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Dog Schidt Lenses
  • So over at a friend's house borrowing some lenses and he asked me If I had used any dogshit lenses lately. I laughed and said, "I really try not to ever use any", and then he showed me what he was talking about. The name alone made me laugh, but the results are kinda awesome, and I like what these guys are doing. For Cameras with shallow DR, these are amazing lenses.

    I just love that their contrast options are "Low, Lower, and Stupidly Low."

    http://dogschidtoptiks.co.uk/index.html

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  • 119 Replies sorted by
  • Never heard of these guys. Really digging it. Thanks for the tip.

  • ^^^^ topic is spelled wrong so it didn't come up in my search

  • @Shian, Haha, I know, remembered reading the topic, had same issue as you, but then searched "Dog" and it came up top. There were some interesting Vimeo videos using those lenses, I don't have a link for them but I think there was a usergroup on Vimeo.

  • Dog Schidt is always in my bag!

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  • @Alex nice! Is that the Orange tint on the Flare Factory? Which contrast factor did you get?

  • Hugo Goudswaard/Beeldlab has their Trump lens,

    http://www.beeldlab.nl/dogschidt-optiks/

  • I love the Helios 44-2 even before the rebuild and coatings treatment.

  • @Shian this is my type: Lens 1 – 58mm Variable Aperture Circular f2-f16 Flare tint – orange Contrast level – stupid Glow – low Element cleaning marks – low

  • awesome, thank you

  • @jpbturbo very nice vid

  • Sick lenses. Schidt, I want one for a while. They look like submarine parts.

  • I'm just entering the world of 'lo-fi' glass. These Dog Schidt lenses look great.

    @RatLabProductions I pulled the trigger on an early 13 blade Helios 44-2 yesterday. It's the silver M39 version.

    Mainly bought it to go with a Kowa Bell & Howell 2x anamorphic. I figure it should flare more than the SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4 I've been using.

  • @pundit, 13 blade? I thought that Helios 44-2 M39 was only 8 blades? I was looking to also by one for my Kowa Bell & Howell 2x. I am also considering the Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f1.8

  • @HillTop1 Circular bokeh! See attached photos. Just specify "13 blade" in your searches.

    I found about half a dozen on eBay. Many are in poor condition so you'll need to sort through the duds. They generally sell at higher prices than the 8 blade versions.

    Mine was $87.00 for a fairly good one. (Pictures of actual lens below) The outside could do with a clean and it has a few dust specs but the glass itself is supposed to be in fairly good condition. I really dig the silver versions!

    There were two or three that were listed as being 'mint' but they were over $250!

    I didn't realise that the Dog Schidt 58's were recycled Helios 44-2's.

    I wonder how an older non multi-coated Helios would compare to a Dog Schidt if you added some appropriate coloured filtration? Seems like polishing the inner front bezel helps to lower the contrast and create additional flaring scenarios.

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  • I bookmarked a forum posting that I saw elsewhere that has a pretty comprehensive looking list with years, blades, etc. Scroll down to the post from the user "no-X":

    http://forum.mflenses.com/complete-helios-lens-list-anyone-t11435.html

  • I would be on board in a heartbeat if they had multiple focal lengths.

  • There's the Jupiter 9 (85mm) with lots of blades. Or the Tair 11 (135mm) with even more. Many of these lenses come in pretty poor condition in the bay. Flare is abundant in most cases, since they had very soft coatings which are gone with the years from cleaning too much. Cleaning marks and such give you a lot of "lo-fi".

    Don't get me wrong: if you find one in good condition, these are not dog shit. These are very fine lenses with excellent sharpness and step less aperture, BTW.

  • @B3Guy, agreed, especially wide angles. The look of these lenses is good, but 50mm is a little too long for me.

    Is there anything around 11mm-28mm that has similar characteristics to these?

  • In filmmaking terms, these are excellent options as a mild close-up lens for GH2, corresponding to 76mm in spherical Super-35mm terms. Not something you'd shoot the majority of a scene with, generally, but not so long you're going to struggle with it indoors.

    Hopefully we'll see a DSO-ified Jupiter, or equivalent and maybe something along the lines of that Pentax f/2 28mm that Andrew wrote about some time back, though now they seem to be going for a lot more than $60. I bet there aren't quite as many floating around out there like the Russian glass but fast-n-wide rarely comes that cheap. My 24mm f/2 Nikkor is going for twice what I paid for it now, above $300, and it's not as sharp as that Pentax at full open.

  • I'd settle for 35mm at the wide end, but I'm headed for a 3 lens set at minimum at this point. The current DS lens is a perfect lens for the middle of a set. Longer should also not be a problem for DS, there are good longer lenses that go with the Helios well. Honestly I'm between this old Russian style glass and the Zeiss C/Y stuff right now. Zeiss would have it in the bag if they had more aperture blades.

  • up close, using my Dog Schidt Optiks (Helios 44-2)

  • Has anyone ordered a lens from them recently? Dog Schidt has been getting a lot of positive attention lately (and rightfully so) I'm just wondering how long of a wait it has been between order placed and arrival.

  • I ordered from Dog Schidt in late February of last year & received my flare factory 58 from them the beginning of April. Very fast turnaround. Richard is a stand up guy that does really great work. Highly recommended! @theshittywizard

  • @sunscreen Thanks for the response! I'll be ordering a 2-3 FF58s in the next couple of weeks. I'm waiting to receive payment on a current gig.

    Any recommendations on the flare/color/aperture choices?

    I've been looking at quite a few videos, but I'm still having the "problem" of feeling like a kid in a candy store. I'll probably do one with circular and one with oval aperture...this much I know.