MIR 26B lens opinions

[mabman]

I would love to get a wide/ultra-wide lens for my much-neglected Kiev 60, which would make it sort of a poor-man's Hassy SWC.

I'm currently lusting after the CZJ Flektogon 4/50, but prices are generally still higher than I'd like.

The MIR 26B 3.5/45 would be my next preference in this category price-wise, but this lens test indicates there is some barrel distortion.

Just wondering if anyone has used this lens and can offer a practical opinion - is the barrel distortion that much of an issue or distraction in real conditions? A brief browse of Flickr images with the appropriate tag seem to indicate it's not really a problem.

Thanks!

 

[Nick Merritt]

I'll admit mine has some barrel distortion, but of course this is only an issue if you're shooting things with straight lines like architectural subjects. It's a nice lens, very sharp.

 

[ricksplace]

A friend brought one back from Ukraine for me. It looked like it had been dragged behind a polski fiat for at least 10km. Everything was loose on it. I shot many images with it for about 10 years until the aperature mechanism self-destructed and rattled around inside the lens. The images were nice and sharp so long as I stopped it down to f11. I replaced it with an older (zebra) flektogon. Maybe I just got a dud, but I also have to stop down the flekkie to f11 inorder to get edge to edge sharpness. My guess is that you would probably have to print 20X24 before you could see any difference between the results of the two lenses af f11-f16.

 

[borisdeswan]

I got a new old stock for a very reasonable ammount, and allthough not multi-coated it produces pleasing pictures certainly sharper stopped down than wide open. The 5 extra mm's you get in 6x6 allow for fun compositions specially landscapes, or street photos.Remember that DOF is pretty limited, however the bokeh it has, I would rate as very pleasant.

 

[david_mizen]

i have both the mir and zeiss 50mm i prefer the zeiss

 

[WRSchmalfuss]

Like with every lens, if perfectly assembled, the MIR 26B 3,5/45mm is not so bad!

 

[WRSchmalfuss]

Like with every lens, if the metal lens housing and the group of lenses are perfectly assembled, the MIR 26B 3,5/45mm is not a bad lens.