Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primoplan 1: 1.9 / 58 V. Review from the reader Radozhiva

Overview Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primoplan 1: 1.9 / 58 V specifically for Radozhiva, prepared Rodion Eshmakov.

Praktica KW SLR camera with standard Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Praktica KW SLR camera with standard Primoplan 58 / 1.9

The Meyer-Optik Primoplan 58 / 1.9 is the now widely known old (produced in the 40-50s) lens: there is a whole army of fans of its characteristic image (mainly bokeh). There are a number of versions of this lens: for different types of mounts and in different housings. Modifications are quite different from each other in mechanics. The review presents a version in an aluminum "small" case with M42 thread.

Features Primoplan 58 / 1.9:
Optical design: Ernostar (5 lenses in 4 groups)
Enlightenment: "V", single layer
Filter thread: 38,5 mm
Minimum focusing distance: 0.75 m
Aperture device: 14 blades (rounded), without preset mechanism, stepless
Aperture Limits: F / 1.9-F / 22

Design Features Primoplan 58 / 1.9

This is another lens that I got in a substandard state: time did not spare him at all. The lens had loose internal lenses, smudges of oil and a mushroom. In addition, he was apparently lost pads that regulate the working segment. However, the repair quest was successfully resolved, although not without difficulties.

Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primoplan 1: 1.9 / 58 V

Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primoplan 1: 1.9 / 58 V

The first thing that can be noted is an extremely simple mechanics device. The lens is assembled according to a similar principle as the Soviet Jupiter-8 of the same years. There is no sophisticated mechanics in Primoplan - everything is primitive. Case material - aluminum.

The lens block device is interesting: the lenses are rolled into “pancakes”, which are fastened together by the most common threads, forming two lens blocks - the front and rear. Apparently, this is not the most successful design: many Primoplan 58 / 1.9 lenses that have survived to this day have mold plantations and other delights inside the lens unit. Have you met Helios-44 with mushrooms inside? Me not.

Even in Soviet lenses, the lens blocks do not just twist from pancakes, but have special places for lenses, spacers between them. And all this is attached with slotted nuts.

The lenses themselves have a pale blue antireflection coating - about the same “homeopathic” as that of the Soviet Vega 12. Only Primoplan's coating is also extremely unstable, including with respect to water. I dare to suggest that this "canonical" spraying of fluoride (magnesium?) Is an old and not the best way to clarify optics. When cleaning the lens from the fungus, it is impossible to keep enlightenment alive - because water-alcohol cleaning solutions are required. As a result, the lens from the review lost enlightenment on several surfaces.

Primoplan 58 / 1.9 has a protruding rear lens: the rear lens unit protrudes ~ 42 mm beyond the plane of the M1.5-EOS adapter.

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Primoplan has a very small stroke of the helicoid, providing MDF of only 0.75 m. For fifty dollars this is too much, MDF sometimes causes inconvenience. For comparison - at Helios-44 MDF is 0,5 m.

Lens when focusing on “infinity”

Lens when focusing on “infinity”

Lens when focusing on “infinity” and on MDF

Focusing lens on MDF

The lens is not deprived of a beautiful aperture - in this version it is fourteen-petalled, round. There is a version with a multi-lobe diaphragm, which nevertheless forms an uneven hole. The aperture closes steplessly to F / 22. There are no preset mechanics.

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

This version has a mount for the M42 camera, but there was the same lens for the Exakta mount. The native camera was the Praktica KW 1949.

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Primoplan 58 / 1.9

Note that the mechanic of the lens is generally quite good: the simplicity of the device makes the lens maintainable, and the mechanisms more durable. But a significant constructive miscalculation in the lens unit device, apparently, caused many lenses to be damaged by fungus during long-term storage.

Optical properties of Primoplan 58 / 1.9

My lens has a number of micro-scratches on the lenses and does not have an antireflection coating on some surfaces, which affects the overall contrast of the image and, to a much lesser extent, its resolution. Therefore, the photos from the presented sample fully characterize the entire series, although the results will be somewhat underestimated.

