Olympus/Zuiko

Here’s some additional history on DO Industries – apparently they go back even further than I thought. The original company was founded by Ernst Gundlach, who used to work for Bausch and Lomb. After parting ways with the B and L in 1878 (unwillingly, it seems), he partnered with Lewis Sexton and opened a Optical goods business.

For a while, Sexton ran the business while Gundlach left to work as an Optician in Hartford Connecticut. Sexton was joined by JC Reich and J. Zellweger. On Sexton’s death in 1884, Gundlach returned to the company he had founded, and reorganized it. After about 11 years, Ernst Gundlach left the company again, and formed a rival company called the Gundlach Photo-Optical Company, which was finally acquired by Wollensak in 1905.

The original Gundlach Optical Company continued to operate in Rochester, first acquiring Milburn Korona cameras and then in 1902 they acquired the Manhattan Optical Company and renamed themselves the Gundlach-Manhattan Optical Company. In 1926, they were renamed as the Gundlach Manufacturing company. In 1928, they were taken over by a John Seebold, and were renamed “Seebold Invisible Camera Company” (no idea what they were making).

After taking a beating during the Great Depression, they moved to Fairport in 1935. They survived until 1954, when they were acquired by Burke and James of Chicago and reorganized as the Dynamic Optics Inc, with Mr. David Goldstein as president. Dynamic Optics ceased operations in 1972 and were reorganized as D.O Industries. The rest of the company’s history can be found on the Navitar website.

References:
A History of the Rochester, NY Camera and Lens Companies
Gundlach is also referenced in the famous Lens Collectors Vade Mecum by Wilkinson and Glanfield.

My original post discussed the use of the D.O Industries 135mm Enlarging lens as an excellent bellows lens for Macrophotography with the Sony Alpha 700

olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.

It was unseasonably warm last week, with temperatures in the upper 50’s and even 60’s. Tuesday morning was unusual, with moderately heavy fog all along Rte 27 running North towards Westminster. The mist changes the appearance of the familiar landscape, and the soft morning light makes for some excellent photographic opportunities.

As I drove along Rte 27, the mist slowly lightened until it was completely burnt off by the time I got to work. I stopped at several familiar spots along the way to take these pictures. I had the Sony A700, of course – with the Sigma 28-80mm still on it from last weekend’s hike along the Great Falls towpath.

The Sigma is an unusually light lens, and perfect for hiking. It’s no slouch when it comes to landscape and architectural photography either. On the Sony Alpha, the lens becomes a 42mm-120mm, which gives me enough flexibility for most landscape and architectural applications. Although I’d preferred top have a 35mm for street photography, 42mm is acceptable. Besides, a 42mm lens presents the world with a slightly better perspective than a 50mm, with no distortion at all.

The 2 close-up’s are included to show the macro capabilities of the Sigma 28-80mm.

Misty Morning	Misty Morning
Misty Morning	Misty Morning
Misty Morning	Misty Morning

Misty Morning

Misty Morning

Misty Morning

Misty Morning

Misty Morning

Misty Morning

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700 and Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 aspherical macro lens. Auto ISO, Cloudy white balance.

olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.

A couple of weeks ago, I had posted a series of photographs I made with a Sigma 24mm f/2.8 in a little park in Westminster, at the intersection of Bond Street and Green Street. The Sigma 24mm is an effective 36mm lens on the Sony Alpha 700. I wanted to try a 28mm lens (42mm on A700). I took along my lightweight Sigma 28-80mm (42mm-120mm in 35mm format) and shot from the same locations as with the 24mm, and a few others. It wasn’t as cold as the last time, and I could loiter a little while longer without freezing my poor hands.

When I left the park, I turned onto Green Street and photographed a couple of the historic homes. I ended up close to McDaniel College, so I grabbed a few shots of the school buildings, as well as the corner of Main and Union Street. Here are the pictures with the Sigma lens set up – these were taken on Wednesday morning with the same lens.

