Meyer-Optik Goerlitz 30mm f/3.5 Lydith

Like most people I have a Bucket List of things to do before I shuffle off this mortal coil and join the choir invisible. It's not your average bucket list that involves dangerous feats of daring do, other folk can do that daft stuff. I just keep my bucket list simple with things I have a chance of achieving. Several items on my bucket list are photography related and includes the subject of this weeks blog.

There are a few lenses and camera's on my bucket list and I managed to tick one off recently when I was finally able to purchase a Meyer-Optik Goerlitz Lydith on ebay. I have bid on several over the last three years, but I have either been outbid or the price has gone above my spending limit, that's an important thing everyone should have when shopping on ebay. My patience was rewarded with a decent lens for less than £30.

When it arrived I was like a kid at christmas openng a present and now it was in my hands I had to start using it immediately. First things first, I gave it a good clean. A couple of minutes of care soon had me grining as I could see I had bought a good quality item. The lens I bought was a quirk of advancing technology in the 1950's and 60's. It has a preset aperture function. You pull the aperture ring out, turn the ring to select the aperture you want to use and release the ring with the indicator pointing at the number. Then you ope the aperture wide open to find your composition and focus. Once you have that, turn the aperture ring to your chosen aperture. It will not go past that number until you select another aperture. This is a halfway house between totally manual lenses and those like my Helios 44m-4 that has an auto aperture pin that is pushed in by the camera mechanism as you take your shot. It didn't take me long to figure out how to use it and I fitted the Lydith onto my Pentax SP500, loaded a roll of HP5 into it and went for a walk.

I never tire of the local nature trails and farm roads. It's been particularly nice to be able to get out and about this year despite the 'rona and enjoy my photo walks. On this particular day I was treated to billowy clouds and ever changing light. It was perfect to use a yellow filter for some of my wide shots as I experimented with my Lydith. The preset aperture can be fiddly behind a filter holder, but I soon got used to it. The only thing wrong with using it on my film camera first was having to wait until I developed the film when I got home. However, I always go well armed and had my Nikon D700 and an M42-F mount adapter in my bag. It didn't take long to shoot a roll of film and I swapped the lens onto my D700 and began shooting digital. I admit to doing a lot of chimping whilst I made my way home.

From my digital images I could see the optical quality of a lens that was made in the 1960's was still top notch. Meyer-Optik had a great reputation for quality before Germany was split into two after the war. It's to the credit of the German photographic industry that they not only rebuilt their industry from piles of rubble, but also after having most of their stock and machinery taken in reparations. I can tell someone had put not just their skills into making my Lydith, but a fair amount of love for their craft too.

It wasn't long before I developed my film and marvelled at the sharpness of the images I got right and still marvelled at the creamy softness of those I slightly missed the focus on. I developed my film using Kodak HC-110 dilution B and I am very happy with the resuts. I'm no stranger to Soviet and East German lenses, but this is on it's own level entirely. Centre sharpness is bang on and the fall off is so smooth when shooting close up that your subject almost melts out of focus towards the edges. This is one bucket list lens I will never regret buying and It's going to be living on my Pentax SP500 for a while.

Here are a few images I shot both in film and digital formats using my Lydith. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. You can also see a few more images on my Flickr album Lydith and maybe they will inspire you to give East German optics a try. 

I bought my Ilford HP5+ 400 from Analogue Wonderland

I bought my Kodak HC-110 from Nik and Trick Photo Services

Please pay them a vist as they are great folk to do business with.

Wigan Mining Monument and Kodak Ektar 100

 This week I finally managed to photograph a new art installation in Wigan that commemorates the coal mining heritage of the borough. Paid for by the people of Wigan the surrouunding borough the Mining Monument is situated next to the town hall, an impressive terracotta clad building that was once Wigan Mining Colege. The installation consists of a man, woman and child heading to work at the coal mine. The fundraising efforts were led by Shiela Ramsdale and Ann Catterall with the aid of the group formed to promote and celebrate Wigan's heritage, Wigan History Mining Monument (WHAMM).

Wigan was at the heart of the Industrial revolution that catapulted a sleepy market town into a bustling hive of industry with the discovery of coal. It was this easy access to the almost limitless supply of coal that persuaded wealthy industrialists to exploit the towns natural resources and build large cotton mills powered by coal fired steam engines. This industrial might also led to the re-routing of the Leeds to Liverpool canal and in turn gave birth to the legend of Wigan Pier, immortalized in George Orwell's social commentary, "The Road To Wigan Pier".  

For well over two hundred years Wigan was busy as Coal Mines, Cotton Mills and the local Ironworks churned out millions of pounds worth of goods each year, but sadly it wasn't to last. The advent of cheap imports and a bitter struggle that saw the Miners in the town go on strike for a year was the culmination of a decline in the towns fortunes. The last Mine in the once hugely productive Lancashire coalfield, Parkside Colliery closed in 1993, thus bringing an end to several hundred years of Coal Mining in Lancashire. Wigan has had to fight it's way back to prosperity with the loss of the three big industries, indeed most of the towns employment now comes from the retail and distribution sectors.

To commemorate the towns Mining heritage, Steve Winterburn was commissioned to craft the statues in bronze and is no stranger to capturing the spirit of the town. Steve was also responsible for the excellent statue of local Rugby League legend, Billy Boston. I have featured that imposing statue both here and on my Instagram account. With lockdown finally easing I was able to explore a bit more rather than just nipping into town for essentials only.

