Meyer-Optik Görlitz 50mm/58mm - vintage, good value fast fifties full of character and bubble bokeh

I have the domiplan, and the telemegor 300 & 400 they do have their charm.

Always enjoy your reviews - Excellent! My copy of the Oreston is radioactive on the rear element - interesting the Pentacons are not.

This was so instructive Simon, it was very interesting you talking about the design of lenses etc, I have a few old cameras (Rollieflex f3.5, Minolta Autocord, Olympus OM4, OM1, Soligor TM & a Nikon D7000) and lenses (not many only 50mm Nikon 1.4 & Olympus 1.4) I would love to use the Olympus lens on a digital camera in the future but does not fit on my Nikon camera.
Have you ever used Angenieux cine lenses converted for digital cameras I have a couple and don't know what to do with them?

I think that the comments made by other users regarding the quality of the Domiplan's construction are fair, my latest copy of this lens has the stop down ring jammed at f5.6, which means it's restricted from wide open to 5.6. This doesn't really bother me, as I mainly shoot it wide open, or one stop down anyway, but it's the third copy I've had which has has major construction problems.

Great series, by the way. Most enjoyable and top quality research.

Can you please do a video covering vintage wides and ultrawides? Great video as always!

Hi sir your videos are wonderful and I enjoy them very much, I have an auto revuenon 55mm 1,7 lens with a 42 mount; i bought it for a cheap price but I couldn’t find any information about it online, i would be happy if you can tell me anything about it. Thanks alot

What is the URL of your Flickr page?

Great videos, they have me going into my attic to find my old film gear.

I have a lens called Pentaflex Auto Color and it looks identical to Oreston 50 mm 1.8.It's the same lens? I guess this is a export rebranded Meyer Oreston 50mm F1,8

Hi, I have the Oreston 1.8 but instead of round bokeh it creates triangle bokeh which isn't so beautiful. Any idea if this is an older or newer version of that Oreston?

Excellent research and presentation of each of these. I recently got the Lydith 30 f 3.5 II and I am on a crash course for Meyer optics.

Regarding stopping down the lenses with the pin when used on cheap adapters, either you do what you did with the pin, OR; you buy a quality adapter like K&F Koncept for roughly twice or three times the money of the cheap Fotga or something, and the problem is solved. They still cost like $15-$25 USD so it's not like you have to pay a prince's ransom.

The micro range finder lenses with Cooke triplet design are real gems.

My Exakta version of the Oreston has an aperture toggle on the same ring as the stop down button.

If you can block the auto pin in the back of the oreston you dont have to use the stop-down button, I have it adapted to m4/3 and it's constantly pressed, so the aperture is just always stopped down to whatever its set (although I much prefer it wide open)

Hello.
I regularly watch your videos. Very well done and very useful. Thank you!
I love historical information.

On the Domiplan, you can easily reach the pin to block it, without touching the lens configuration/alignment at all. Just unscrew the rear ring, then unscrew the three tiny screws that are then exposed (attaching the mount part to the focus ring assembly). You now have access to the pin and the lever that translates the vertical pin motion into horizontal aperture action. Then you can either block the pin or the lever with tape or plastic.

Great content, photo examples, and explanations with histories of the lenses. Keep up the good work.

Whats difference between these and ziess , biotar 58, tessar 50 etc

Hi Simon, congrats to your videos. I have watched all of them and they really inspired me. I bought a Primotar 50 3.5 after seeing your images and I love the lens. But I don‘t get those round bubbles in the Bokeh shooting wide open. I only get those hexagon „bubbles“. My lens has 6 blades. Any recommendation? Thanks & regards from Germany, Michael

Bro, primoplan 1.9 goes for 400 to 600 $ on ebay. Crazy!

I have a Primoplan 58mm and it might just be my favourite vintage lens of all time. The swirly bokeh is just wild and it's built beautifully.

I am missing the best one (in my opinion) in the list though - the Domiron. Love its character. My favorite 50.

Very interesting video. Is there one lens that particularly recommend for microcontrast? Thanks

Ha!
I just went thru my mountain of un-looked at gear and found an Exacta RTL 1000 with the exact Oreston attached. I bought it at an estate sale and forgot about it. The bag has a 300mm Komura...with 18 blades, not sure if the mount is the same. A light meter, filters, flash gear...and all the paperwork.
I'll have to see if there is an adapter to my Sony A7 online.
I guess I can stop looking for a bubble bokeh lens, now.

