Vintage 35mm Soviet (USSR) Lomo Cinema Lens

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Finally getting around to photographing and sharing my growing Lomo lens collection!

MODEL: Lomo OKC-11-35-1
YEAR: 1983
MOUNT: OCT-18

This lens was created at the height of the Communist state. Lomos are known for their sometimes excellent glass. I say sometimes, because Soviet quality control turned out to be pretty undesirable and copies of nearly all Soviet lenses range from incredible to, to unpredictable, to unusable. Unlike Western and Japanese lens manufacturers whose quality regularly improved, the world left these lens manufacturers behind.

Here's a fun little article from Vintage Lenses for Video (http://www.vintagelensesforvideo.com/helios-58mm-comparison/) about the wild differences between Helios 44-2 models, another, very popular lens for photography and videography. Very cheap, great character and excellent overall optics.

I still love the Soviet lenses though. They have qualities similar to Cooke or vintage Arri lenses. Skin tones look beautiful and the images they produce tend to be a little softer... dreamy.

Here's a test shot from a variant of this exact lens.

Here's a test video of 50mm variant. This one is probably newer, but as far as I can tell, the optics didn't change all that much across the older and newer models.

And finally, a professional test of a whole range of vintage Lomos. These are the OCT-19 variants. They're much better in terms of their housings and focus design. Optics haven't improved much as far as I can tell. You can see how they're very, very dreamy looking, like there's a fine silk over the lens.

Thanks for having a look! As my lens collection grows, I'll share more photos of them and some test footage of my own.

Phil