Review Vega-5U 4/105, zebra, Azov Optical and Mechanical Plant, Azov

Vega-5U 4/105

Vega-5U 4/105, the lens is shown on the camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. Installed using adapters M42-Canon EOS и macro ring M42.

Vega-5U 4/105 is a lens for Soviet medium format photographic enlargers. The lens does not have a focusing ring, which makes it difficult to use it as a photo lens. Vega-5U 4/105 can be easily turned into a macro lens, which, in fact, is interesting.

If the lens is adapted, for example, as shown here, then it can be used as a portrait or short telephoto with moderate aperture.

Important: Vega-5U 4/105 does not have a focus ring. It is impossible to focus using this lens in the usual sense of the word. The lens is always focused on a certain distance. Due to the fact that the lens is most often used for macro, the focus problem is not so important - it is very convenient to focus by moving the camera to or from the subject. It is very convenient to use Vega-5U 4/105 s macro rings.

Main technical characteristics of VEGA-5U 4/105:

Review Instance Name VEGA-5U 4/105 N8300435 with the logo of the Azov Optical and Mechanical Plant, Azov.
Basic properties
  • У - lens for photoУsizes (suitable for medium format)
  • M42x1 / 45.5 - common landing thread 'M42'.
  • Back segment - 78.7 mm
  • aperture control ring
  • enlightened optics
  • metal case
  • lack of a focus ring and a thread for filters
  • compact sizes
Front Filter Diameter the lens cannot use classic filters that are screwed into the thread near the front lens
Focal length 105 mm
Zoom ratio 1 x
Designed by For medium format enlargers with negatives 60 X 90 mm
Number of aperture blades 6 petals, petals not blackened, shine in the sun. Form a fairly regular 6-angle hole (example on f / 8)
Tags only a scale with aperture values ​​of F / 4, 5.6, 8, 11.
Diaphragm from f / 4 to f / 11. The aperture control ring has fixed intermediate values, rotates smoothly and slightly tight, which allows you to set any intermediate value of the number F despite the fixed values.
MDF no exact data, approximately 30 cm
The weight 150 (approximately)
Optical design 5 elements in 4 groups, Biometar scheme.

Optical design Vegas-5UThe lens does not use special optical elements in its optical design. The same optical scheme is used by many other lenses.

Lens hood The lens does not use a lens hood
Manufacturer country USSR, Azov Optical and Mechanical Plant, Azov. At the same time, the lens was produced in other factories.
Period It is unknown whether the copy from the review would be made in 1983.
Price About 5 cu for used option.

You can see the prices of modern macro lenses here.

This lens was produced at different factories and has a number of sub-versions. For example, I once had exactly the same lens in my hands, but at the same time the front of the body was not painted in 'zebra' (1 view, 2 view).

Below is a view of the lens and the original case:

How to use on modern cameras?

Attention: when installing through a conventional adapter M42-Nikon F, M42-Canon EOS or any 'M42-Your System', etc., the Vega-5U 4/105 lens will damage the camera mirror, since it has a huge protrusion of the rear part of the helicoid. Check out the image of the lens in the gallery above for yourself - the rear protrudes a lot. The lens can be used on narrow format (on conventional cropped and full-format modern digital SLR or mirrorless cameras) only with macro rings or macromech.

Attention: the back of the lens is quite thick and does not fit into some macro rings. I have several sets of macro rings, with one of them this lens cannot be used precisely for this reason.

The working segment of the lens is quite large, from about 78 to 90 mm, so it can be easily installed and used on any modern digital camera. In this case, even with SLR cameras, you can easily achieve focusing on infinity by using the correct selection of the thickness of the macro rings. By changing the length of the set of macro rings, you can change the focusing distance.

How to use this lens with cameras specific other systems (Sony, Pentax, etc.) - ask in the comments and you will definitely be prompted. If you have any questions about compatibility and adapters - ask in the comments (comments do not require any, no registration at all, any user can add a comment).

A lot of information on working with manual lenses with any modern Nikon cameras will find here, any Canon EOS cameras will find here.

Vega-5U 4/105, the lens is shown on the Canon EOS DIGITAL Rebel XSi camera. Installed using adapters M42-Canon EOS and macro rings M42.

Vega-5U 4/105, the lens is shown on the camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. Installed using adapters M42-Canon EOS и macro ring M42.

Image quality

Image quality turned out to be poor. Perhaps this is just my copy. The lens works very poorly in side and backlight. The lens sharpness is mediocre, only on closed apertures you can get a fairly sharp picture. On the other hand, under normal conditions, the lens showed a good contrast with small HA.

Vega-5U 4/105. The lens is shown on a Sony a6300 mirrorless camera (ILCE-6300).

Vega-5U 4/105. The lens is shown on a mirrorless camera. Sony a6300 (ILCE-6300).

Sample Photos

All examples of photos on Vega-5U in this review were shot with a full-format camera Nikon D700 through adapter M42-Nikon F and recruitment macro ring M42. Pictures shown without treatment.

On the mirrorless camera Sony a6300 (ILCE-6300) I used a lens with an adapter M42-Sony NEX and two sets macro ring M42 (the thickness of the rings in one set is 7, 14 and 28 mm), which allowed us to take pictures with focusing both at infinity and at close distances.

