Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston – review

Published by Tony on 2021-01-192021-01-19

Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 1.8/50 Oreston lens review (Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston)

Mount – M42

This lens is far beyond my interests, I don’t know anything about it, except that some photographers call it as “bokeh-monster”, so instead of the usual short introduction and a little story about the history of the lens, I’ll just leave a link to the wiki.

The lens for the test was provided by Egor Nikolaev (Егор Николаев) – many thanks and greetings.

Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston specifications

More data

Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston lens exterior

Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston mounted on Minolta X-700

Original Minolta-P adapter has been used

Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston sharpness

Сlose-distance resolution test, minimal distance

Testing methods description

• Target: 10-15 cm picture, printed on glossy photo paper
• Distance: 1.7m
• Camera: Sony A7II (24mpx, full-frame, tripod, remote control). M-mode, ISO fixed, WB fixed, SteadyShot – OFF.
• The test was repeated for every F-stop on every focus position with manual focus adjustment for each shot. That is to avoid the effect of field curvature.
• RAW processing: Capture One, default settings. All quality settings – 100%. Crops – 300×200 px

Original target image (printed in horizontal orientation on 10cm X 15cm glossy photo paper)

Scene preview

Test results

Long-distance resolution test

Testing methods description

• Target: cityscape
• Distance: > 200 meters to center focus point
• Camera: Sony A7II (24mpx, full-frame, tripod, remote control). M-mode, ISO fixed, WB fixed, SteadyShot – OFF. The focus point is on the center only.
• RAW processing: Capture One, default settings. All quality settings – 100%. Crops – 300×200 px

Scene preview

Test results

Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston aberrations

Vignetting

Geometric distortion

Coma aberrations

Chromatic aberrations

Long-distance bokeh

Test #1

Test conditions: the lens was focused on minimal distance on the scale (0.33m), buildings are on “infinity”-distance.

Test#2:

Test conditions: lens was focused on 1.0m

Light bubbles bokeh – long distance

Test #1

The lens is on the minimal focusing distance 0.33m, lights are on infinity (cityscape)

Test #2

Test conditions: lens was focused on 1.0m

Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm 1:1.8 Oreston – final conclusion

This time the conclusion will be pretty short: this lens has a bad IQ. We can see enough big aberrations, too much softness on apertures up to F4, even geometry is not so good as it can be. Many other cheap fifties from that period of time are able to provide much better performance. On the other hand, it is possible that if a photographer needs some kind of special bokeh, which tends to be “swirly” or “bubbles”, then it should be considered as an option, but the price in term of sharpness looks too high. Anyway, no recommendations – too many competitors with definitely better results in IQ and probably in bokeh.