About two weeks ago I got a phone call from my friend Norrie who was very interested in my dealings with the Panasonic AF101. He told me he had some prime lenses up in the attic that were gathering dust “Old Bolex ‘C’ mount lenses”.

I got onto the internet to discover a chap in China had been using ‘C’ mount lenses with his Panasonic G2 mFT camera so I hunted down a ‘C’ mount to mFT lens adapter and it was with me by the end of the week.

Today I took a trip to Norrie’s house and we both had a look at the AF101 and the Bolex mount lenses, but could I find that ‘C’ mount adapter anywhere, I could have sworn it was in my CB200 KATA bag…but alas time got the better of me and Norrie told me to take the lenses away with me.

This chap above Yu-Lin-Chan is using the Switar 75mm lens and I note from his info that these lenses were not only made in Switzerland but around the 1950-1960s and is very good glass indeed as the picture of the wee girl proves.

I got home to discover that the adaptor was indeed in the KATA bag, in a front pouch that I forgot it had. I tried the 10 and 25mm lenses but they suffered very bad vignetting so my next try was the 50mm f1.8 lens and it worked a treat. The best of the lot was the 75mm f1.9 lens remembering that we have a 2x crop giving the lens a 150mm angle of view…fantastic.

Amazing prime lenses that were used in a different era (1960s) even back then they were top notch and after a long lie in Norries attic they have seen the light of day and will be cherished by myself and used frequently on the AF101 at the drop of a hat !