Note that in its main characteristics - focal length and aperture - Primoplan is equivalent to Helios-44. How different are these two lenses from a technical point of view, will help to find out this article.

Primoplan on an open aperture creates a low-contrast image with sharpness satisfactory only in the center of the frame. Along the edge, the resolution is very, very low due to coma and astigmatism. The lens is very soft. Are present chromatic aberration. Strong vignetting is noticeable.

With aperture up to F / 2.8, sufficient sharpness is obtained in the center. The edges are still inactive. Even at F / 11, it is not possible to achieve a sharp field on APS-C: strong astigmatism and increase chromatism remain.

The contrast at the lens drops dramatically in backlight - at least due to the large number of glass-air boundaries, as well as damage.

From a technical point of view, the characteristics of Primoplan 58 / 1.9 are extremely unsatisfactory.

As for the artistic qualities - they determine the value of the lens. The unusual bokeh of the lens is valuable: it is formed by circles of blur with a bright edging. Closer to the edge of the frame, the circles turn into rounded triangles (on APS-C this is noticeable to a lesser extent), directed by the apex to the center of the frame. In other words, this is the bokeh of Helios "the other way around." Ideally, it looks like a blur of an ernostar-like wide-angle ISCO Westron 35 / 2.8. As the diaphragm disappears, first the edging of the circles of confusion disappears, then the “twisting” of the background (cropping of the circles).

Also, in the backlight it is easy to achieve the manifestation of the glow effect on F / 1.9-2.8.

It is very difficult to find the full analogue of Primoplan from the picture. However, it seemed to me that Vega (-3, -22UT), Jupiter (-8, -3) lenses have a similar pattern. For example, in my opinion, the Primoplan picture on ~ F / 2.8 is very similar to Jupiter-8 on F / 2.

Conclusions

Meyer-Optik Primoplan 58 / 1.9 is a lens with a rare design, an interesting picture and a limited scope. Optically very, very weak. To get a good result from him, serious skills and mandatory processing in editors are required.

Thank you for your attention, Eshmakov Rodion

You will find more reviews from readers of Radozhiva here.

Add a comment: Amateur

 

 

Comments: 61, on the topic: Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primoplan 1: 1.9 / 58 V. Review from the reader Radozhiva

  • B. R. P.

    Beautiful frames. Thanks.

  • NE

    Thanks Rodion. Your passion inspires sincere respect and admiration.

  • Max Kotov

    The picture is interesting, one recalls the old days and the former film romance. Heat and lamp)

  • Dim

    The picture is festive, bright. On Domiplans, it’s something like this, it’s another matter that they want a lot for the red V, but they don’t give much along the way. Thanks for the review.

  • Gennady

    In portraits, I liked the lens very much.

  • Michael R.

    While we flood here, Rodion works and does reviews ..
    Thanks for the work.
    The bokeh of this lens is somewhat similar to the Tokina bokeh
    https://radojuva.com/2013/05/tokina-af-28-70-mm-f-2-8-4-5-macro-nikon/
    Also circles., However, not quite alike ...

  • Molchanov Yuri

    It is not clear why such horse prices in Germany are on this lens. 350-550 euros! This is probably patriotism.

  • Chupacabra

    Damn, as I like it when the glass twists the bokeh.
    The usual bokeh has not been shredded for a long time, but from the twisted, it flatters not childishly.
    It is clear why at all crowdfunding venues such as kickstarter, fundraising for reissuing old windows has become popular.
    Not really - take a picture of the girl on some Tampon or Sigma and then twist the bokeh on the glass and show her. Such unusual bokeh in portraits is very eye-catching.

    • Rodion

      The girl liked the photos most of all, by the way, from the Soviet lens Uranus-27, a review of which is also presented on the site.

    • anonym

      for a long time does not grind, but from twisted flatters not childishly

      as I understand you ...

  • Pokekmon

    Yes, Boke is breathtaking.
    Comrades, and among inexpensive AF fixes or 24 (28) -70 (80) /2.8, is there something similar in the bokeh pattern?

    • Rodion

      I'm afraid not. We need to look for ernostar-like 28-50 mm lenses, usually from the old ones. From very inexpensive - Pentacon 29 / 2.8 is somewhat similar. But he is still quite wider already.