The Sigma is truly a versatile lens, and has a macro capability down to 1:2 as well in case you need it. It’s one of those lenses that you tend to ‘fit and forget’ since it seems to feel so natural.

Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm	Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm
Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm	Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm
Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm	Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm
Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm	Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm
Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm	Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm
Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm	Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm
Westminster – Sigma 28-80mm	Warfieldsburg Rd

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – Green Street

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – Green Street

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – McDaniel College

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – McDaniel College

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – McDaniel College Gateway

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – Union St and Main St

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm Kridder’s Rd Church

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – Warfieldsburg Road

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – Rte 27 Ridge Road

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – Rte 27 Ridge Road

Westminster, MD – Sigma 28-80mm – Rte 27 Ridge Road

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700 and Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 aspherical macro lens. ISO 200, Cloudy white balance. 1/80 at 28mm and 1/160 at 80mm (The Sigma is 42-120mm in the 35mm format equivalent)

olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko. dhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners.

I’ve been so busy testing all my Olympus mount Zuiko and Kirons and Vivitars as well as the Minolta AF, Sigma, Tamron and Phoenix lenses on the Sony Alpha 700 that I feel that I haven’t really had a chance to use the Sony lens that I bought along with the Sony A700 body. It’s the Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 lens, officially named the SAL18200.

Coming from the manual lenses world, I originally had some trepidation with regards to the extended 1:11 zoom ratio, but I have been pleasantly surprised. Prior to this, the largest zoom ratio lens I owned is the Kiron 28-210mm super-zoom (1:7.5 zoom ratio) for Olympus mount. The Kiron is an awesome lens, but it’s bulky and heavy.

There used to be a time when designing lenses with such large zoom ratios used to mean accepting that there would have to be a compromise in the performance, particularly at the shorter end of the zoom, but Sony has some how managed to make it work. Sony even has a lens with an even larger zoom ratio, the SAL18250 (18-250mm) which has a mind boggling 1:13.9 or 1:14 zoom ratio.

In 35mm format terms, this lens is equivalent to a 27mm-300mm zoom lens, which pretty much covers every shooting situation that one is likely to encounter in casual photography. It’s a very well built lens, but I admit I’d have been happier if the lens had a metal mount like all my beautiful Minolta AF lenses instead of a cheesy hard plastic mount. But such is life. Industrial plastics get tougher, lighter and stronger every year, so I’m not complaining too much, though.

The one thing I am really happy about is that the SAL18200 a Sony “Made in Japan” lens – I expect that the production will soon shift to their Chinese or Malaysian plant. The fact that the China plant didn’t pass the official Chinese quality inspection doesn’t leave me with a lot of confidence in the facility, so I was happy to pony up the few extra dollars for the Japan made label. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but that’s me.

The brochure states that the lens has a close focus of about 18 inches, but I have found in practice that it can focus as close as 12 inches at full extension – that’s at the 200mm focal length (300mm) so it’s very useful for close-ups as well as any general photography.

The lens is short – about 4 inches or so, with a 62mm filter, so its about 3 inches thick at its widest point. It’s short enough that the lens barrel doesn’t obstruct the on-board flash even when focusing close. The lens gave me a petal hood as well, which mounts very easily, and I reverse the hood on the lens body for easy transport.

The lens has focal length markings at 18mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm, 135mm and 200mm (APS format) which correspond to 27mm, 52mm, 75mm, 112.5mm, 150mm, 202.5 and 300mm in 35mm format.

Here’s a series of photographs taken at each focal length detent mark. These pictures were taken at Christman Park in Gaithersburg.

Sony SAL18200 18mm (27mm)	Sony SAL18200 35mm (52mm)
Sony SAL18200 50mm (75mm)	Sony SAL18200 75mm (112.5mm)
Sony SAL18200 100mm (150mm)	Sony SAL18200 135mm (202.5mm)
Sony SAL18200 200mm (300mm)	Sony SAL18200 the Menhir

Sony SAL18200 Lens- Christman Park

Sony SAL18200 Lens- Christman Park

Sony SAL18200 Lens- Christman Park

Sony SAL18200 Lens- Christman Park

Sony SAL18200 Lens- Christman Park

Sony SAL18200 Lens- Christman Park

Sony SAL18200 Lens- Christman Park

Photographed with a Sony A700, Sony 18-200mm f/3.5 –f/6.3 lens

olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.

