Radioactive

[Black Pearl]

A few weeks back I was rummaging about at work and in a dusty long forgotten box I found a Carl Zeiss Jena - Pancolar 50mm f1.8 that was in need of some serious love and care. The grease had gone solid so the focus ring was jammed, the apertures weren't moving properly and it felt distantly like the element housing wasn't entirely attached to the outer barrel - there was also the fact all the glass was bright yellow due to it containing the radioactive element Thallium. Yes, if you put a Geiger counter on it you'll get some clicking....Google says its safe clicking so I'm not going to worry about growing an extra digit or two 

So......I took it round to my mum's and gave it to her partner who pulls old lenses apart on a weekly basis to let him have a fiddle. I picked it up tonight with its now super smooth focus ring and lovely snappy aperture blades - I checked and he hasn't grown a third eye or lost any teeth so I'm still going with it being safe. I still need to bleach out the yellowing using a LED light that has a degree of UV output (IKEA ones work according to another Google) but in the mean time I switched the Fuji to monochrome and took it on tonights dog walk around the local park.

It might just be a little bit special.....

[Ryewolf]

Nice one BP, hope there's no side effects, extra arms, legs, eyes... etc...

[kev7d]

Lovely stuff.  

[Phil]

BOKEHLICIOUS!

[Clicker]

Ooooh that's amazing Beepy ... Your Mum's partner has a talent  for fixing lenses that's for sure ... Any glass with a Carl Zeiss pedigree is worth restoring...   so is it yours now ?

[FUJI]

You have a faboulus lens there Robin, I have a couple of SUPER TAKUMAR'S like that in my collection......they have altered my behaviour.....they force me to think before clicking the shutter.

Two great shots, with your mutt winning hands down .

Currently I gave loan of a MINOLTA ROKKOR 1.4-50 .....that give similar results, I used it to shoot the lady choosing melons in my last post.

FUJI

[Black Pearl]

4 hours ago, Clicker said:

Ooooh that's amazing Beepy ... Your Mum's partner has a talent  for fixing lenses that's for sure ... Any glass with a Carl Zeiss pedigree is worth restoring...   so is it yours now ?

I'm still negotiating term but as it was worthless when I found it I'm thinking a few quid in a local charity shop box would be a satisfactory concluding to the deal.