Monday, February 18, 2013

Soligor / Kyoei 105mm lens for reflected UV photography

Today about the Soligor (also sold as Kyoei) f3.5 / 105mm, a quite capable lens for reflected UV photography, discovered a while ago by a forum colleague, who also discovered the Kuribayashi / Kyoei 35mm lens from the same lens family. I'm using a yellow/red Phalaenopsis flower for that and my "work horse" UV filter, the Baader-U filter plus the deeper reaching Jupiter-U filter. Light source was an UV enhanced Xenon flash. All shots done at f8 and presented on a side-a-side format for easier comparison.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visible light image vs UV image using Baader-U filter (approx. 320-395nm, effective peak approx. 375nm):
 

Visible light image vs UV image using Jupiter-U filter (approx. 280-385nm, effective peak approx. 365nm):
 

UV images, Baader-U vs Jupiter-U filter:
 

A very sharp and seemingly deep into UV reaching lens, with only 0.9% focus shift. Quite a useful lens!


Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...

More info on this very interesting field may be found on my site http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos