Vintage Lenses

[Bobby Deal]

So it seems there is a great deal of vintage Leica glass in use within this group. I recently ventured into such glass with the purchase of a Asanuma Auto Zoom 1:3.5 F=70mm - 220mm it has a built in extension tube that allows it to focus to a ridiculously close 1/2 inch which is of course all but unseeable at that distance due to the item to be photographed falling in the shadow of the lens it's self. I have found the lens to be wonderfully fun to work with though it does demand the use of a tripod as it is heavy as an anchor and all but impossible to hand hold which for me restricts it to use as a macro lens. After working with it though I have been considering looking for something in the 135mm range and also have been looking for a vintage soft focus lens for my Old Hollywood portraiture of anyone has recommendations I would love to hear them

 

[Brian Moore]

Bobby,...I read somewhere that Asanuma was what Tamron used to call their lenses. Do you know if that's correct?

 

[Paul Lange]

I made some lenses once by scrapping them out of film cameras, dismantling them and reassembling badly. I mounted them on the plastic caps that were supplied with my Nikon DSLR to keep dust off the sensor. The result was a wonderful fuzziness that wasn't really soft focus but was nice all the same.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Bobby, you could do a lot worse than some old mayer glass ...
I have a mayer trioplan 100mm 2.8 http://realphotographersforum.com/forum/threads/meyer-optik-gorlitz-trioplan-2-8-100mm.8280/
I dont use it an awful lot as I cant find a camera I like enough to use it on ... believe it or not ...
They do attract a small premium, but nothing to unobtainable as they are fairly common!

Wide, its dreamy and glows a treat toward the edges of near out of focus

highlights bubble a treat

 

[Ian Grant]

Asanuma were a camera manufacturer in Japan, their wood & brass cameras were based on British Houghton field cameras, they were also a wholesale distributor for other products.

They weren't related to Tamron but I guess they sold re-branded lenses from various manufacturers.

Ian