PL-mount Lomos on eBay: Advice needed

Alex de Campi · July 17, 2008

I am entranced by these: http://tinyurl.com/67fhzj . Look at all the pretty glass! Want!

Two questions, however.

1. Has anybody dealt with this seller before? Has good feedback and obv I'll ask to put it through an escrow service but it would also reassure me if any of you had bought lenses from him before.

2. I'm looking to use these with a 2-perf PL mount 35mm camera (and maybe eventually a standard 4-perf). However the listing says "All lenses except 18 and 22 mm cover Super 35 (4-perf) format." Does that mean they are anamorphic and thus would not work with 2-perf or standard 4-perf? Wise people, please explain.

victor huey · July 18, 2008

Hi, those are all spherical lens....just that the 18 and 22 will on 4 perf. Just remember these are PL mounts so the cost of a conversion per lens is about $300, so it's bad deal....but remember a Kinor 35H conversion to PL is very costly because the movement must be moved to make up for lack of clearance. Any PL mounted camera say a Arri BL3 or 4 will cost you around 20-25k. I red cam will cost you at least that much....so you are talking about 30k investment, not counting the work you have to do to get the lens in shape, they all need maintainance..no matter where they are from. So it all depends on your real budget or your dreams, you can get a sony ex1 1080p camcorder for 8-9k with sxs cards....but if you are set on getting a film camera......grabbing a set of lens are the way to start, the body can always be rented....people have been buying bodies and have no lens for them....price of new Cooke s4's are in the range of 80-90k

so you have to bite the bullet, especially with sending money orders and western union, if it's too good to be true maybe it isn't....word of warning...

Victor

victor huey · July 18, 2008

What i mean to say is that the 18 and 22mm vignette on four perf a bit....I bet the PL mounts adds a bit of thickness to the lens flange. Remember these are standard speed lens which are slower but super speeds are almost impossible to find and are going for almost 1k apiece now, and meaning that you will need more light to shoot your film, adding cost.

it is not a bad deal..but the word of warning applies to people who you have not dealt with....since if you are sending funds via western union, or money orders.

A lot of these adaptors are exactly precise so you will have to budget service work to be done to fine tune and relube them before you can really use on your camrera...

Owning gear these days is a never ending battle, so if you don't have the budget for it rent, if you want to won a camera there is a new generation of 1080p camcorders coming, so you can shoot you music videos and such for 8-9k , but if you insist on going film you better start saving now, prices of glass is skyrocketing

Alex de Campi · July 18, 2008

Just remember these are PL mounts so the cost of a conversion per lens is about $300, so it's bad deal....

I want PL mounts, though! Not putting them on a commiecam, putting them on an deutsche-cam.

Freya Black · July 18, 2008

2. I'm looking to use these with a 2-perf PL mount 35mm camera (and maybe eventually a standard 4-perf). However the listing says "All lenses except 18 and 22 mm cover Super 35 (4-perf) format." Does that mean they are anamorphic and thus would not work with 2-perf or standard 4-perf? Wise people, please explain.

They are all spherical lenses. Super35 is a format that uses the soundtrack area to record more information on the negative so that you can have a wider aspect ratio covering more film area. It's the same kind of idea as that behined S16 but with the same kind of problems too. Super35 cannot be contact printed which means that when making prints they have to either go through a D.I. or be printed on an optical printer both of which are more expensive than a normal contact print. Of course a lot of people aren't making prints anyway, in which case it doesn't matter. :)

These lenses would be fine with 2perf probably, at least depending on the format. The new penelope is a 2 perf camera that shoots 2 perf in S35 from what I have heard, but the normal techniscope format preserves the soundtrack area as they used to make techniscope film prints like all those spaghetti westerns, so for techniscope cameras these lenses should be fine.

Hope that makes things clearer! :)

love

Freya

Bruce Taylor · July 19, 2008

I believe ebay seller "sovjak" is the same person as "sp314". He was going through some issues about a year ago with ebay when I was making a purchase from him and everything went fine. When I dealt with him before he had me send an international postal money orders to Canada to someone else's name, and after they cashed the item was shipped from Ukraine. I have purchased several lenses from him and I have always been very pleased with the results.

The 200 and 300mm lenses look like an older design, and it looks like these lenses were originally made for a Konvas. So I think they may be a bit on the older side. You might ask for a serial # of some of the lenses, the first 2 digits are the year they were made, so 890034 would indicate it was manufactured in '89. The later glass has more and better coating, but it all depends on the look you are after.

As mentioned earlier, figure on paying someone to go through them to make them 100%, they will need service. Mechanically, Lomos are a little funky compared to glass costing many many times more, but they can and do make very beautiful images. Just watch some Russian movies made before '90 to see them in action.

If you're not going to be shooting Super35 I wouldn't worry about vignetting. They'll be fine for 4 perf academy or 2 perf techniscope. BTW, my understanding is that the Penelope centers the 2 perf frame differently than the old techniscope, but the frame width is the same, so no worries there as long as the lens is centered correctly.

Glass isn't getting any cheaper, and that looks like a nice set if it meets your needs.

Good luck,

Bruce Taylor

www.indi35.com

Alex de Campi · July 19, 2008

The name is Serhij Piskunov - that ring any bells?

Frustratingly, he doesn't take escrow.com - if he did, I'd buy those lenses in a second just to have as spares/seconds.

Bruce Taylor · July 19, 2008

The name is Serhij Piskunov - that ring any bells?

Frustratingly, he doesn't take escrow.com - if he did, I'd buy those lenses in a second just to have as spares/seconds.

Yeah, that's the guy. He's been straight with me, I recommend him. A lot of good Russian/Ukranian sellers won't have anything to do with anything but bank transfers-- no paypal, bidpay, escrow, etc.

Ebay says never use bank transfers or Western Union. Probably good advise as long as you don't want to buy from Russian sellers! I can only speak from my experience, but I have bought a ton of expensive (well, by Russian standards anyway) gear in the last couple of years mostly by bank wire transfer, sometimes through International Money Order, once in a while through bidpay. I have never been burned.

If it were me, I wouldn't hesitate to send the dough to Serhij if I wanted the lenses. But it's not my dough :rolleyes: !

If I can be of further help with my experience, feel free to PM or email me.