Chinon 55mm Lenses

My first proper camera had a 58mm f/2 lens; I got used to a slightly telephoto view of things. When I traded up to a better camera it came with a 50mm lens which was a bit faster but disappointed slightly with its wider view.

This might explain why I don’t mind the field of view which standard lenses provide on cropped sensor digital cameras - typically equating to 75mm - 90mm. It’s a perfect portrait lens at a far cheaper price than an 85mm, but more particularly, it’s a focal length which helps you to fill the viewfinder easily.

Right from the start of my interest in photography I wanted arresting images, not yards of grass or tarmac with a small subject of interest in the distance. Whilst sometimes it’s alright to get close to your subject; on other occasions it either isn’t possible or appears inappropriate.

Another exciting discovery was that I could take photographs indoors using available light. And so began an interest in fast lenses. Every increment of extra speed comes at a cost. It’s always tempting to say, ‘Why bother? Another half-stop won’t make much difference’. But once you are a light gatherer, you’re hooked.

All this leads to this lens, a Tomioka-made Chinon 55mm f/1.4, manufactured around 1975, give or take a year either way. On a Canon cropped sensor camera like the EOS 40D the field of view is 88mm. The light-gathering properties won’t be as great as they would be on full-frame, but f/1.4 is nevertheless impressive. Nor will the bokeh be as dramatic as on the film camera with which the lens was supplied, but it’s bound to be interesting anyway.

It’s a bit bigger and heavier than the f/1.7 Chinon, the other lens in the photograph, which was more usually supplied with the Chinon CX of 1974-76. It’s smoother to focus and a bit more definite changing f stops, but that could simply be caused by unequal degrees of use. The f/1.4 was made by Tomioka, a Japanese glass manufacturer used by the smaller companies like Chinon who didn’t make their own lenses, and it’s made to a formula of Johannes Berger which was licensed from Zeiss, who never used the design. In the dark winter months ahead, I am wondering if it might become a favourite lens.