For as low as $6 you can buy this sharp Russian lens from the 1950’s for your mirrorless camera

 

 

If you enjoyed seeing Mathieu Stern's "Cheap Weird Lens" reviews over the weekend, then you'll most likely enjoy his latest video. This time Stern is reviewing a very cheap (it can be found for as low as $6 USD) Lomo T43 40mm f/4 manual lens.

This lens originally came from a Russian-made Lomo Smena 8M camera that was manufactured in the 1950's. Stern asks, "can you do good photos with a lens that is basically the size of a bottle cap?" And the answer is... "Yes!"

To attach this lens to his Sony mirrorless camera, he needed to remove a few pieces that allowed it to be attached to its original camera, keeping only the front part of the lens intact. He had to make a few more adjustments before mounting the lens, which you can see in the video below.

"This is an excellent high-contrast lens," says Stern. Despite being old and cheap, this lens is capable of taking sharp images. It delivers images with rich colors as well. Stern calls this lens a "must-have" that can easily be found for less than $50.

 

As you can see in this screenshot from the video above, the Lomo T43 40mm f/4 is very small and is only slightly larger than a standard bottle cap.

To see high-resolution sample images from this "cheap weird lens" see Mathieu Stern's blog post here. For more videos from Stern covering a wide array of lenses, visit his YouTube channel.

You can view basic specs on the Lomo T43 40mm f/4 lens here and information on the camera it comes from, along with more information on the lens here.