  • Ilyas

    I like this)

  • Michael

    Interesting, though soapy. Why is the circuit rare? Like Zeiss Sonnar after the war became Ernostar. Fifty-fifty except that such a scheme is small

    • Rodion

      About that and the speech that fifty-fifty ernostars 5/4 can be counted on the fingers of the hand. And to find their heels such at least.

      • Dim

        Well, on crop 30 and it will be almost 50 ...

        • Rodion

          But the depth of field ... The working aperture of the primoplaye is 29 mm, the pentacone is ~ 10 mm. As a result, completely different fields of application and picture in equal conditions.

    • Victor

      Mikhail, do you know that TWO Zeiss coexisted at that time? 1. Karl Zeiss Jena (GDR) and Karl Zeiss Oberkochen (Germany). Which Zeiss do you think this lens belongs to?

      • Michael

        The one I'm talking about Sonnar-Ernostar is from Oberhoven

  • Aries

    it was done by the gdr - yen .. then all were united in the national enterprise pentacon….

  • Amateur photographer

    Garnі photo. Predict watercolors. Skoda, scho for dzerkalnyh cameras do not need to get more information about єktivi.

    • Carl Zeiss

      Amateur photographer, why did you get the idea that lenses with a similar pattern are not being released now ?! And now they are releasing. True, there are similar modern (and already autofocus) lenses, not cheap.

      • Rodion

        Can you give a specific example?)

        • A.N. Onim

          Manual lenses are still being produced under the Meyer-Optik Gorlitz brand, although the prices are ...
          https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?ci=274&fct=fct_brand_name%7cmeyer-optik-gorlitz&N=4288584247

          • Rodion

            Nonsense, they released under their own brand and Helios-40-2)
            So we can say that Jupiter-3 is being produced - and it is being produced, in a small batch at wild prices, for lomographers.

            • reader

              According to the optical scheme, helios are aperture and highly aperture planar type anastigmata. You still say that the Germans make one-on-one Lada and produce under the brand name Mercedes.

              • Rodion

                Yes - they, a new "Meyer" type, were making Zhiguli (G-40) under the Mercedes brand.
                The G-40 can be at least some very fast, but technically it is not a cake at all - primarily due to the abnormal distribution of sharpness over the frame due to the curvature of the field. And most importantly, the G-40 has nothing to do with the Meyer at all. All right, primoplan 75 / 1.9 would be released ...

          • TSerg (Sergiy)

            Those who were born at 2014 roci, were not Meyer-Optik Gorlitz, but simply a visitor to young people with a brand. The stinks of tudi didn’t put in any money of their pennies, but everything worked out and worked for the photo camera. Crowdfunding is to be heard at an ordinary jargon, for a simple scam with a method, a zaroblyannya pennies on fools from all over the world (ix, as it were, summed up, granddad’s big). I optics, such as writing upscale websites, getting by far not in Nimechchin, but in China and Russia. Lyshe diaphragmi bagatopelyustkov_ to be worn at the factory by Berlin, and the buildings at the Novofleks nometsky.
            Will you be able to cup the manual about the asset for $ 1600? First of all, in the middle of reading this site, photographs that have already been bought, for what reason is it that ninishniy “mayor” is already “vipustiv”? How can I add a optician to a meirovsky without losing a powerful virobnitstva? At the stem of the current optical fiber industry in such a land, like Nimechchin, the input is not less than the pivmilyard Euro, which is not more.
            And the ghost is in the grip of hostility, you need to marvel at the photographs, zoblenny with real cameras and old memerarami with the current rebranding. I think that when I look at everything, I’ll be all right.

  • anonym

    For those who are interested in such a bokeh and drawing, but the price is confusing, then take a closer look at the Primotar 50 / 3.5, as well as Domiplan 50 / 2,9. They are much cheaper and with a similar pattern. At the very - Primotar, very satisfied !!! ;)

    • Rodion

      Absolutely different lenses - both in the scheme, the same and in the picture. Strange advice.

    • NE

      Is it really 10 times cheaper?

