hi there,

nice shot, diego.
i just got this "bokeh monster" and i have to say i love the bokeh of it. mine is called "meyer optik görlitz orestor 135/2.8", but from what i've read it's really the same lens.
here is one of the first shots with it, when i was playing around and had nothing much to photograph but my lovely balcony flower. hope you like it, too.



taken with a canon eos 30d and a m42/ef adapter
it's quite heavily cropped, but anyway...

cheers, -b.

Hi, bendus,

Nice shot too! What really surprised me about this lens is the number of blades it does have... With so many blades, it renders beautiful circles at any f/ stop. I have to do more testing with it, now that my D200 meters for me :)

Regards,
diego.

thanks diego,

yeah good old time lenses...
it has a bigger brother, the meyer-optik / pentacon 200/4 with just as many blades... :)
and i almost always give up counting them (i think it was 16?) ;)

cheers, -b.

edit: after re-counting i found 15 blades on both lenses. ;)

I couldn't agree more, I've been using my Pentacon 135mm f/2.8 for about a year now and it still amazes me, the bokeh is just perfection -





Some more Pentacon shots here.

I got this lens + adapter four days ago. It is indeed a wonder. Tack-sharp wide open, and the most amazing bokeh I've ever seen. It's length on a 1.6x FoVCF camera (216mm) is a bit ungainly indoors, but I managed to get a few portraits this weekend:


Outdoors, it is of course a joy to use:


As I said, I've had this lens for less than a week, I can't wait to try it in some of my favorite spots. Getting an M42 adapter for my 30D has opened up a plethora of manual focus lenses for me. Just about all of them are fun, but the Orestor is in a class by itself.

Sikario, Knuckledragger:

Fantastic examples of the bokeh with this lens! I miss it so much. I have to use it again. I lended it to a friend and still has it... :)

d.

I'll go against the grain, at the risk of getting flamed, and say that the bokeh is nice from this lens, but far from "the best ever". There's quite a bit of nisen bokeh apparent in the backgrounds, even ones that shouldn't be too difficult.

I think sometimes people don't differentiate enough between the amount of bokeh, and the quality of the bokeh.

Still nice shots, and I don't think perfect gaussian bokeh is necessary ... some of my favorite lenses don't have perfect bokeh, but that's part of their unique "look" (Canon 35L and 24L, and the Leica 50 f/1.0 Nocti come to mind) :)

Yeah, I am not exactly sure what Bokeh is.. but I think I know it when I see it.

The backgrounds I see here melt the colors together in an amazing way, and I am trying to find one of these on ebay.

Does the Pentacon 135 come under other names, perhaps Practica?

I am photographing a birds now, and the 135 is perfect, since I seem able to get up close to them. I also like a 135 to compress an image, to pull things together. I am using a Vivitar f2.8 circa 1975.

It seems that the m42 thread was invented by East German Zeiss engineers for their first Contax SLR, which defined the SLR. This lens seems to come from that lineage. West German Zeiss may have adopted the thread and passed it along to Pentax as part of a partnership giving us the Pentax m42 line.

Knowing the Soviet "MO," it is easy to understand why Soviet engineers would adopt the m42 for the lenses designed for the Zenit SLRs. This is what I gather anyway, seems to make sense.

I am not really active on Flickr, and use my own gallery built from Porta: thinman.com/photography

John

This is an interesting lens. I've been shooting with it long enough now that I've come to the conclusion that careful setup of a shot and proper "bokeh shaping" are key to a good image. The lens does exhibit some nisen bokeh, when it's wide open and focusing very closely. This effect definitely lessens when the lens is stopped down and pulled out a bit.



I spent longer planning this shot than I care to admit. I used my beloved-but-difficult-to-use Orestor on my EOS Rebel G with Kodak Portra 400UC film (most likely expired.) I stopped the lens down to F/8, and its 15 blade aperture shaped the bokeh exactly the way I wanted. It retained the basic shapes of the pond, trees and house, but blurred them pleasingly. This is probably the best shot I've taken with the this lens.

I just got one of Ebay, now waiting it to arrive to its new home. Only hoping the item description is for real and the lens is in good shape. Think i paid a bit of "topdollar" for it.

It truly is a bokeh monster. Mine is Meyer Orestor 135/2.8. Bought it quite expensively in mint condition. But worth every cent. I just love how it paints the background.



and this is the little brother, Meyer Oreston 50/1.8

I'm at the point of getting a Pentacon auto 135mmf/2.8
Is it any good for bokeh proposes? As far as I understand it has a 6 blades, and maybe somebody knows what for does auto stands on this lens? It cant be autofocus...

This is a test with my Pentacon Preset 135mm f/2.8 on my Canon EOS 450D:



Is this worth to post it in the pool?

