The Red Handle - Optomax 35/2.8

For a few months during 2013 I used a secondhand Canon EOS digital camera with a selection of elderly M42 screw lenses which are plentiful on eBay. It was like stepping out of a Tornado GR4 and into a Sopwith Camel. Rediscovering manual focussing was particularly refreshing, although with variable success (no split-image microprism focusing screen on an EOS). Of the several lenses I tried, I liked the Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar the best: not fast, but tactile and close-focussing, the optical equivalent of a silk scarf. And a surprise was to be had in the Optomax (who they?) 35mm f/2.8 which was quite a capable lens with a wider field of view than the Tessar. This was despite a load of dust within the barrel, and a hair from some previous photographer’s head, and a smattering of mildewy dots not so bad as to rob the results of contrast, just a sort of early warning of problems ahead. It was built very solidly and it had engraved on the barrel, via a strong technical-drawing instrument, I shouldn’t wonder, the postcode of some previous owner. Eventually the M42-on-digital craze wore off. Some of the better kit was recycled on eBay; some lingers awaiting a burst of energy for further forays in the auctioneering nether-world, but the 35mm Optomax was not in the kind of condition guaranteed to please a fastidious prospective purchaser and went on a one-way excursion to an Oxfam shop. What remains of its optical ability is displayed here on ipernity for the amusement of all who venture into the flimsy biplanes of the photographic community.