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Using Prakticar- and PB-Mount lenses on digital full frame cameras (Sony a7). Just for fun, with some background-information from time to time.

29/03/2026

Using the Carl Zeiss Jena Prakticar 1.4/50, second Version with blackened aperture blades. In theory it should benefit the contrast when having a lot of light and indeed it seems to me it's way better to handle than its previous versions with blank metal blades. But I did no 1:1 comparison. And while wide open the bokeh can be relatively smooth, it is usually pretty "impressionistic".

27/03/2026

Some more pictures with the 2.8/200. A minimal distance of 2m still allows shooting some flowers, while for small flowers like Anemones you would probably choose another lens.
I still struggle a bit with getting the edges sharp. Not that they won't get sharp, but I suspect some field curvature but need to test a bit further what really is the issue here.

24/03/2026

Some falconry-time with the Prakticar 2.8/200.
I mostly learned a lot, because I didn't shoot such situations before: do not use silent shooting (I did not want to disturb the vibe, but it produces a bad rolling shutter), the 135 mm would've been a better choice, at least from my position, and focussing with the 2.8/200 is... a tough time! So a lot of in-air-shoots were just garbage :)
Nevertheless, I like the bokeh wide open, while it still produces noticeably chromatic abberation (but LRs abberation correction fixes that, so it's not a big issue). But stopped down to 5.6 it's pretty sharp even for modern sensors.

22/03/2026

On the road with the 4/300er. Me
creeps in that the lens is a bit decentered on the left side.
Interesting is the serial number, since this lens
uses the formula from 1979 and not the
newer one from 1981. From the serial number
5506 the production cards are missing. In addition, the batch
from 5106-5505 was produced in October 1990 with the
formula from 81. So you would guess from 7000 on it sure must have been also a last production or been manufactured in germany. It seems like there were production parts still available. But generally, you can not assume that
the lenses were sequentially manufactured. So it can
also be that some lenses with a higher
number were made earlier as such with a
lower number. All other lenses I saw with a number from 7000
was built with the 1981 formula.
An open question.

21/03/2026

Some shots with different lenses.
The first version of the CZJ Prakticar 4/300, the 2.4/35 and 2.8/20.
Pictures are from the Hohenrechberg and the Wallfahrtskirche zur Schönen Maria.
While the Kolari mod brought some improvements to the corners of the Flektogon variants, the field curvature is a problem at least for the 2.8/20. while the 35 mm has a m-shaped field curvature, the 20 mm has either the corners sharp or the center. never both. But that's probably only the case for a digital usage and stopped down you can manage that.

20/03/2026

And another round with the 1.4/50. this time at the embedded world. Hardware and cars and teddy bears.
And as well: the effect of the removed AA-filter with the Kolari UT mod: Moiré.

19/03/2026

another round with the Carl Zeiss Jena Prakticar 1.4/50 wide open.

18/03/2026

Some more pictures with the CZJ Prakticar 1.4/50 wide open. Since I have the Kolari UT modification it also seems to me that the spheric abberations are way less annoying than with the original sensor-stack and aa-filter. At times when I stopped down this lens automatically to 2.8 before even thinking about shooting, I am now using it wide open from the start and only stop down to 2.8 if I want to have a sharper and more defined picture. I also have the impression that the wild bokeh is still there but also reduced. Since I do not have another Sony a7 III for an A/B-testing, I can only try comparing it with the Sony a7s II I have as well, so it's not a good comparison.
So look at my impression only as a subjective judgement.

17/03/2026

Der Sonntag war regnerisch, die Blüten meist geschlossen, bis auf die Kirschpflaume, die mal durch Zufall aus einem Samen auf dem Kompost erwuchs.
Das 1.4er hier in Offenblende in den ersten beiden Bildern. Version 1.5 heißt übrigens, dass es die erste Bauform, aber bereits die zweite Optik-Rechnung ohne Thorium-Glas enthält.

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