Of all the types of Meyer lenses, which one lens can bubble bokeh?

auto reflecta 55/1.7 cant touch that. 1972 tomioka.. best lens ever had.. it pisses all over my 24/1.4 art

A great video, Simon. I don't know why I didn't see this when you first published it. The Oreston or Pentacon 50mm 1.8 is an excellent lens. The Domiplan, however, is a dog IMO. (I thought I could've written the negative review of it you showed in the video.) It's the only lens I've ever thrown away. I didn't want to pass it on to someone else, and it was painful to keep in my collection. Perhaps it was a flaw in my particular lens, but it seemed extremely soft at infinity.
Do you have any experience with lenses by another somewhat obscure German lens maker, Enna Munchen? I have only one, a 28mm Macro Revuenon f2.8 that I like a lot.
Thanks again for your hard work researching and producing these very interesting and informative videos. There are so many good old lenses!

11.07 Beautiful

Hugo Meyer-Optik of Görliz.... Oh man, that cracked me up. Did he have kaleidoscope eyes? Love your videos and images.

Спасибо за обзор! Я из Санкт-Петербурга, Россия !
Мне нравятся Немецкая оптика! 👍👍👍🔥

what digital camera did you use to make the images with the Oreston and the Domiplan ?

Fantastic video, yet again. You mentioned something about a trick to get the aperture blades all hidden, so you get all round bokeh bubbles on the Primotar 50mm f/3.5, unfortunately I didn't quite get it. Any chance you'd explain it to me, as I recently bought a Primotar 50mm f/3.5 which is due to arrive tomorrow. Thanks in advance, and best regards, Robert

My domiplan was gifted to me by a lady. The lens was modified with a ring so filters could be fitted. The apature is broken even if I hit the lens and it seems holding the pin down doesn't work. I'm still going to use it on my Sony a7 though. I've been trying it out on my A200 and Rebel XT and its been great quality.

Great video. Thank you. I wonder what your favorite bubble bokeh lens is? I know it is a longer FL, but the Trioplan 100/2.8 looks nice. The vintage versions seem to approach the price of the new versions. No charm of the vintage lens but no fungus either. Not sure what you think of the new “vintage” models.

An amazing compendium of knowledge on display here, Simon. Thank you! I am especially interested in the way you differentiate between lenses which can stand up to post processing and those that do not do as well in post. On another note, I always hear that the Oreston is identical to the Pentacon Prakticar 50mm f1.8, and yet the Prakticar gets hardly any love.

That primotar E 50mm has some nice colors and really interesting bokeh

Domiplan has another nice feature - lens is very easy to repair, which is great for practicing disassembling, cleaning, assembling... Also, Trioplan 50 can be found very affordable in Altix mount (very easy to adapt to M42 adapter without losing infinity)

I wish a great lens like Lydth 30mm was in this review.

This is wonderful information presented so meticulously. Fascinating to see such clear examples of these lenses in action. Many thanks.

Just joined your group. A fantastic video, full of great info.. thank you ….

I have to brag a bit, Got my Trioplan 50mm on a yard sale for 10€. No fungus, just needed replaced grease. They are a pain to align back up, but once I finally build a Altix adapter will be able to fully brag :D

Great information. I just purchased the Pentacon version of the Meyer-Optik Görlitz 50mm f1.8 and mine has a slide switch for the manual/automatic selection. Sliding the switch retracts the pin back so it looks just like your super glue version. Lovely lens and your description of its qualities are spot on.

You didn’t say which three your own or I wasn’t listening

the Oreston is the perfect compromise between artistic and realistic vision. i own the early zebra version. for me Oreston has been my go to standard for a vintage fast 50mm. good but neutral colors, smooth but still interesting bokeh, close MFD and ease of use keeps this lens on my canon 5D often. w

the part about the blue skies is accurate! very film like on all my cameras-the Meyer Optik lenses colors are such a way where, if the colors in the scene are there, they will slightly mute and distort the colors but in a very beautiful way. makes the images very vintage feeling.