I have a plan... a Domiplan

 Back to the Beginning and fixing a Meyer-Optik Domiplan lens

  My very first SLR was an Exa 1A with a Meyer-Optik 50mmf/2.8 Domiplan lens. It’s the only lens that I used with that camera, which I had for about a decade.  As a beginner, I was just happy to have a real camera, and that Domiplan lens served me well - and I had no reason nor the resources to acquire another lens.  I’ve written here before about my early years with the Exa 1a.  It’s not a camera that I would ever recommend to anyone, let alone a beginner.  But in 1973, it is what I had.   I’m sure that if a Pentax Spotmatic been my first SLR, I would have been really over the moon with it.  

If you have been following along for the past couple of years, you would know that I am working on a book about M42 cameras and lenses with emphasis on the Pentax Spotmatic series. I previously shot a Domiplan lens with an M42 body in 2013. Over the years, I have acquired a number of M42 mount Meyer-Optik Domiplan lenses and wanted to use them, but every single one of them had a non-working aperture, forever stuck wide-open at the very modest f/2.8.  That seems to be the major problem with that lens.  I found that I still had two examples of the lens, and I really wanted to see how it performed for me now, over 50 years since I received the Exa 1a.  

Two Domiplan lenses apart. Both were fixed.

So, I did what everyone else does, and looked for repair videos on YouTube! I have two lenses, so at least one of them should be repairable, right? Some of the “repair” videos made me cringe, but two sources stood out as being excellent (this one and this video).  After about 4 hours of working on it, I now have a fully functional Domiplan lens.  The two most frustrating aspects of the reassembly are obviously reattaching the six aperture blades, and the part that controls the aperture pin.  Once I got that done, I was really happy.  The problem with the Domiplan lenses are that over time, oil and grease cause the aperture blades to stick together, and the focus helical also becomes harder to turn.  So, using lighter fluid to degrease the aperture blades the the surrounding parts was an essential part of the fix.

Are Domiplan lenses THAT special?  Not necessarily, but the lens is a Cooke triplet based on a 1883 design by Taylor in the UK.  It is 3 elements in three groups, an inexpensive, yet very workable design also in other lenses.  Meyer-Optik Gorlitz produced the Domiplan and the Trioplan lenses with that formula.  

The Domiplan was the very basic, cheapest lens used on Exakta and Praktika cameras, all in East Germany.  Noted for its “bubble bokeh”, the Domiplan is not a fast lens at a maximum f/2.8 aperture, though it does stop down to f/22.  The complaint with this lens is the “automatic aperture”  design where the aperture actuation pin is depressed only when the lever inside the camera pushes against it at the time of the exposure.  The lens remains wide-open , no matter what aperture has been selected, until the moment of exposure. That makes focusing easier, of course.  It also makes it very difficult to adapt the lens to any other camera that does not have a way to depress the aperture pin, so you digital folks adapting the lens are generally stuck at shooting it wide-open.  Most lenses from that period have an Auto/Manual switch at the base of the lens so you can use them in stop-down mode.   Not this lens, though. 

However, since I am using an M-42 SLR body with this lens, it’s not a problem.  I can use the stop-down metering function that will activate the aperture pin, and allow me to meter the scene, and then just focus wide-open and make the exposure. Right now, I am using a Chinon CS-4 SLR that works well with this lens.  And that’s my goal - to shoot with this lens and see how it performs in a much better camera than that Exa 1a. 

Well, I shot a roll of Lucky 400 color film, and while doing so, I realized that I messed the alignment of the helicoid up and could not focus at infinity, which was one of the warnings in taking the lens apart.  However, I simply shot at f/16 or f/22 to address that when necessary. 

I still have a second Domiplan lens, and after cleaning THAT one, I reassembled the lens, and the aperture blades and focus helical work perfectly.  I’ll try shooting with that one at a later date. Anyhow, this post is about the results from lens #1.  I dropped off my roll of the exposed Lucy 400 at Ball Photo, and they developed the film.  I scanned the film with my Epson V700.

Here are some examples from that roll of film:

I'll try the second lens with b&w film and will post those later.