      • York

        The Domiplane is a rather trashy staff, drawing, yes, but the drawing is not at all primoplanistic. Well, that is I keep it, I like it, but as a substitute for primoplan - like a bizyun in a vegetable garden instead of an uncle in Kiev ...
        Primotar, in general, from the same series, quite the third glass ...

  • Egor

    Such things guys, you need to test on a full frame and not on the crop! Then you will write your own reviews

    • Rodion

      Send me FF then if you stutter. Otherwise, I don’t understand you.

  • zengarden

    An interesting review.
    The link to the optical scheme (Ernostar) leads to the title picture of the article.

  • TSerg (Sergiy)

    I may be such an active. A good nimchik for singing purposes is a sheet, a close plan, an explanatory chest portrait. The middle plan is a landscape - not for the new, weak. Mah garne bokeh, with mugs, as here with diaphragms 4 are transformed simply in the mind of rosmitty. About those who twist the background plan, I would not say that, Helios 44-2 th twist more beautifully. Meyer-Optik Primoplan 58 / 1.9 should be adjusted specifically at small diaphragm values. I don’t know how it’s going to be. On 2,8 sideways bokeh, yak on me, yes merovsky Domiplan 50 / 2.8.
    The price and we have a lot of money on the price, less than 240 USD. not sounding. At home, Ibei is bigger. Ale і for a good Gelios 44 at a time to ask for a price, as I mean 10-12 dollars, which is 8-10 years old. Omnivorous mirrorless cameras, press, have grown the interest to manual ones, more good old ones, and there are even bigger pennies before them, like more of our amateurs, sorry, not in a swarm. Until the speech, c \ shche p_vtora-two rocky tse with the bayonet Altix on the all-round flea market cost 35-40 USD. However, if it was zealous, like pereadzhuvati on Kenon and mirrorless cameras, prices were angry at the razi.
    About "the active is nasty, like on me, passing the red color and yogo vidtinka in the sleepy weather. Protest, duzhe garno vіdtvory greens and zhovty. To be afraid of more third-party exchanges.
    For a full-frame (24X36 mm), the core is small, lower for cropped matrices, the cable is less flexible. Ale, as I’m building, I’m not building on the FF date. Let us be happy about the "assets" not a competitor, a little more bokeh and rosmitty in singing situations, it should be more appropriate for me, through which I am not going to sell.

    • anonym

      Przetłumacz z polskiego przysłówki proszę

      • anonym

        Google translator to help, and not for free, someone should translate. The head needs a little work.

    • anonym

      The lenses are glued with alcohol, and not only enlightenment can be washed off. Rodion is enthusiastic, but knowing the nature of the fungus and its varieties helps save enlightenment at 95 percent. I do not recommend using alcohol at all. And there are mushrooms that eat enlightenment and then nothing will help. Helios-44 has cleared more than one hundred from mushrooms))). Mushrooms grow if the optics are not stored correctly, or in rare cases, when the gluing solution is improperly prepared ..))) Good luck in the experiments.

      • new to photography

        Advise then how to properly store the optics and if you find a fungus how to properly remove it without spoiling the optics.
        Thanks in advance!

        • Rodion

          Now those who stick the lens with alcohol will advise ... (they do it with a hairdryer)
          In general, the most gentle and effective way is to ask the pharmacy to add a carbonate buffer with pH = 8-9 and a chymotrypsin solution (a digestive enzyme). The mushroom simply dissolves in such juice. But since way - water, then enlightenment Primoplan skiff. Then just clean the protein with water-alcohol, from fat - with gasoline Kalosh / petr.ef. that's all.
          As for the choice of a solvent for cleaning, it is necessary to know how and a little chemistry to know: the polar is soluble in the polar, non-polar - in the non-polar. It is pointless to wash the grease from the fingers with one water. And the salt deposit is gasoline. And sometimes, if the dirt is terrible, then 646 only saves.
          Optics can be stored simply in the room, in a case with silica gel.

          • anonym

            But it was not necessary to be rude. Not beautiful somehow.

            • Rodion

              You see that which is not.

