In the early days of still photography, the idea of a variable focal length lens was fantasy. Since the dawn of photography, lens designers, engineers, and mathematicians worked at calculating optical formulas to correct for astigmatism, coma, spherical aberrations, and a vast number of other optical anomalies in lenses of…
In my last lens review for the Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 135mm f/3.5 in April 2021, I mention that I do not try, nor do I want, to review lenses. However, in this hobby, sometimes a lens shows up in a box, or in the deep bowels of the online marketplace that…
“Donut bokeh”…. …once you see it, you instantly know you’re talking about an image shot with a catadioptric lens. Catadioptric lenses are as unmistakable themselves as the images they make with their large dimeter barrel with a noticeable round obtrusion right smack in the center of the front element. Catadioptrics…
In my quest for cameras to review for this site, I’ll occasionally stumble upon some interesting lenses that I pick up to pair with the film cameras they are designed for, but sometimes I like to see what they can do digitally. There are a huge number of sites filled…
In October 2018, I reviewed the KMZ Zenit-E, one of the most well known and identifiable cameras to ever come out of the former Soviet Union. Millions of Zenits were produced from 1952 – 1996 and many of them were the Zenit-E. When they were first released, the Zenit used…
