Canon EOS 300D, Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/28/25

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Canon EOS 300D, Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/27/25

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Canon EOS 300D, Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/26/25

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Canon EOS 300D, Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/25/25

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Canon EOS 300D, Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8

Cameras and Lenses: Images with a vintage legacy Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8, praises for its close-focus capability, vintage character, and distinct bokeh, a 80mm full-frame short-tele equivalent on the Canon EOS 300D.

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The Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8, the precursor to the Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8, is a very well-made legacy manual focus lens with 6 (non-coated) elements in 4 groups and 6 (six) straight aperture blades.

The lens is acknowledged for its excellent optical performance and unique character, especially with renderings of warm colors when stepped down to its mid-range apertures (f/5.6 to f/11).

Though the lens performs well wide open, some users note it can be slightly soft at f/1.8, while becoming sharper when stopped down.

The lens, manufactured over several iterations (including the zebra and all-black versions), portrays images with a distinctive vintage look and excellent bokeh.

The lens, often described as a 'bokeh monster,' was produced by Meyer Optik Görlitz in East Germany from around 1960 to 1971 and can be found with M42 and EXA/Exakta mounts. Earlier iterations are typically black with silver stripes (zebra); later versions are all black. The lens has a very close minimum focus distance of 0.33 meters, making it very versatile for shooting in various situations, often making it a favorite for both portrait and macro photography.

The lens measures 52mm (diameter) x 48mm (length, weighs around 220 grams, and takes 49mm filters. and enjoys a rating for Sharpness (9.0), Aberrations (9.0), Bokeh (9.2), Handling (9.4), and Value (9.2) on PentaxForums.

On the Canon EOS 300D, the first 6.3MP entry-level DSLR introduced by Canon in 2003, the lens is a comfortable fit (via a M42 lens adapter), with the focusing ring at just the right distance forward. Even for its age, the robust and well-built lens is still an excellent performer, and the focus throw is glide-smooth.

Canon EOS 300D, Meyer Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8

Exposures are aperture priority with the lens aperture set to f8 and exposure compensation at -2/3 stops for a better color concentration. Images were tweaked further on the desktop image editor for tone, brightness, and contrast.

Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 12/6/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 12/5/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 12/4/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 12/3/24

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The 4:5 Image Aspect Ratio, A Large Frame Format

Cameras and Lenses: A look at the 4:5 image aspect ratio, a framing size that has transitioned through the ages and photography genres, the fundamental standard for both social media content optimization and traditional photo printing.

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The 4:5 image aspect ratio, a very versatile format in photography and digital media, is particularly well-suited for mobile devices and platforms prioritizing portrait-oriented content, such as Instagram, where the images are scrolled vertically.

The format allows for a visually appealing presentation that maximizes the device's screen space, which in turn enhances visibility and engagement.

In photography, the 4:5 ratio grew out of the traditional film format from which it was first adopted.

It is perhaps the most traditional film format, where it gained prominence when popularized by photographers who used 5×4 film in large format photography, oriented horizontally for landscapes or vertically for portraiture.

With its unique visual characteristics, the frame strikes a balance between width and height, making it suitable for content from portraits to product images. It allows for a balanced composition with key elements of the image centered within the central area of the frame.

This helps to contain the eye movement in a circular motion within the center of the image, as opposed to the left-to-right or up-and-down movement with images in rectangular frames.

The format is recognized and remains a standard for art prints, with 8x10 or 16x20-inch prints. Though the image aspect ratio is not normally found as an option for frameset settings on digital cameras, images can still be captured digitally and edited to fit the format later on the desktop editor.

Many photo editing tools allow users to easily crop images to fit the 4:5 ratio without significant loss of quality. By planning shots with this aspect ratio in mind, photographers can avoid extensive cropping during post-production, thus preserving critical elements of their images.

Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

For photographers with a vintage digital SLR with an APS-C sensor, say a Canon EOS 300D mounted with a legacy Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8, as in the case of the photo shoot seen here, the advice is to compose the images to fit this aspect ratio in-camera before cropping them later. This will ensure that the intended framing is preserved when the image is cropped.

Canon EOS 300D, Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/11/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/10/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/9/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/8/24

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The XPan Format, Images In "65:24" Aspect Ratio

Panoramas: Emulating the 65:24 image aspect ratio, a distinct cinematic format, commonly referred to as the Xpan format from 3:2/4:3 standard images.