I headed off to the Great Falls park last Saturday (02/02/08) to hike along the river and photograph the falls. It was beautiful out there… about 50 degrees – perfect hiking weather, although the trails and towpath were still muddy. I was carrying my Sony Alpha 700 and 2 lenses – a Sigma AF 28-80mm and the Tamron 70-300mm. The Tamron was for closeup views of the raging waters. The Sigma is a recent acquisition, and I was trying it out.

It’s still early in February, and we’ve already had a lot of rain in Montgomery county – the average rainfall for February is about 2.85 inches here, and by the 2nd, we already had about 3 inches… which means, every stream in the county is overflowing and that the Potomac is running full already. Normally, we’d have to wait until the Spring thaws.

Since my intent was to photograph the falls, I did not mind lugging along the heavy Tamron, but on my way over there, I was thinking about the most desirable characteristics for a hiking lens – good zoom range, rugged, light, cheap, close up capability etc. At the same time, the optical characteristics of the lens should be good enough that you don’t regret the quality of the pictures when you get back.

The more I thought about it, the Sigma I was carrying seemed to be the perfect fit. After all, it had a zoom range of 28-80mm, which is a 42-120mm on the Sony A700. Besides, it has a plastic body, which makes it lightweight. Great optical quality with multicoated aspherical lenses, very cheap so it would not matter if it was damaged or lost – and it has a 1:2 Macro capability, for those occasional very close-up shots of interesting grass or moss or little critters that I might come across.

I would have liked at least 35mm at the wide-angle, but I’ve found that in the open woodlands and hilly areas of Maryland , even a 50mm is sufficiently wide, since one can always step back a few paces to include more of the scene. The Sigma 28-80mm definitely qualified as a Cheap Awesome Lens. Some may complain about the “cheap” build quality – it’s plasticky – but one can’t fault it optically for the price.

The 1:2 macro capability is only at 80mm f/5.6 (120mm f/5.6 on the Sony Alpha 700) and is is a matter of moving a switch on the lens from Normal to Macro position to lock it. Now, f/5.8 is pretty slow, I was able to get decent images even at 100 ISO. I’m not complaining, since I can always increase the ISO to compensate. However, in Winter, with no overhead tree canopy and bright sunlight, it beats carrying an extra lens for the rare occasion one might want to take a real close up.
Here are some of the pictures at the Falls and along the Towpath. The river is very impressive this week.

The Tamron is a beast on the Sony Alpha 700 – it’s equivalent to 105mm-450mm and fairly fast for such a large focal length f/3.5 at the shorter end, and f/5.6 at the 450mm end. Fast enough to handhold at 100 ISO on a bright day. It’s a macro lens as well, and goes to 1:4 along the entire focal length range, which is pretty impressive. This is another Cheap Awesome Lens.Tamron 70-300mm– Potomac River and Towpath.

Potomac River

Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River

Potomac River 1/5 sec exposure

Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River

Sigma 28-80mm – Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River 1/5 second

Potomac River 1/5 second

Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River

Sigma 28-80mm Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath
Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath
Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath – macro
Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath

Sigma 28-80mm Great Falls Tavern

Tavern	Tavern
Tavern	Tavern
Tavern	Tavern
Gate at Widewater	Great Falls

Sigma 28-80mm – Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Sigma 28-80mm – Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Sigma 28-80mm Macro Photos (approx 8-10 inches)

Sigma 28-80mm macro

Sigma 28-80mm macro

Sigma 28-80mm macro

Sigma 28-80mm macro

Sigma 28-80mm macro

Tamron 70-300mm

Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls

Tamron – Wildlife

Wildlife

Wildlife

Wildlife

Tamron

Lichens on Rock

Lichens

Wildlife

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700, Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-f/5.6 Aspherical Macro 1:2 and Tamron 70-300mm f/3.9-f5.6, ISO 100, Circular Polarizer.

olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.

