The MIR-1 37mm f2.8 that I have is a really weird lens. I bought it for $10 at an antique fair when I
was going through my M42 lens phase, thinking it was for Pentax screw
mount. When I bought it back home I
found it wouldn’t fit, but it DID fit M39 Leica screw mount.
Later I found that
while it is Leica screw mount, when I went to use it on the NEX with E to M
Mount to LTM adapters, it wouldn’t focus at all. So I did some more research and found that it
is for early Russian SLRs which used M39 screw mount in the late 1950’s before
going to M42 screw mount in the early 1960’s.
This means that the base length (lens flange to film plane distance) is
set up for an SLR, not a rangefinder.
Presuming this has a similar base length to Pentax M42 cameras, which is
about the same as Nikon, I decided to try some hand held shots with the
D90. And it worked!
The MIR can produce some decent images, but certainly isn’t
the last word in sharpness by any stretch of the imagination. Still, it is fun to play around with though.
Interestingly this lens is marked “Grand Prix Brussels
1958”. Who knows why the Russians were
supporting such a capitalist event in Western Europe at the height of the Cold
War.
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