Meyer Görlitz Primoplan 58/1.9

Meyer Görlitz Primoplan 58/1.9

In another post of the last week I was telling you about my passion for old glasses. Some days ago it arrived to my address this glass from the UK: a Meyer Görlitz Primoplan 58/1.9 in Exakta mount that, telling from serial number, it should have been made in the '40, probably during the war or just before. Once it equipped the revoluctionary Kine Exakta, the first true reflex 35mm camera, that was presented at the fair Leipziger Früjahrsmesse in the spring of 1936.

Let's see how this other glass grandpa behaves in today digital world with the help of my faithful Olympus e410 (at least until I will find a suitable adapter to mount exakta lenses on my Canon EOS 5d mkII).

First thing you notice once you take it in your hand is the weight of this lens, it's made of brass! The glass is also pretty different to the one we're accostumed to today, it's uncoated and completely clear. Optical scheme is 5 elements in 4 groups and it was actually a great achievement when it was developeved because it allowed to build one of the fastest lens of the time.



I started to take some sample shots at full aperture and the impression is that it is very similar to some soft focus lenses, the rendering is extremely soft, maybe even too much, with a very pictorial bokeh though and great colors.

The biggest problems come from flares, it's an uncoated lens after all, but at full aperture this is evident also in the most luminous objects, like flower petals. On the right subject is a pretty interesting effect (there are some filters on sale to obtain similar results) but it requires a lot of control from the photographer.

Closing the diaphgram the flare problems are progressively mostly solved and also definition improves even if it's still mediocre at the borders. This is a typical problem of the first fast lenses, but it wasn't considered so critical by the photographers of those days. If you think about it these lenses should be used for portaits or other "central" framed subjects; for the landscapes view cameras were professionally used (they should used also today, but this is another story).

All in all is always exciting to use a part of the photographical history also because, as I said in the other post, old glasses are full of flaws but they aren't short of their own personality that makes them useful when one wants to take some kind of shots.

And as every other grandpa, also this septuagenarian has always a good story to tell.