Radioactive

[Black Pearl]

A few weeks back I was rummaging about at work and in a dusty long forgotten box I found a Carl Zeiss Jena - Pancolar 50mm f1.8 that was in need of some serious love and care. The grease had gone solid so the focus ring was jammed, the apertures weren't moving properly and it felt distantly like the element housing wasn't entirely attached to the outer barrel - there was also the fact all the glass was bright yellow due to it containing the radioactive element Thallium. Yes, if you put a Geiger counter on it you'll get some clicking....Google says its safe clicking so I'm not going to worry about growing an extra digit or two

So......I took it round to my mum's and gave it to her partner who pulls old lenses apart on a weekly basis to let him have a fiddle. I picked it up tonight with its now super smooth focus ring and lovely snappy aperture blades - I checked and he hasn't grown a third eye or lost any teeth so I'm still going with it being safe. I still need to bleach out the yellowing using a LED light that has a degree of UV output (some of the IKEA ones work according to another Google search) but in the mean time I switched the Fuji to monochrome and took it on tonights dog walk around the local park.

It might just be a little bit special.....

[ST1]

Cracking image Robin, that lens looks like a good find


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[Shadowman]

Nicely done, like the background.

[John 2]

There is no "might" about it. The quality stands out. I really like that. I must start looking in the used section of one or two camera shops that I can think of.

[Donald]

Rummaging in old boxes can yield spectacular results. What a find!

[Black Pearl]

There is no "might" about it. The quality stands out. I really like that. I must start looking in the used section of one or two camera shops that I can think of.

Charity shops are good too but you have to ask the staff as old cameras (look for Zenit/Praktica etc) tend to get left out the back as they don't know how to check them.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shot Robin, bokeh adds a lot to the image

[AlwaysOnAuto]

You've got yourself a nice lens there.
Good on ya for rescuing it.