can actually get <i>more</i> out of some lenses than you could with the original bodies themselves.

I would think that someone participating in the "Alternative Gear & Lenses" forum would have a bit more enthusiasm for the format.

Alright guys, let's talk about these cool c-mount lenses!

I would think that someone participating in the "Alternative Gear & Lenses" forum would have a bit more enthusiasm for the format.

I like the GF1 so far. That it makes all these old lenses useful again is pretty cool. What I really like about it, though, is that with at least a minimally acceptable level of IQ -- which, e.g., the Gnn did not have, IMO -- I can carry this thing, with some really nice glass, and not even notice that it's in my day pack. I don't plan to put big old lenses on the GF1; in that case I'll just grab the 5D II. But a small old pancake lens, or the 25/.9 or some other C-mount: great. My personal complaints about the MFT so far are the common ones: (1) lower dynamic range than an XSi, though not unacceptable; (2) unacceptable noise to my eye at 400 and up, but nice at 100 or 200; (3) no sensible electronic viewfinder.

Great shots and amazing find! I've heard of this lens before but, have never seen it or any shots from it. I'm very interested in getting one of these as well in the future when I get m4/3 cam. Any chance you want to sell it?

I think that there WILL be great things to come from M4/3, but at this point most of the hype is from over-exhuberant Alt-glass users.
I think that it is just an example of cutting off the nose to spite the face... there are PLENTY of great options out there to achieve the end goal of taking awesome pictures, and this is a (somewhat unpolished?) answer to a question that nobody asked.

"hey, how come there aren't any small boxy cameras that i have to use like a PnS, have a kinda medium-small sensor, and can put any lens ever made on?"
It really sounds like a joke to me, and all the M4/3 options out there LOOK like it to me also. I would MUCH rather shoot film on any of the thousands of film cameras available, or digital with my D700 or Powershot.



And yes, these cool C-mount lenses.

Hey dancam,

I had marked a couple on ebay that popped in the last few days $1,200 to $1,400 usd. There is one on there now with 5 days till end - the seller has a few other unique c-mounts in his inventory and well aware of their potential adaptability. Good Luck!

I had marked a couple on ebay that popped in the last few days $1,200 to $1,400 usd. There is one on there now with 5 days till end - the seller has a few other unique c-mounts in his inventory and well aware of their potential adaptability. Good Luck!

These lenses have been going for quite a lot for quite a while. I can tell you, these lenses are beautifully engineered. That said, there are sellers on ebay who seem to be sitting on bottomless pits of C-mount lenses, selling them for very high prices. Look for prices revealed by real bidding histories, rather than to Buy-It-Now prices that, in many cases, seem a little crazy.

Here's another quick sample ...

I must say, this is amazing. I heard about Angenieux when I did research on a Tokina 28-75mm f/2.6-2.8 I just bought. There's a little history linking the two companies. I would have never expected this though. Simply amazing. I must say, good for you to go back and pay some more for the rest, "You are a gentleman and a scholar"