RADOJUVA

For the opportunity Mikar / s 4,5 / 55 review Many thanks to Briiissuurs.

Review Mikar / s 4,5 / 55

Mikar / s 4,5 / 55 is Krokus 4 Color N Lens 1984 production year. The lens is designed for narrow format (35mm film, full frame). Therefore, Mikar / s 4,5 / 55 can be used on full-frame cameras. The lens was released in Poland by “PZO WARSZAWA”.

View Mikar / s 4,5 / 55 from different sides

The lens does not have a focusing ring, so its use on conventional cameras (SLR and mirrorless) is difficult because the depth of field is strictly at a certain distance.

View Mikar s 4,5 55 on the camera

The lens does not have a standard working distance. The lens is attached to the photo magnifier or to the camera using  thread M42. When used on a Nikon system with a conventional M42-Nikon adapter (KP-42 \ N) with the lens fully screwed in, the adapter can focus 30-50 meters away from the camera. Focusing on infinity is lost. With easy unscrewing the lens from the adapter (roughly speaking from the camera), you can achieve focusing at a distance of about 1 meter. Thus, you can make a primitive opportunity to focus on this lens.

Sample photo on Mikar / s 4,5 / 55

The aperture has the ability to take values ​​from F / 4.5 to F / 16.0 with intermediate values ​​of 5.6, 8, 11. The aperture switches with pleasant clicks. True, the lens has only 5 aperture blades, and those with a metallic sheen form the usual “nuts” in the out-of-focus area.

Sample photo on Mikar s 4,5 55

The lens is of only vital interest in macro photography, where focusing is not particularly important. Therefore, the lens is easily transformed into a macro lens with extension rings. For review, I used two macro rings, one 1cm thick for shots on Nikon D700and the second 2cm thick, for pictures on Nikon D200. How to use old lenses on Nikon you can read the information in the section Soviet lenses.

Sample photo on Mikar / s 4,5 / 55

They say that the Mikar / s lens is very bad. Most likely I mean its performance for the enlarger, but my goal is to use it as a regular lens for shooting. For experiments on SLR cameras, the lens is quite suitable. See sample photos for yourself.

Mikar 4.5 55mm. Bokeh

Image quality:

The lens has normal sharpness at F / 4.5-F / 11.0, at F16.0 the sharpness drops. Mikar is very afraid of side and back light. The lens has no distortion, but when sighting, you can see how the picture "jerks", like in the windows of trains, which greatly reduces confidence in the quality of the lens. But, during normal shooting, practically nothing is noticeable. Even HA the lens is very small. The vignette is visible at full frame. In any case, the lens was not designed to work in the field. The bokeh of the lens is ordinary, rough.

Photo by Mikar S

Nikon DX crop sample photos

Everything is filmed on Nikon D200, crop 1.5x, without processing, on-camera JPEG, L, VI. Reduced size and imprinted data from EXIF. Pictures were taken using the M42-Nikon + adapter macro ring 1cm thick.

Nikon FX Full Frame Sample Photos

Everything is filmed on Nikon D700, untreated, on-camera JPEG, L, VI. Reduced size and imprinted data from EXIF. Pictures were taken using the M42-Nikon + adapter macro ring 2cm thick.

Personal impressions:

This small Mikar / s 4,5 / 55 lens can be taken for less than 5 cu, but the image quality on a digital SLR camera can greatly exceed the whale lens, important how to take pictures. I have a couple more reviews of such lenses, for example, Vega-11U 50mm F2.8 и Industar-50U 50mm F3.5

Mikar S. Without a focus ring, it’s difficult to capture such frames.

Other lenses from photo enlargers (U)

INUDSTAR (I):

1. INDUSTRAR 22U-1 1: 3,5 F = 50mm П | LZOS | 8 petals
2. I-22U 1: 3,5 F = 50mm П | KOMZ | 10 petals
3. I23U 4,5 / 110 | LZOS | medium format | 6 petals
4. I-26m-U 2,8 / 52 | FED | 10 petals
5. I50U-3,5 / 50 | FOZ | 6 petals
6. I50U 3,5 / 50 | LZOS | 6 petals
7. I50U 3,5 / 50 | NGO 'Optics' | 6 petals
8. I50U-1 3,5 / 50 | LZOS | 6 petals
9. И50У-1 1:3,5 F=50мм П | LZOS | 8 petals
10. INDUSTRAR-55U 140 / 4.5 | MMZ | medium format | 9 petals | reader review
11. INDUSTRAR-58 3,5 / 75 | MMZ | medium format | 9 petals | reader review
12. I-90U 4/75 | LZOS | medium format | 10 petals
13. I96U-3.5 / 50 | FOZ | 6 petals
14. I96U 3,5 / 50 H-22 | NGO 'Optics' | 6 petals
15. I96U-H-22-3,5/50 | FOZ | 6 petals
16. I96U-1 3,5 / 50 | FOZ | 6 petals
17. I-100U 4/110 | LZOS | medium format | 10 petals | reader note

VEGA:

1. VEGA-11U 2.8/50 | AOMZ | zebra | 12 petals
2. VEGA-11U 2,8/50 | LZOS | black | 12 petals
3. VEGA-11U 3/54 | MMZ | black | 12 petals
4. VEGA-11U 3/54 | MMZ | black | 12 petals | adapted
5. VEGA-5U 4/105 | AOMZ | medium format | 6 petals
6. VEGA-5U 4/105 | MMZ | medium format | 6 petals
7. VEGA-22CA 5,6/103 | MMZ | medium format | 6 petals | reader's review

PZO WARSZAWA:

1. Mikar / s 4,5 / 55 | PZO WARSZAWA | Made in Poland | 5 petals
2. Emitar / s 4,5 / 80 | PZO WARSZAWA | Made in Poland | 5 petals
3. Amar 4,5 / 105 | PZO WARSZAWA | Made in Poland | 6 petals

Plants:

1. LZOS - Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant, Lytkarino
2. KOMZ - Kazan Optical and Mechanical Plant, Kazan
3. MMZ - Minsk Mechanical Plant named after S.I. Vavilova
4. FOZ - Theodosia Optical Plant
5. AOMZ - Azov Optical and Mechanical Plant, Azov
6. NPO Optika - Optics Research and Production Association, Moscow
7. FED - Kharkov Engineering Plant 'FED' (F. E. Dzerzhinsky)

The names of the lenses are clearly indicated according to the marks on the case.

Conclusions:

Mikar / s 4,5 / 55 is a simple cheap toy for macro photography. The lens is super compact with good sharpness. I recommend it as a first acquaintance with macro photography for little money.

Help to the project. Thanks for attention. Arkady Shapoval.