Photokina 2014 - the worls largest photographic fair!

I visit the Photokina fair in Cologne / Germany since about 18 years. Most times it takes me two days. 2014 I thought probably one day would be long enough - not as much interesting things for me as before. This year I only planned one full day for the fair visit - and it was OK for me.

Here what I saw, and what I think:

Meyer Optics Goerlitz

As a fan of the Meyer Trioplan 100mm f/2.8 I was suprised to read that the brand should be reanimated as "Meyer Optik Görlitz".
New lenses, "Made in Germany", but at a good value for that. I was glad to get first-hand information from the company few weeks before Photokina starts.
They don´t showed images how the two lenses looks like. After some first images I knew one of it was not the Meyer Trioplan 100 successor, but a lens much like the Russian Helios 40 - a 85mm f/1.5 lens - a Biotar type lens like the Zeiss Biotar 75mm f/1.5 or the Meopta Meostigmat 70mm f/1.4 projection lens.

As I saw these two new lenses on the Photokina, it was quite clear why the company did not show images of the lens: The Meyer Optik Goerlitz Somnium 85mm/1.4 looks like a Helios 40-2, but mixed with chrome and black elements. It is made from Helios 40-2 parts with better centering and other adjustments - so likely this optimization is made in Germany, but all parts are made in Russia.
This lens is now on the Meyer website with the "Helios" in its name, to give credit to the source.

Left side the Figmentum, right side the Somnium - both prototypes:





The second lens, the Meyer Görlitz Figmentum 80mm/1.8 looks a bit like the Zhongyi Mitakon 85mm f/2.0 with other iris ring and focussing barrel - chrome look.
It is quite common to change the f-stop and focal length a bit to get some difference to the original lens - see for this the Vivitar 13mm f/2.8 which looks very much like the Samyang 14mm/2.8 - or Walimex, Falcon, Bower 14mm f/2.8.

Some images made with the Somnium and Canon EOS 5D:







Some test images made with the Figmenum:

I have an old chrome Helios 40 with M39. The mechanics has a bit play - probably the new Meyer Görlitz optimized Somnium 85mm/1.4 lenses would not have such problems. Probably the optical quality is better too - but I am quite happy with my old lens - without testing several one until I found a good one.
This and direct sales from local dealers could be the reason to buy the Somnium.
In case the Figmentum has only the local dealers and other outer shape I don´t see much of a reason to buy this lens - as long as it is really the Mitakon lens..


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