Industar-100U 4/110 (I-100U) Review

I-100U 4/110 (Russian И-100У) is an enlarger lens for a large format. Designed to frame format 6x9 cm. Produced at the Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory (LZOS). Like all Industars has an optical design 4 elements in 3 groups (Tessar).

I-100U 4/110 Constructive

The lens has a good barrel design in the style of the large format photographic lenses. The diameter of the barrel is 42 mm. 

The lens length is 4 cm. In the middle of the frame is a ring aperture control. It switches discrete and tight; it would be possible to make it softer because when it is switching, the focus is strayed. 

The diaphragm closes by full steps: 4-5,6-8-11-26-22. It has 10 blades. Blackening them missing. The blades are visible even at wide-open aperture; I think without blades the lens will have a slightly higher aperture ratio, a little bit. Like all enlarger lenses, Industar-100U has no focusing mechanism. And to fully use it for taking pictures, need helicoid, good news, flange distance allows it. For a leisurely studio, it can also use shooting bellows.

There is two rear mounting thread: one M42 and one M35. Apparently, designers have solved the problem of compatibility with a variety of photographic enlargers; the lenses have a single-layer purple coating.  

Industar-100U 4/110 mounting on the camera

The lens has a long flange distance; it is inherent in all large format lenses. To install it on a Nikon camera, I used a homemade helicoid and a large extension ring.

View on Nikon D3100

In this constructive, I have focused on a distance of about 20 meters. I tried to get it to infinity, screwing instead of one large ring, small and medium, but, ironically, in this position, I'm a little bit not reached infinity. The focus Industar-100U to infinity does not make much sense since the lens has a slight sharpness; it will discuss this below. Construction in size to me something reminded Jupiter-11 4/135, it also has a small diameter and similar length.

Industar-100U Sample Photos

All examples are taken by the camera Nikon D3100, at wide open. Exports from RAW without any post-processing.  

Industar-100U 4/110 Sharpness

As mentioned above, the lens has a low sharpness. The technical data indicated that the lens resolution at a 5-x reproduction ratio equals 70 lines in the center. Maybe the way it is, but on normal distances, sharpen is weak.

But there is some special charm. Portraits are not bad.

Industar-100U 4/110 Character and Bokeh

The lens has a nice vivid character.

Boke and I liked it. I do not expect such a nice bokeh of the enlarger lens. 

Bokeh, I liked it more than the Vega- 5U 4/105 with its biometar-like optical design.

Industar-100U 4/110 Contrast and Color Render

Unfortunately, when I shoot the pictures for this review, it was cloudy, so I fully check the lens, not able to. 

But what I noticed, it's afraid of a strong side and the backlight. This is typical of almost all Soviet lenses. Apparently, Soviet glass is not as good as the German and Japanese. 

The lens passes quite normal pleasant colors.

Red and orange colors are very bright, despite the cloudy weather.

Summary

Industar-100U 4/110 is a good lens, even though the low resolution is a nice character. You can use it for artistic photography, macro-sketches, and portraits.