All posts by Martin

Martin M.H. lives outside Stockholm, Sweden. He is a M.Sc. in Computer Technology but he has been a passionate photographer for over 45 years. He started his photographic adventures when he was thirteen with an Agfamatic pocket camera, which he soon replaced with a Canon rangefinder camera that his mom gave him in his teenages. After that he has been using Canon SLR, Nikon SLR manual focus and Autofocus, Sony mirrorless crop sensor, Nikon DSLR and Nikon Mirrorless. He has photographed any genre he could throughout the years and you can see all kind of images in his portfolio. During the later years though it has been mostly landscape, nature, travel and some street/documentary photography.
lenses, Nikon Z, Zeiss

Review: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm F/2.8

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Introduction

The Tessar is a very old design (1902), actually one of the oldest optical designs of all consumer lenses. It was produced before WWII for the first Contax rangefinder cameras and early Exakta cameras and post-war both in East and West Germany for several other camera brands.

Fun Fact 1: In 1932, when Leica II by Leitz of Wetzlar was the king of 35mm cameras, Zeiss Ikon of Dresden decided to produce a competitor that would be superior in every way. Thus the first Contax camera was born; the “Contax I”, which was designed to outperform the Leica in every aspect including the optics; thus the first Tessar 50/2.8 for 35mm format was born (a redesigned Tessar to cover 24x36mm negative), from Zeiss Jena.

Fun Fact 2: This lens was famous during its era and was called “Adlerauge” in German, which means “Eagle’s eye” because it was considered super sharp. Let’s see about that further down!

Sample Images

Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8/50 | 2.8

Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8/50 | 4

Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8/50 | f/5.6

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lenses, Nikon Z, Review

Review: KMZ Helios-44 58mm 2.0

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Introduction

The Helios 44 is basically a copy of the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2, optically that is. At the beginning it was even called “БТК” – “БиоТар Красногорский” (BioTar Krasnogorski).  At the end of Wold War II the Russians took the Zeiss’ designs and materials back to Russia and copied them. The Soviet Union manufactured millions of this lens in different variants and it shipped as standard lens on many Soviet (Zenit) cameras.  KMZ (the same factory that made the Zenit cameras) started manufacturing this lens from 1945. The Helios 44 lenses have built a cult around themselves in modern days and have been very popular for portrait photography and videography, it is the number one vintage lens used for making videos on modern cameras. It is very popular for its image character, its clickless aperture, balanced center sharpness and not least its swirly bokeh. Let’s have a look!

Sample Images

Nikon Z6 | Helios 44 58/2 | f/2
Nikon Z6 | Helios 44 58/2 | f/2
Nikon Z6 | Helios 44 58/2 | f/2
Nikon Z6 | Helios 44 58mm f/2 | f/2
Nikon Z6 | Helios 44 58mm f/2 | f/2

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Nikon Z, Review, Tamron

Review: Tamron SP AF 90mm F2.5

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Introduction

Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.5 on Nikon Z6

Tamron made a big impression on the market when they launched their SP 90mm F/2.5 back in 1979. Small, flexible and very sharp. It is originally designed for 35mm cameras (full-frame) but can also be used on APS-C cameras with an equivalent focal length of 135mm. It is a classic dual purpose 90mm macro lens. The lens manages to do a 1:2 magnification, almost macro and many call it for a macro lens although Tamron themselves did not do that and only talked about it as “a medium telephoto portrait lens”.  (They called the previous versions, also with 1:2 magnification, “tele-macro” though.) Anyhow, it has long been the general opinion that it has very good close-up capabilities and it can do 1:1 macro with some help as we will see. It is also very suitable for use as a portrait lens at normal distances. The lens has been updated several times since its first release and changed look and optical formula during over 40 years of its existence. Each new version could have an additional feature, improved optical performance, just a cosmetic update, or a combination of them. We are going to look at the first AF version of this lens from 1990. The lens has been made with native mounts for Nikon F, Pentax K and Minolta/Sony A. I test a Nikon mount lens mostly on a FF mirrorless Nikon Z6 and APS-C DSLR Nikon D7200  (F mount) but I also include images taken with FF DSLR Nikon D600 (also F mount).

Sample Images

Nikon D600 | Tamron AP AF 90mm f/2.5 | 2.5

Nikon D600 | Tamron AP AF 90mm f/2.5 | 7.1 | Focus stacked from 11 images

Nikon D600 | Tamron AP AF 90mm f/2.5 | 3.3

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Konica, Konica AR, Nikon Z, Review

Review: Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f/1.8

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Introduction

Konica Hexanon AR 40mm F1.8 on Nikon Z6
Konica Hexanon AR 40mm F1.8 on Nikon Z6

Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f1.8 is a pancake standard lens, it was shipped as kit lens with Konica SLR cameras during a couple of years in mid and late ’70s. While it is not an actual wide angle lens it is still wider than a normal 50mm lens, which, in my opinion, can be helpful for street photography as it allows to include more of the environment from the same camera to subject distance. It also does so without introducing the perspective distortion of a 35mm wide angle lens with equivalent speed/aperture.
Sometimes it’s hard to explain it but in many situations the 40mm focal length feels just right (i.e. to my taste). When it was introduced some photography magazines considered it the sharpest lens ever produced (for its time that is), there is no hard proofs on that though. You can find it very cheap at about 20-30$. Let’s see if it still is justified to buy this lens today.

Sample Images

Nikon Z6 | Konica Hexanon AR 40/1.8 | 5.6
Nikon Z6 | Konica Hexanon AR 40/1.8 | 5.6
Nikon Z6 | Konica Hexanon AR 40mm F1.8 | 5.6

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