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The XPan format, with images in the "65:24" aspect, is the format captured by the Hasselblad XPan, a dual-format auto-exposure 35mm film camera capable of capturing images both in the standard 23x36mm image, as well as in full panorama 24x65mm images.

The camera was introduced in 1998, in collaboration with Fuji, which also introduced its own version of the camera, the Fujifilm XT-1.

Interestingly, the 65mm width of the image format is similar to that of a medium format image, giving the notion that the XPan is also a medium format camera.

The XPan was made available with three primes: 30mm, 45mm, and 90mm manual focus lenses.

The 'cropped-frame' method to emulate the panoramic image aspect was once the selling point for 35mm film cameras, available in both compact AF and SLR cameras. The feature uses a pair of blinds, either fixed or operable for dual-format cameras, that crop the 24x36mm picture frame of the camera to a horizontal 17x36mm, or the '2.7:1' image aspect ratio. The images are truncated at the top and bottom of the picture frame.

The image crop options are also available on selected models of current digital cameras, where the images are cropped electronically to 4:3 or 3:2, depending on the initial format of the camera's sensor, the TV-oriented 16:9, and the 1:1 square cuts.

Instagram influencers sometimes crop images to the 3:1 image aspect ratio before cropping them further to 3 square-cuts for a horizontal display on their image album. Shooting in the panorama or XPan mode, however, does call for a creative approach with both framing and visualizing options already in mind.

These images were initially captured on the 6MP CMOS Canon EOS 300D (EOS Digital Rebel in the US, EOS Kiss Digital in Japan), the first entry-level digital SLR camera that Canon introduced to the consumer market in 2003. The EOS 300D was also the first to be fitted with the EF-S lens mount system, a design specific to Canon's APS-C digital SLR camera series.

Canon EOS 300D, Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM

For the test, the 300D was mounted with a Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM, and the images were later edited and cropped to the '65:24' image aspect ratio on the desktop editor. While Canon EOS cameras with EF-S lens mounts (APS-C sensors) can be used with both EF and EF-S lenses, full-frame Canon EOS cameras will not accept EF-S lenses.

Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/12/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/11/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/10/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/9/24

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Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

Cameras and Lenses: Images with a legacy Pentacon MC 50mm f/1.8, a classic manual-focus prime lens acclaimed as a premier 'bubble bokeh monster' and an exceptional entry point into vintage glass, an 80mm full-frame equivalent on the EOS 300D.

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The well-made 6-element lens in 4 groups, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8, said to be a direct descendant of the equally acknowledged Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8, is a compact full-frame lens with an unusually close focus distance of 33 centimeters.

The lens has a slightly rounded 6-blade diaphragm, measures 60mm in diameter and 38mm in length, weighs 194 grams, and takes 49mm filters. This lens is also well known for its 'soap bubble' characteristics, with strong and sometimes harsh outlines, and is seen as swirls on others.

The lens has also enjoyed its moment as a 'cult classic', appreciated for the bokeh effect and its very delightful and pleasant colors as seen on both film and digital.

Though optically identical, with no multi-coating on the older versions, the lens was seen in four iterations over its production run, with the oldest version having silver stripes on the aperture ring branded either “electric” or “auto”.

This was followed by the second version, which has no stripes on the aperture ring but has two silver rings at the front of the lens.

The third version has one silver ring at the front, and the focus ring of the third version has a spiked profile. The last version is all black. A late version with a PB mount is also available.

The lens enjoys a rating for Sharpness (9.0), Aberrations (8.3), Bokeh (10.0), Handling (8.7), and Value (10.0) on PentaxForums.

These first impression images with the Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8 were shot with the lens mounted on a Canon EOS 300D. Both the camera and lens are vintage, of course. The M42-mount Pentacon was produced from 1971 to 1978 at the factory outside of Dresden, in Germany.

Canon EOS 300D, Pentacon Auto 50mm f/1.8

The Canon EOS 300D (EOS Digital Rebel in the US, EOS Kiss Digital in Japan, and also sold as the DS6041) was the first entry-level digital SLR camera introduced by Canon, Japan, in 2003. The camera is fitted with a 6.3MP APS-C-sized CMOS sensor.