All photos below taken at the Asheville Botanical Gardens

A good example of the "bubble bokeh"

not as sharp at wider apertures, less infinity focus

When stopped down, no "bubbles"

It's Holga Week!

 It’s Holga Week, from October 1-7, and it’s a good time to shoot with that plastic-fantastic camera.   I’ve used Holgas since about 2002, and over time, I have figured out that it does not pay to obsess trying to get a “perfect” image from them.  You cannot get perfection from an imperfect device, but you can get satisfaction.  A Holga is a great way to take a photograph and be “in the moment” with it.  You come to appreciate its imperfections and are more aware of having a good composition over whether or not every other aspect is “perfect.” You can’t control the shutter speed, and the aperture selection is pretty minimal. But used in the right lighting with a film of 200-400 ISO, you will get something.  

Some people ask if the Holga is a good way to start in Medium Format.  I think it’s a good way to start with photography, period.  It lets you focus on what’s in front of you, and yes, you are going to make mistakes - such as not understanding the red window for the frame counter, having it set on Bulb instead of Normal, etc., but since the Holga 120N  has a tripod socket now and with B and N settings, you can take long exposures to make up for low-ISO films, low light, and so on.  Consider the Holga to be a pathway into making images with an impact.  They have a special quality that can make them stand out from the mundane digital perfection of a scene.  With 12 square images per roll, you try to make each one special.

If you want to see what can be done with a Holga, check out Michael Kenna’s fantastic work in his book HOLGA.  Also, check out the images from Neal Wellons on Flickr, who routinely uses a Holga for infrared photography.  

Last year, I took one of my Holgas along on a trip to Arizona, and shot a few odd Lomography films.  Oddball films re perfect with an oddball camera.  Here are a few examples.

Saguaro, Lomochrome Purple

Lowell, AZ, Lomochrome Purple

McD's Lomochrome Turquoise

Off I-40, near Holbrook, AZ. Fomapan 200

Route 66, near Grants, NM. Fomapan 200.

Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson, Rollei 400S, red filter

The Ultra-Wide and Slim travels

Back in August, I drove a 15ft U-Haul truck from Tucson, AZ back to Asheville, NC.  I've already posted on the trip here. Before the trip, I had mailed my film and my RETO Ultra-wide and Slim to my daughter in Tucson.  I hadn't used the UW&S for quite a while, and figured that it would be a fun thing to have with me for the trip back, in addition to my Pentax Spotmatic F and my digital Panasonic GF-1.  It had been several years since I used the RETO camera, and I did review it in 2022.

I put in a roll of expired Agfa APX 400 that my daughter had in her film stash, because I wanted a shorter roll in the UW&S. A 24-exposure roll is recommended for this camera.  It didn't matter if the film was expired - this is all for fun, and toy cameras are perfect for old higher-ISO films.  I didn't start shooting with it until our second day on the road, when I loaded it up in Grants, NM, where we had spent our first night.  

Since the camera has such a wide-angle of view, it's basically just aim and shoot, which I could do one-handed while driving the truck.  But that camera was the one I pulled out when we were refilling at gas stations and pit stops from New Mexico to Tennessee. We were on I-40 most of the way, with the occasional stretch of old Route 66. I think I made the most of my limited photographic opportunities.

Here is a sequence from the trip.

Filling up just E of Grants, NM in the morning of 8/25.

Traffic jam on I-40 in Albuquerque, thanks to a 4-car collision ahead.

At a rest stop E of Albuquerque

NM has some really interesting-looking rest areas.

I bought some souvenirs here in Tucumcari, NM

A little park to stop at and eat our our take-out lunch from Del's in Tucumcari.

A quick partial fill-up in Adrian, TX. 

A fill-up at Buc-ee's in Amarillo, TX. This must have been built since we were there in 2021.

A rest-area in Oklahoma

Oklahoma. It was damned hot AND humid there.

Arkansas

Major Tom, Weatherford, OK  and out-of sequence.

Somewhere in Tennessee. It was a long last day on the road.