Interesting thread. I have the 200/f4 version, preset with 15 blade diaphragm, which I've not used in 30 years. Maybe I should give it a whirl.

And here is another picture with my Pentacon:

does anyone know if there are any differences between the preset manual version and the 'electric' one? they look different in terms of shape. are the performance and quality of the two versions the same?

I'm looking at getting one for my Pentax Spotmatic, is there anything to watch out for when searching for one on eBay? Serial numbers or particular markings? Prices seem to vary from $60 all the way upto $200, which makes me think there are good versions and bad versions...

I'v got a CZJ Prakticar 135/2.8 which is, as I understand, a complete clone on Pentacon in question. Shooting at E-P1 (used to - the lens has a bit loose bayonet so I coupled it with OM 35/2.8 and converted it to the macro-microscope system). Would have used it as a standard squirrel-hunting tool has it not been for the loose bayonet :(

Hi in my opinion it is a fantastic lens the Pentacon 135 f 2.8. here is a picture done wide open :)

I have three Pentacon (135/2.8, 200 / 4 and 300 / 4) and the 135 is what gives me the best images.

Another shoot with the bokeh monster.

Sorry for replying to an old thread but I've just joined...

How times change... When I bought our original Praktica gear back at the end of the 1980s just before the Berlin Wall came down, most of the Pentacon/CZJ/Meyer lenses were very heavily criticised by the photography journalists here in the UK and in particular this lens was considered to be complete rubbish/trash.

My personal experience with the lens is the opposite though, it is as most of you have said a truly fantastic lens.

My CZJ version definitely only has 6 aperture blades, but I know my Exakta-fit Meyer Orestor has many more and so has an almost circular aperture. Next time I have it out I'll count the blades :o)

Here my shots with my Pentacon 135/2.8 preset
Bu i prefere the bokeh of my SMC Pentax-M 2.8-4 40-80 mm

I've just started using the bokehmonster on micro 4/3rd (which makes it a 2*135 = 270mm equivalent lens), and it seems to have a lot of potential:

I know it's been long since someone responded to this but iam excited to have in my hands a almost perfect speciment of this class glass (Pentacon 135mmm. f/2.8 - f/32 serial number:8403906)
I've got mine just a few hours ago from the Athens (Greece) flea market for 25 euros in near perfect condition.
It is the so called "bokeh monster" the preset model - 15 blades.
I tried the lens (on the spot) on a Canon AT1 with a M42 adapter and the first impression was exciting!!! At 2.8 the focus plane sharp as can be and the out of focus zones (bokeh) in creamy transition!
I noticed a tendency towards the bluegreen (white balance: sunshine) on a Canon 5D MKII in ambient daylight but this is something that can be fixed in ACR easily.
By the way does anyone has a clue about how the serial number responds to the year of product?

One of my first pictures with this heavy lens:

telephoto with huge aperture is the best!


this was with my 105mm f2DC nikon

My favourite Bokeh monster for my System is the Zukio Digital 35-100mm f/2 SHG (2x crop equates to 70-200mm) but its not cheap

I think pentacon 135 2.8 is the worst lens ever.

I just got the right adapter for this lens and im looking forward to getting some shots with it, i got hold of it from a car boot sale for £2 with a zenith and Helios 44-2 so looking around and finding out just what i got for the money it was amazing, i have one wander though, what is the filter size when the metal lens hood is removed as when using filters with the lens hood i am getting a lot of flair.

First try

my go-to Bokeh lens.. Carl Zeiss 135mm f1.8

this was @f2

Shot on the Olmypus OMD EM5 w/ Pentacon 135mm F2.8 15Blade

dsevilla:

i thought Minolta Rokkor-X 58mm f1.2 was "The Bokeh Monster"...


this came out of the bigger brother, Meyer Gorlitz Orestor aka Orestegor 200mm f4:

absolutely beautiful colors

compare 135/2.8 vs 200/4:

I owned two M42 135mm lenses.

This is PENTACON 2,8/135 PRESET, ORESTOR - Meyer Optik Goerlitz just taken today!


This one taken yesterday with Carl Zeiss Jena DDR MC 135mm f3.5



I love them both. Pentacon are pricier and weight are much heavier than the later.

I love my Pentacon 2.8/135 - Preset.
It´s modified to use it with my S5Pro (Nikon F-Mount) with a normal M42-adapter without a lens.
Yes, it is the "Bokeh-Monster"!

look here:

hello all i have seen a correction plate for infinity for this adapter that doesnt use a glass
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYklAMRY_BE

www.adrianololli.com/articolo.asp?ID=5565
it is said to work on pentacon 55/5.6 and 300/4

will it work on the pentacon 135/2.8
any ideas need help

Here my addition, I also shot this one with the 135mm f2.8 15 blades.

Nice bokeh on the blossoms on the background: