Introduction

Pentacon 50mm f1.8 (or Pentacon auto 1.8/50 MULTI COATING) is a manual vintage lens that was shipped as standard kit lens with all Praktica cameras during 70s and 80s. It was produced in East Germany in millions and is available quite cheap today. It is very popular among video shooters for its cinematic look footage (Second most popular vintage lens for videos after Helios 44 series), and among photographers because of its short minimum focusing distance, vintage character and dreamy look images especially for macro photography and to some extent portrait photography. There are a few very popular Instagram accounts built around pictures mainly created with this lens.

Fun fact: This lens is actually a Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston, which was produced from around 1960 to 1971 but after Pentacon took over Meyer-Optik Görlitz, they just rebadged it and produced the same lens under the new name “Pentacon” from 1971.

Sample Images

Specifications

Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture Range: 1.8 – 16 (in half stops)
Number of Aperture Blades: 6 (mildly rounded)
Min Focus: 0.33 m
Elements/Group: 6/4
Filter Size: 49mm
Lens Mount: M42 and Praktica B
Weight: 196g
Length: 38mm (focus ring at infinity)

Handling

The lens is built almost like a tank, all metal and glass. As being made in East Germany during the 70s and 80s it has not have the best build quality reputation, which is a little unfair. The build quality is actually good but quality control by that time in East Germany maybe has not been at the top of the priority list, that is why you can encounter some samples with focusing ring issues or that rear element has loosened. There is of course no weather sealing. The aperture ring has full stop markings but is clickable at half stops. The focusing ring is somewhat wide for this size of the lens with good grip and rotates almost 320 degrees, which is very good and allows for accurate manual focusing. There is a pin at the reverse side of the lens to allow automatic aperture closing, which the Praktica cameras operated when set to auto or held it completely pushed in when set to manual. this does not always work with today’s dumb adapters, time to time the pin is retracted a little or get stuck when set it to wide open, which makes the lens not to understand when it is stopped down and irrespective which aperture setting, the picture is taken wide open, then I have to unscrew and screw in the lens a little again so the pin is pushed in and the aperture closes to what I have set, quite irritating, as most of the times you don’t look into the lens each time you change aperture from wide open to see if the aperture is closed and just press the shutter button and snap away resulting in overexposed pictures. It can be adapted to most digital cameras (both full frame and APS, both mirrorless and DSLR) with adapters.

Note: As the flange distance of Nikon DSLRs are larger than the cameras with M42 mount, when used on Nikon DSLR the lens acts as it is mounted with an extension tube on the camera, you can get closer and get bigger magnification but you can never focus on infinity. On Nikon mirrorless cameras there is no such issue though and the lens with adapter behaves as it was designed for the camera and you can focus on all distances including infinity.

Variations

There are a few versions that have been produced during its life time.

• PENTACON auto 1.8/50 with silver-black checkered focusing ring.
• PENTACON electric 1.8/50 Same as above, with open-aperture metering on cameras that support it.
• PENTACON auto 1.8/50 Multi-coated version. “Multi Coating” written in both white and red.
• PENTACON electric 1.8/50 Same as above, with open-aperture metering on cameras that support it.
• PENTACON PRAKTICAR 1:1.8 f=50mm MC Multicoated Praktica B-mount version.

Optical Features

Sharpness (infinity)

Wide open at f1.8 the center sharpness is OK and usable but not very good, midframe and corners are bad. At f2.8 the center sharpens up to good values, midframe and corners still not OK. f4 center sharpness is very good, midframe is just OK now, corners still bad. Vi get Excellent sharpness in the center and midframe by f5.6, corners are OK and acceptable now. First at f8 we get good sharpness even in the corners and we still have very good sharpness in center and midframe, good for landscapes. At F11 has the diffraction taken some of the center and midframe sharpness but corners are almost as they were at f8 and generally very good sharpness across the frame. At f16 we get another small dip in sharpness across the frame. Generally the contrast is very low, especially at wider apertures and needs some boost in the post processing.

Sharpness (Portrait)

Let’s look at the areas of interest in portraits; center, inner circle and outer circle of one third intersection.

Focus on Greta’s left eye. In the center the sharpness is good for portraits with a little dreamy effect, sharpness increases for each half stop smaller aperture. Inner center is a little soft at 1.8 but still usable, from 2.5 it is good. Outer circle is too soft at 1.8, not usable actually, at 2.5 it is much better and at the edge of being usable but still very soft, at 2.8 it is OK but not razor sharp.

Sharpness (Close-up)

In close-up we look only at the center of the image. Focus on Astrids right eye.

The minimum focus distance is 0.33m, which is a lot closer than many other standard lenses, it is one of the strong reasons for this lens’s popularity among flower photographers and videographers. When it comes to sharpness, it is quite sharp (at least sharp enough) for most applications at this distance with a dreamy touch already at f1.8, stopping down just half a stop it delivers very good sharpness in the center. At f5.6 and beyond the sharpness is excellent near MFD.

Two closeup images, before at f1.8, after at f8

Another pair of closeup images, before at f1.8, after at f11

Lens Distortion

The lens show a very mild barrel distortion, which is negligible.

Vignetting

At f1.8 there is about 2 stops light falloff towards the corners, which gets better by stopping down, about 1.3 stops at f2.8 and and only 2/3 of a stop at f4. By f5.6 it is less than 1/5 stop, which is negligible and it gets even less by further stopping down.

Flare Resistance

I think this is the weakest point of this lens’ optical features as the flare resistance is very bad. It easily shows both veiling flare and ghost flare in the image.

Chromatic Aberrations

CA is controlled quite well, it is very difficult to see any CA even in the most challenging situations. If it is there then it is negligible.

Coma

The lens suffers from severe coma at f1.8 but most of it is gone by f4 and somewhere between 4 and 5.6 it is completely gone.

Sun Stars

You will not get any nice sun stars with this lens, the rather weak sun stars that can appear are not well defined or beautiful in my opinion and also even if you get them, they come seldom alone but with veiling and ghosting flare. Not good.

Focus Breathing

As you can see in this image the lens does suffer from considerable focus breathing, that is annoying for video makers.

Bokeh

The bokeh’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it cannot be more true than in the case of this lens. Some people just love its bokeh and some hate It.

The bokeh of this lens has a strong outline in some situations and can be very harsh or sharp with strange shapes. When you stop down just a little it gets even harsher. In close-ups it can create some kind of unique dreamy watercolor effects in the background that it is difficult to get from other lenses. I like that effect very much in those specific cases. You can see hexagonal shapes if you stop down just a little, again something that some people hate, some others love and think it is creative. At portrait distance it can easily get busy backgrounds but sometimes it is just beautiful. In some cases it can produce soap bubble bokeh and in some rare cases a swirly bokeh. In other words its bokeh is a mixed bag, you can get either type and in some cases you get both in the same image. With some practice and experience you will be able to choose the subjects and situations that give you the opportunities that produce the type of bokeh you like.

Here you can see a series of pictures with different focusing distances from about 0.35m (A) to about 1.5m (F) focusing distance. In all of these cases I think the background/foreground bokeh are rendered quite nicely.

Here is an example of the mixed bag, at some places the bokeh is pleasing and at some other places it is annoying (my personal opinion)

Alternatives

Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8, The original design, without coating,

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f71.8, Nicer optical features, more expensive, smoother bokeh

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm F/2.8, Nice bokeh balls, equally sharp, better build, slower lens (more than 1 stop less light wide open)

Meyer-Optik Görlitz Trioplan 50mm f/2.9, Very popular for its known bubble bokeh, much more expensive

Super Takumar 55mm f/2, A little bit slower, more expensive, narrower field of view

Takumar 55mm f/2.2, Slower, more expensive, narrower field of view

Conclusion

The Pentacon 50/1.8 is a very special lens, it is not a lens that you can use everywhere, every day or for every kind of photography, Definitely not a lens for everybody. For the kind of effect that it can produce, it can be used creatively. For the persons that like that, this lens is a wonder, it is an uncut gem from the past with great potential. You can create pieces of art with it, beautiful painterly like art, whether everybody likes that kind of art is another thing. The lens has many technical shortcomings, as we saw, that makes it directly unsuitable for many applications and in many cases, but it has other qualities that are unique, and it is cheap, and for that reason you can get it without making a hole in your pocket and have a lot of fun with it.

More Sample Images