The Mining Monument, all shiny and fresh, is weathering nicely and will stand for many decades to remember the industry that played a pivotal role in the growth of Wigan and surrounding borough. Steve has yet again crafted an excellent monument for our town and, when the pandemic allows us, there wil be a civic unveiling to properly recognise the effort that Sheila, Ann and their colleagues put into fundraising and the skills that Steve put into creating this beautiful monument.

Here's a few images I shot on Kodak Ektar 100 colour film using my Nikon F801 and my 50mm f/1.8 D lens.I bought the film from Analogue Wonderland and the good folk at Max Spielmann developed and scanned it for me. I'm normally a ColorPlus 200 shooter, but this monument deserved better. Kodak Ektar is an excellent emulsion from Kodak's Professional range that renders colours nicely with fine grain for excellent sharpness. I have put these images and a few more on Flickr. I hope you enjoy them.

Kodak Ektar 100 on Flickr
Analogue Wonderland
Max Spielmann

Praktica BX20 - The Last Of The East German 35mm SLR Cameras

I recently bought a Praktica BX20 on a whim from ebay. I was curious as to how good or bad the last of the East German giant's camera's were after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reuinification. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Electronically controlled shutter speeds of 1 second to 1/1000th and Bulb, Aperture Priority for those days when you want to be lazy and use auto and all packed into a plastic body built around a magnesium chassis. It is powered by a 4SR44 battery that I bought from Buy A Battery that is a replacement for the PX28 it originally used.
 

The BX20 feels cheap compared to the offerings from the Japanese camera industry, but don't let that fool you. It certainly holds its own against camera's with the same specification costing several times as much on the used camera market. The only bad thing is I had a problem with the door latch on my BX20. I sent it to Pierro at PPP Repairs and he mended it for me for a very reasonable price. So reasonable that I still couldn't buy a decent Japanese camera for twice the amount my BX20 cost me to buy and have repaired.

Here's a few images from a roll of Foma 400 I shot recently with my BX20 and a Prakticar 35-70mm lens. If you're looking for something cheap and cheerful that's capable of producing decent images, don't walk past Praktica and head for the more desirable Japanese offerings, give it a try. You may be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

Please visit these links. I don't get paid to advertise them, I use them because they are great places to do business with and I happily recommend them to you.

Buy A Battery
Analogue Wonderland

PPP Camera Repairs 

Mesnes Park, Wigan

Mesnes Park (pronounced "Mains") is the jewel in the crown of Wigan. Opened in 1878, Mesnes Park was intended as a place for the people of Wigan to enjoy some leisure time in pleasant surroundings, away from the Collieries, Cotton Mills and Iron Works that were the main source of employment in the town during the industrial revolution. Life in Wigan during this time was hard, the industrial sites were often dark, dirty and dangerous places to work. Mesnes Park was a place where everyone could go and relax on the one day off that many people only got in those days, Sunday, right after going to church.

Over the years several additions were made to the park, the frst of which in 1880 was the Swiss Chalet where the park keeper lived. It was followed in the same year by the magnificent Pavilion set high above the surrounding gardens with impressive stairways leading up to it. To this day the Pavilion is a great place for a coffee and an ice cream on sunny afternoons.

 

The first of the statuary paid for by public subscription was installed in 1903 to commemorate the men from Wigan who served in the British Army during the Boer War in South Africa and never came home. sadly the original was lost to decomposition during the 1960's. A new statue was installed in 2013, again paid for by the people of Wigan and I'm honoured to be one of them.

1910 was the year a statue to commemorate Sir Francis Sharp Powell was installed and again the people of Wigan paid for it. It was to honour his service to the town as a Member of Parliament and for his philanthropy. It's said that if you rub his foot you will enjoy good fortune, a local legend that began in the years following WW2. His foot gleams in the sunshine in contrast to the dark weathered bronze of the rest of the statue of Sir Francis as he sits on his chair in contemplation.

At the beginning of the 21st century Mesnes Park was showing every single one of it's 120 years. Conservation group "The Friends' Of Mesnes Park" together with Wigan Council applied for and was awarded a multi million pound grant from the UK National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore Mesnes Park to it's former glory. This included the reinstatment of The Coalbrookdale Fountain which was dismantled in the 1920's and the new Boer War memorial I mentioned earlier. The grand re-opening ceremony was performed by TV and Radio broadcaster Stuart Maconie who was born in the town. The renovation was a success and the people of Wigan have been enjoying the park every day since, only closing for the duration of the lockdown due to Covid 19 in 2020. Two world wars never managed to do that.

In 2017 when I decided to take up Film Photography again after a long hiatus, Mesnes Park became my classroom. As you can see from my photographs there is a lot for an aspiring photographer to study and learn from. I'm being brave this week and posting a slide show video that I made using Nero Video alongside my photographs. You can see more images on my Flickr account at Jim Graves Flickr

All photographs were shot using my Nikon F801 and Nikkor lenses on Kodak ColorPlus 200, Kodak Pro Image 100 and Ilford HP5+400. I also sneaked in a couple of digital images shot with my Nikon D700. The music is titled "Analog" and was written and performed by Mike Gutterman, host of the Negative Positives Film Photography Podcast. I have learned a lot and been encouraged by the folks at Negative Positives toenjoy the whole film process from loading the film into my camer right thriugh to developing and scanning to show you all here. I haven't made the next brave step and tried developing colour film yet, I still support the good folks at Max Spielmann to do that for me, but I might give it a try before the year is out. Please visit the links below and I hope you enjoy this weeks video and images.

 Analogue Wonderland
 Max Spielmann Photo Store
 Negative Positives Film Photography Podcast

 Mike Gutterman - Analog