              • anonym

                I see a hairdryer before a hairdryer. good luck

  • reader

    crap Meyer to nothing. what kind of dumbass these Germans and products are not in comparison with Soviet optics. categorically.

    • Ivan

      here, rather, an attempt at a more or less sober and not washed out by various marketing specialists to look at the myth of the “magic miraculousness” (or “miraculous magic”) of the picture of this very primoplaned, that's all, well, the conclusion, in general, is close to mine - shelf lens, not suitable for full-bodied photography, only for collection
      comparison with 44 is also clear - the most common lens, and the scheme is close, well, and a hint at the well-known advertising slogan - "if you don't see the difference, why pay more?"

      • Rodion

        The G-44 and Primoplan are different in everything except the FR and aperture (1.9 is indistinguishable from 2). Their layout and picture are very, very different.
        Another thing is that Helios and Primoplan will not take root in the same wardrobe trunk because of the equal FR and luminosity, but at the same time Primoplan is suitable for a much, much narrower range of tasks than Helios - and therefore, indeed, it risks lying more on the shelf.

  • Stepan

    Dizzying bokeh. For carousel lovers. Pulls to the rig. :)

  • Sergei

    I got such a lens (No. 1113352) with a camera from my father. Purchased in Germany, where he served a few more years after the victory. The lens is under 70 years old, but there is no fungus at all. The backlight really does not like, but otherwise not bad.

  • A.N. Onim

    The third day I bought this lens. A beautiful picture, a large, smooth stroke of the focusing ring. Subjectively, it seemed sharper on the open than Helios 40-2.

  • Alexander Hedgehog

    Jupiter 8 gives a similar picture, it would be interesting to compare them nose to nose.

    • Peter

      .. not similar. Jupiter has a smooth washout (bokeh) and Primoplan has its own “twitchy”

      • Rodion

        Cover slightly primoplan and Jupiter-8 in fact are somewhat similar.

        • York

          Covered to 8 glasses are all alike. To the point of confusion. If we talk about drawing, etc. heresies, it is only open and near-open.

          I have Jupiter, but somehow I haven’t come across yet in a condition adequate to the price. If you get it, I'll buy it.

          I really like such patterned glasses ...

  • Michael

    There is one for sale.
    In very good condition.
    Complete with native carcass practice.
    300$

  • Peter

    Everything is beautifully written. And rightly so. but Helios-44 costs 1000 rubles, and Primoplan -300-400 USD.
    This is the cost of the Ernostar bokeh….

  • Amateur

    Eshmakov is a simple technodrocker. He will squeak here (and there) and compare the incomparable. I have already read his comparison with the G-44 on LensKlab. It is not clear what the g-44 has to do with it. Why not compare with the G-40 for example? What the fuck is the difference? So what if there is 85mm? Rodya, when it comes to you that there is an artistic component, and there is a technical one, then you can safely consider yourself an expert, but for now you are just a techno-rocher trying to prove to everyone and everything that round is square. The prices for lenses are not formed by your fucking comparisons…. This is something on your nose. And Primoplan will never become a gamble ... Even after your "devastating" article about him.))))))))))))))))

    • Rodion

      Lens club, pelogin ...

      • York

        Rodion, without the slightest shadow of malevolence - the Amateur is right ... You can, of course, compare borsch with boots, but why, it is not clear ...
        The construct of the subject is really far from perfect (like many Meyer's crafts, by the way), but the lens is not needed to break through the walls ...
        Weddings and photo-maidens do not really need it, and for the Bombilov it is a purely superfluous stray.
        But, fortunately, bombers, etc. if they are landmarks, then from the opposite.

        • Rodion

          Have you heard about fundamental interest, not having an application, but just needed to understand the nature of things? That's it)

          • B. R. P.

            +1

Add a comment

Copyright © Radojuva.com. Blog author - Photographer in Kiev Arkady Shapoval. 2009-2023

English-version of this article https://radojuva.com/en/2017/09/optik-gorlitz-primoplan-58-v/?replytocom=228054

Versión en español de este artículo https://radojuva.com/es/2017/09/optik-gorlitz-primoplan-58-v/?replytocom=228054