test photos: Lomo LC-A Minitar Art Lens 32mm f/2.8 on Leica M10 Monochrom

[Godfrey]

Another fun set from lens testing ... I saw a review on the Lomography "Lomo LC-A Minitar Art Lens 32mm f/2.8" that piqued my curiosity. This is a small, light, inexpensive lens, same or similar, I believe, to what is fitted on the "infamous" Lomo 35mm compact camera, housed in a metal M-mount with rangefinder coupled focusing. It has a (cheap) simple diaphragm mechanism, and a similarly (cheap) click-stopped focusing lever. It makes the M4-2 or M10-M pretty small and light ... not so much so as the MS Optics Aporia 24mm f/2, nor is it up to the same build quality or optical quality, but then it's less than a quarter the price.

Anyway it piqued my curiosity and was cheap enough that I felt I should give it a try. I went out for two walks with it fitted to the M10-M and pulled together a little album of 19 photographs that I found interesting out of what I'd exposed.

A couple of them that I like a lot:

Condo Castle - Santa Clara 2022
Leica M10 Monochrom + Lomo LC-A Minitar 32mm f/2.8
ISO 160 @ f/4 @ 1/3000​

Fire Exit - Santa Clara 2022
Leica M10 Monochrom + Lomo LC-A Minitar 32mm f/2.8
ISO 160 @ f/4 @ 1/500​

Banister and Railing - Santa Clara 2022
Leica M10 Monochrom + Lomo LC-A Minitar 32mm f/2.8
ISO 200 @ f/4 @ 1/125​

Here's the full gallery of 19 Minitar test photos...
Lomo LC-A Minitar Art Lens Test 2022 :: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAgkcQ

Enjoy! G

 

[jsrockit]

A cool lens for sure. Does it bring up the 35mm frame lines?

 

[Godfrey]

A cool lens for sure. Does it bring up the 35mm frame lines?

Thanks! Yes, it brings up the 35mm frame lines.

I just made a set of exposures to evaluate actual field of view comparing the Color Skopar 50/2.5, Pentax-L 43/1.9 Special, Summilux 35/1.4, Minitar 32/2.8, and Color Skopar 28/3.5. I made fixed position-on a tripod exposures at wide open, f/2.8, f/4, and f/5.6 lens openings. I'll have to analyze what I see a little later, but it's useful to me to characterize these lenses carefully and know what I can expect from them. I'll add to this thread when I can show some results.

G

 

[agentlossing]

I've kind of wanted this lens. Looks fun! B&W not bad at all.

 

[Godfrey]

Here's a quick comparison for FoV and other attributes on a simple target between five lenses from 50mm to 28mm:


All of these exposures at f/4 @ 5.5 feet focus distance.

G