Some Old Fujicolor Press 800

Every once in a while, I find a gem among expired films.  When it comes to color emulsions, it's almost always a guessing game, unless I know the history of the film - how it was stored, and when it expired.  While there are general rules of thumb about exposing out-of-date films, some films age better than others (slow black and white films always age the best), and I end up having to estimate the "ideal" or realistic ISO for exposing a particular film.

In this instance, my friend Bill Pivetta handed me a roll of old Fujicolor Press 800 - a color emulsion that is at least 20 years old.  I've shot it before, but it was a long time ago.

Here is the blurb about the film from Fujifilm:

"This is the first ISO 800 film to feature a fourth color-sensitive layer. It also incorporates the Fine Sigma Technology to attain outstanding fine grain quality and sharpness. Other features made possible by the addition of a fourth color-sensitive layer include excellent gray balance, remarkable fluorescent light suitability, and high color fidelity. Boasting wide exposure latitude, it is able to produce prints with high image depth and fidelity even from underexposed negatives." 

That all sounds pretty good, right?  Most 800 ISO color films are a bit grainy and lack some the latitude found in a 400 ISO C-41 film.

But how old is this film?  Bill wasn't sure, so I guessed about 20 years.  It may have been cold-stored for some of that time...or maybe not!  Since color films, especially high ISO color films lose their sensitivity more so than slower emulsions, I decided to shoot it at ISO 100 - that's 3 stops overexposed from 800.

I loaded the Press 800 film in my Vivitar V2000, a very reliable K-mount SLR.  I used several lenses, one of them being a 135mm Sears lens with close focus for up to 1:5 "macro", which has interesting bokeh when wide open, as you will see below.

The film was processed by the Reformed Film lab in Florida.  I scanned the negatives on my Epson V700 scanner.

My first impression is that I probably could have shot this film at ISO 200 with good results.  Some of the images looked overexposed in full sunlight.  Now one typically uses an ISO 800 film in low-light situations, and I did not do that, especially since I was rating it at ISO 100.

Here are some examples from the roll.

Overall, the results were pretty good.  I probably could have had good results at ISO 200, as well. It just goes to show that you can sometimes be surprised in a positive manner by an expired film.  I'd certainly try another roll, Bill!

Pentax Class of 1975

 

Pentax introduced the K-mount fifty-one years ago, and these three SLRs were the first K-mount bodies. The Pentax KM - a fully manual SLR with the ability to operate without a battery for the meter. It is basically a Pentax Spotmatic F, and far better than the K1000 that replaced it later. The Pentax KX uses a match-needle in the viewfinder to choose the appropriate shutter speed, and is also fully manual. There is a small window above the lens to show the aperture in the viewfinder. The K2 is quite different from the other two. It's an Aperture-Priority camera with manual exposure, but requires a battery to function  properly. For some reason, the designers at Pentax placed the ISO selection in a ring at the base of the lens mount. The camera also has a metal-bladed vertical focal plane shutter - the first Pentax camera to feature this.  

I purchased the KX at Monument Camera in Tucson in October 2025.  The K2 was an eBay purchase, back in March of this year.  I have had to lubricate the ISO ring several times, as it seizes up.  The KM, also an eBay find, was purchased in late August.  I'm still testing the KM, and it appears to work perfectly. I think it will become my favorite of the three cameras, with the KX coming in second.  The K2, aside from its flakey ISO ring, works well, too, and the exposures have been spot-on.  

These three cameras represent a milestone for Pentax, as it moved away from the M42 screw-mount.  The K-mount was able to accept the M42 lenses with an adapter, allowing users access to their old Takumars.  The K-mount lenses are pretty much identical to the SMC Takumars that they replaced.  The K-mount also allowed Pentax to add more electronic features as new technologies evolved and were incorporated into the bodies. 

Later SLRs from Pentax incorporated more electronic controls and smaller bodies as seen n the M-series, such as the ME.  However, I think that if a manual K-mount body is something you want, the KM, not the K1000, should be on your list. It has all the features that you may need.

I'm still working on my M42-Spotmatic book, but I have put it aside for a while. The text is done, and it's just a matter of layout and design. Of course, the question is will it be an e-book or a printed volume?