Anyone ever hear of D.O. Industries? I had never come across any lenses from them until I suddenly ran into this little beauty on EBay, going really cheap. It seemed to be an enlarger lens, but it had what appeared to be a T-mount type threaded mount. A quick email ( an even quicker response from the seller) confirmed that the diameter of the threaded end was indeed 42mm, so I took a chance on it and picked it up, since I was looking for a 135mm lens that would fit on my Spiratone Bellowscope.

I already have a nice Spiratone 150mm f/4.5 bellows lens, but I’m the curious type, and more than that, the name of the 135mm lens intrigued me. The lens itself is small, and solidly built – probably 4 element (maybe 6). Not sure if it is coated. The body looks old and appears to have seen much use, and the paint has faded, but nice glass. It was probably a workhorse lens on someone’s enlarger for many years. It even came with the retaining ring, which is rare these days.

I did a little bit of research on D.O. Industries, and here’s what I came up. Apparently they were an importer and distributor for Fujinon lenses, and they also sold lenses under their own name (rumor has it that D.O lenses are made by Fuji. The optical quality certainly seems to bear that out).

D.O. Industries was started by a gentleman by name David Goldstein in 1972. The company is still around. They are now called Navitar, and you can read their timeline here. I’m glad they’re still around. They seem to be doing well in the current digital era with new imaging products. Innovate, Evolve or Die, right? The photography marketplace is pretty ruthless, with old-timer companies closing down almost every day.

In case no one’s noticed, practically every 3rd party lens company had names ending with –AR. It seems to have been vogue with photographic companies back in the day. You see products with names such as Vivitar, Albinar, Astranar, Rokunar, Lentar, Kitstar, Macrotar and so on. I’ve often wondered why.

When I tried to fit the lens to a T-mount, I noticed that the thread, while being very close, was just not right. It seemed to be more like 41mm, but the pitch was OK. I got around this by wrapping a piece of light cotton sewing thread on the lens thread, and it works just fine. Curious. As long as it works, I am happy.

The advantage of using a longer focal length lens on the bellows is that it permits a longer “stand-off” distance. A short focal length lens (35mm, 40mm or 50mm) can give greater magnification, but the focusing distance is very short, which means that the light is cut off drastically, and one has to use supplemental lighting. The longer focal length bellows lenses (75mm, 135mm and 150mm) can focus from 18 inches to as far as 3 feet away, which lets a lot of ambient light get to the subject. Besides, there’s room for the tripod legs if the subject is 24 inches or more away.

Since I was trying out this lens indoors, I just used a pedestal lamp with the Sony’s WB setting to Tungsten lamp. I used a Auto ISO setting. The exposure was 1/5 to 1/8 second, and I was able to stop down to f/8 to increase the depth of field. If I were outdoors in natural sunlight, I would have used 100 ISO and a smaller aperture.

The tripod permits the longer exposure without shake. To avoid inadvertent camera shake during release, I used the Sony’s self timer setting (Drive Mode button, and then select self timer 10 seconds). This ensures that there is minimal shake. The Sony doesn’t have mirror lock-up, but it’s superbly damped. The mirror return ‘snap’ doesn’t seem to affect the image in any way.

For subjects, I used some of my wife’s traditional jewelry. Without more ado, here are the pictures

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700

The Bellows mounts to my Sony Alpha 700 with a standard Minolta AF-T mount adapter, and the whole thing goes on a cheap Velbon tripod. Nothing special. Here’s the setup.

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700 Setup

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700 Setup

D.O. Industries 135mm f/4.5 on Alpha 700 Setup

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700 DSLR, D.O. Industries 135mm Emlarger lens (Fuji??) fitted on a Spiratone Bellowscope. Auto ISO with Tungsten light WB setting. Exposure was 1/5 second and 1/8 second at f/8 from a distance of about 24 inches. I used a Velbon Tripod.

olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.