Meopta Openar 80/2.8 [C-mount]

Meopta Openar 80 mm 1:2.8 came to me with another Openar 20/1.8 lens as a set with Meopta Admira 16 A1 Electric film camera. Unfortunately it's condition wasn't best. I don't mind slight scratches on the case (well, it's a 50 year old lens!), but front lens is really bad looking. A lot of soft scratches and as I suppose, when someone tried to clean it, they removed it with coating. As a result front coating layer was removed...

You know that feeling when you expect best and all you can get is not barely good. That's how I felt when I held Openar 80/2.8 for the first time. I was very disappointed about the front lens condition. However, I decided not to look for good photographs, but to push the lens hard. I've photographed directed into the sun, in various conditions.
Skimming through photos on my computer wasn't the best feeling at all. All of them were lacking colour and contrast. That's why today you won't see a lot of colourful pictures. But in the end lens is mesmerising!

 Meopta Openar 80 mm 1:2.8 - without (left) and with (right) original lens hood.

Meopta Openar 20 mm 1:1.8 [C-mount]

I've introduced you to a Meopta Openar 40 mm 1:1.8 already. It is a really good lens with nice sharpness, contrast and colour rendering. It covers full M4/3 sensor, so you don't have to worry about heavy vignetting.

Here comes the sibling: Meopta Openar 20 mm 1:1.8. It's a c-mount lens I got with Meopta Admira 16 A1 Electric film camera, which was (according to Wikipedia) manufactured in '60s. It makes it ca. 50 years old lens! Unfortunately the camera itself wasn't in it's best and I plan to revitalize it.

Lens is a bit shorter than Openar 40/1.8 and about the same in diameter. Glass elements inside are mounted deeply, which gives lens a built-in hood. That's a very good solution according to what you're about to see.

A set of Meopta c-mount lenses:

Meopta Openar 20/1.8

Meopta Openar 40/1.8

Meopta Openar 80/2.8

ŁZK Lucar 50 mm 1:1.6 [projector lens]

Finally, my camera is back! It was over a month, but it was worth waiting. I got some new customized gear that I'll soon share with you.
Also, I recently got access to a 3D printer. Nothing really fancy, just a dual-head RepRap-alike, but a great opportunity to design custom lens mounts and unusual adapters. Definitely a good shot for me! :)

My first project was to adapt an old ŁZK Lucar 50 mm 1:1.6 lens to Lumix G2 body. I got it quite a few years ago for free from disposed 16 mm projector and since there I was wondering if that's even useful for photography or filmmaking. After taking some freelensing footage it turned out it covers Micro Four Thirds sensor perfectly, so there's an option to adapt it. The best idea was to make an adapter :)

ŁZK Lucar 50 mm 1:1.6 and 3D-printed adapter for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera

At first I must say I got a great help from nhfoley on mu-43.com forum. I used a D-mount to M4/3 adapter, which you can find on Thingiverse for my MFT flange. Thank you very much!

The rest was a piece of cake: take some measures, design a model, make few mistakes, print it and finally spend an hour sanding the inside, because the printer wasn't set up properly :)

ŁZK Lucar 50 mm 1:1.6 with 3D-printed adapter for Micro Four Thirds camera.