The Meyer Optik Görlitz Lydith 30mm f/3.5, more often hailed as excellent by peers and enthusiasts, is a compact all-metal and glass manual-focus legacy prime produced by Meyer Optik during the post-war period.
The lens, a 5-element in 5 groups optical design with 10 diaphragm blades, is renowned for its vintage character, featuring rainbow flares and painterly bokeh that evoke artistic renderings rather than perfect images.
It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.33 meters, measures 45mm in length, accepts 49mm filters, and weighs approximately 177 grams.
The legacy, sharp when stopped down, was initially shipped under the Meyer Optik brand and remained in production until 1971. The lens was rebranded and shipped under the Pentacon flag after Meyer Optik was incorporated into the larger Pentacon conglomerate in 1968.
On the Canon EOS Kiss X3, mounted with an AF chipped M42/EOS adapter, the lens is equivalent to a 48mm lens on a 35mm full-frame camera.
The standard normal equivalent captures scenes that mimic what the human eye sees, without distorting perspective, and is ideal for general photography as well as natural interactions and environments for documentary work and candid street shots.
Aside from the minor kinks of the focus throw (on the test unit), the Lydith 30mm f/3.5 is easy and pleasant to work with. Focus is smooth and well-damped for quick and easy focusing, and it works well with the focus confirmation system of the Kiss X3.
The system is activated when the shutter button is half-pressed, and focus is confirmed by a red LCD blip of the selected AF point, a beep, and the focus confirmation dot on the right of the LCD display bar in the viewfinder.
The aperture ring is click-less but has detents on the preset ring. To set, align the aperture f/number to the red index mark on top of the lens barrel, pull the preset ring outward, and turn it counterclockwise until it locks. This will set the aperture to the smallest opening the lens is set to when shooting.
Adjusting the aperture preset - wide open for focusing, closed for shooting - is easy and convenient while the camera is cupped in the hand with the thumb and index fingers extended out to manage the preset ring. The front element of the lens does not rotate with the aperture adjustment.
The Canon EOS Kiss X3 (EOS Rebel T1i in the US, EOS 500D in Europe), introduced in 2009, is a highly collectible mid-range entry-level digital SLR camera fitted with a 15.1MP CMOS APS-C sensor, high-resolution LCD, with features shared from the high-end Canon EOS 5D Mark II (movie mode, Live preview, fast Digic 4 processor).
