Comparing a Biometar to a Flektogon to an Orestegor

Unlike my Nikon camera bodies, where I can transfer lenses from one chassis to another without any problems, my Pentacon Six uses proprietary lenses. Now if I want to put a Pentacon lens on a Nikon camera, there’s an adapter for such a connection. But I can’t put Nikon gear on a Pentacon camera – since the Pentacon chassis interacts with the lenses in a specific manner, you can’t mod a Nikon lens to fit on a P6 breach mount chassis. Almost like trying to put a Toyota motor in a Chevrolet, or like trying to put Chuck Miller in a Tesla. Won’t fit, won’t work, won’t happen. 😀

So that means I have to purchase proprietary camera lenses that fit my Pentacon Six TL body, and these lenses have goony names that I have to re-brand so that I can determine which is which when I need them. Right now I have the standard kit lens that came with the Pentacon Six TL (the Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8), a telephoto (the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestegor 500mm f/5.6 lens that, due to its size, has kinda earned the nickname “Johnny Wadd” – yes, I went there), and now I own my third Pentacon-specific lens – a Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 65mm f/2.8 ultrawide lens. Ostregor. Flektogon. Biometar. Who branded these lenses, and why did they brand them in Esperanto?

Okay, let’s talk about this new-to-me Flektogon 65mm f/2.8 piece of glass. I’ve heard stories about it – this is a powerful ultrawide camera lens, and if you hit its sweet spot, the pictures are incredible. But deviate from that sweet spot just a teensy bit, and your shots go from fantastic to iffy-wiffy.

You know what? Let’s try a little experiment. I’ll photograph the same subject and interchange with all three lenses. And I’ll take a fourth photo – with my cell phone – so you can get an idea of where I’m standing when I capture each photo. I’ve packed the camera with some new-to-me Chinese B&W “Lucky” film that came with a bulk film order I previously placed. Let’s try this little experiment, shall we?

Here I am in Washington County, at the top of a hill that overlooks the Rexleigh Covered Bridge. For reference, here’s a cell phone photo of my shooting location.

First up … let’s try the standard kit lens, the Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 lens on this bad boy.

Not bad. A little contrasty, but I’m using cheap off-brand Chinese film. Let’s go from here. Disconnect the Biometar lens, slap the Orestegor ultra-wide on, and …

Okay. It’s not as noticeable in this setting, but I bet the Orestegor would work well with some film astrophotography – in other words, it should allow me a clear view of the sky in one frame.

Okay. Time to add Johnny Wadd to the mix. And …

Holy screaming crap. I haven’t moved down the hill … but look at how large the bridge is with this Meyer Optik Görlitz 500mm f/5.6 thundershooter. Damn I could have fun with this.

I like how this is turning out.

I say we keep this giong. You never know how it will turn out.