Part of the pebble photographs was obtained using flash Nikon Speedlight SB-900 (served as an arsonist of other flares), two cartridge flares Godox s45ttwo studio racks Falcon и light tube 40 * 40. I always shoot with flash at F / 11. To do this, I focus on the F / 3.5 value, with one movement of my hand I close the aperture to F / 11 (ring aperture it is simply brought to the extreme position, which eliminates the error of setting another number F) and press the shutter button. Flash settings I immediately configure to work with F / 11. Nikon Flash They work wonderfully with Sony cameras, which have a central sync contact on their hot shoe.

Photos are shown in the gallery without treatment, usual on-camera JPEG. Download source files in format JPEG can at this link.

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-5U 4/105 | AOMZ | medium format | 6 petals
  5. VEGA-5U 4/105 | MMZ | medium format | 6 petals
  6. 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.

Vega-5U 4/105

Vega-5U 4/105, the lens is shown on the camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. Installed using adapters M42-Canon EOS и macro ring M42.

Results

Vega-5U can serve as a macro lens, since it does not have a focus ring, and for a macro this is not a problem. Also, this lens can be used for any creative purpose. It is easy to install on any modern digital camera.

Comments on this post do not require registration. Anyone can leave a comment. Many different photographic equipment can be found on AliExpress.

Thank you for attention. Arkady Shapoval.

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Comments: 26, on the topic: Review of Vega-5U 4/105, zebra, Azov Optical-Mechanical Plant, Azov

  • Anatoly

    Apparently, tear the lens out of the discharge and throw it out. Yes, and the design is not the most convenient. But still, the experiment was a success and another lens settled on your blog Arkady.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Yes, not the best lens.

  • Alexander

    on the photohistory it was like this for Vega-5U: “Working distance - 83 +/- 1 mm, light transmission coefficient - not less than 0,6.”

    PS I really like all the materials on your site.

    Thank you.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      The working distance is really very large.

  • Alexey

    Tried to tame it for portraits.
    http://cs314527.vk.me/v314527228/1611/MeGxsJ-sJmo.jpg

    • Andrii

      CLASS !!!!!

    • anonym

      He is not bad at reading text from bottles)

  • Sergei

    Hello! I have a Nikon D3200 standard set of macro rings, I just can’t achieve focus on the macro with this lens. Please tell me what distance should be from the matrix to the lens in order to focus on the macro! Thank you in advance

    • Valera

      “Macro” is a loose concept. The greater the distance (from the matrix to the lens) - the closer the focus (subject) - the less DOF ​​- the worse the aperture - the less fun.

    • anonym

      You need 2 sets of rings.

    • anonym

      Focus is about 20 cm. When added, it becomes even smaller.

    • anonym

      By the way, the M42 adapter to Nikon with a lens.

  • Rodin

    Yes, like the norms of glass - I liked the pictures, although it is a bit dark. The bokeh is harsh.

  • Evgeny_d60

    Thanks for the work done! Such lenses are periodically sold, it is interesting to know about their qualities in advance

  • anonym

    700 is back in business. Happy New Year!!!

  • Eugene

    "Vega-5U 4/105 will damage the mirror"

    But what if there is no mirror? (Gh4)

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Damage the bayonet shaft and / or shutter and / or sensor. The rear protrusion is too large for a conventional adapter M42-Micro 4/3.

  • Mihailo

    I want to share (in my opinion) a positive experience. I wanted to play with macro photography for the poor. I bought used D3200, m42 adapter (without lens), two sets of macro rings, Vega-5u. There was also an external flash, a cheap tripod, it is very difficult to shoot macro without a flash and a tripod because of the small working distance, the hand trembled - the ant or the flower is no longer in focus. However, with due skill, the result exceeded expectations (I thought that nothing would come of it without buying an expensive macro lens). In post-processing, you need to compensate for the low initial contrast, and that's almost all. The main thing is to choose the length of the flash, make the aperture smaller. It's a pity the site does not allow you to upload a file more than 2MB, I had to cut the quality.

    • B. R. P.

      flash length? Unfortunately, diffraction and “contrast compensation” gobbled up all the quality (technical).

      • Mihailo

        “Flash length”))) Excuse my French, I picked up the camera a month ago for the first time and I don’t know the terminology yet. Is the duration correct? I would love to try to photograph in natural light, but the lens is very dark ... And when the sunlight is bright enough, it is difficult to choose the angle so that the backlight does not make everything completely faded. Can you tell me some old lens similar, but with a larger aperture? More precisely, a lens with a sharp picture is already obtained at aperture 4-5.6, on veg you have to reduce the aperture almost to the stop.

        • Mihailo

          And it’s also completely unclear how to adapt (and which) hood here. There are no threads for filters on this glass.

        • B. R. P.

          Correct pulse power. For macro, aperture does not play a special role, because the aperture still has to be closed and you can’t get away from additional lighting. You have 24 mph and crop, diffraction sets in quite early, already 5,6 is critical, but the flu will be small, so you need to cover it. On flowers, like yours, there is no point in closing more than 8, if you need an even smaller scale and, accordingly, a large flu, you will need a larger aperture closure and a powerful additional. lighting + ISO boost. In addition, at small scales, the aperture ratio of the lens drops additionally. Macro and especially lighting in macro is a separate, big topic and you can’t tell in a nutshell. It will take a serious study of the materiel.

        • Aleksey68

          nikkor 105mm 2.8d micro - very sharp already with the open, and even at 5.6 and even more so.

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