The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: Optomax

Things noticed at the margin of a relief road.

Photographed with an Optomax 35mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 20D camera. The lens has an M42 screw thread and an adapter is therefore necessary. I don't think Optomax made lenses; like Vivitar, they specified what they wanted and got manufacturers (usually, if not exclusively, Japanese) to bid for the business. There's not much on the web about the Optomax 35mm f/2.8 lens. A person on a Pentax users' forum reported in October, 2010, that he had bought one for £4.99 on eBay. He said, 'Like all lenses of this period, it is all metal and very well screwed together. Image quality is quite good - the best so far, in my rapidly growing sub ten quid lens collection.'

Photographed with a Canon EOS 20D and an Optomax 35mm f/2.8 lens from the screw-thread M42 era. I don't think Optomax made lenses; like Vivitar, they specified what they wanted and got manufacturers (usually, if not exclusively, Japanese) to bid for the business. There's not much on the web about the Optomax 35mm f/2.8 lens. A person on a Pentax users' forum reported in October, 2010, that he had bought one for £4.99 on eBay. He said, 'Like all lenses of this period, it is all metal and very well screwed together. Image quality is quite good - the best so far, in my rapidly growing sub ten quid lens collection.'

I bought this Optomax lens on eBay. It was very cheap and the seller had pointed out its deficiencies, or at least most of them. I used it via an adapter on a Canon EOS 20D with some success, where the field of view was similar to a standard 50mm lens on a full frame camera. Sometimes results lacked a bit of bite and contrast, as here, where the software has supplied what a good lens would have provided in the first place. Eventually I gave it to Oxfam so that someone else could have fun with it, whilst making a modest contribution to helping hungry people.

Once I owned an Optomax 35mm f/2.8 M42 lens. It was a lived-in kind of lens with a former owner's postcode engraved into the barrel with a sharp pointed tool. I think there was something growing in it; there was certainly a hair inside, probably an eyelash. But you don't get many 35mm f/2.8 lenses for less than £10, so I gave it a spin and it was pretty decent on a Canon EOS 20D with a bit of post processing. Alas! the quantity of kit was overwhelming my living space. Things had to go. The 20D found a new home via eBay. It was a good camera: the 30D is very similar yet has a bigger screen on the back, and I would like one of those one day. The Optomax went to a good charitable cause. It may be making prize-winning images by now.

Photographed with an Auto Optomax f/2.8 35mm M42 lens.

It looks a bit like a dog. Maybe it's a glove puppet! Photographed using an Optomax M42 35mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 20D

Canon EOS 20D and 35mm Optomax f/2.8 with Nikon Close-Up No.4T supplementary lens.