Soligor 35mm vs Kuribayashi 35mm lens for reflected UV photography

Today about the Soligor f3.5 / 35mm (older style) lens in comparison to the aforementioned Kuribayashi f3.5 / 35mm lens (also sold under the Petri brand name), a quite capable lens for reflected UV photography I have written about both lenses before here. 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, left the Soligor, right the Kuribayashi lens.

[click on image to see a larger one]

Visible light image:
 

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

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

SOLIGOR lens transmission:


As I have written before, the Kuribayashi 35mm lens is quite a useful one for UV, sharp and contrasty and only having a 1.03% focus shift. The Soligor 35mm shows 1.3% focus shift and also some other differences, like a needed 2/3 stop higher exposure, as its UV transmission is lower than the one of the Kuribayashi lens. In terms of sharpness they are about even, but the Kuribayashi has the higher contrast. So in total the Soligor 35mm is a useful lens, yet reaches not quite the Kuribayashi.


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