Triplet 78mm F/2.8 MMZ Projector Lens Bokeh Test and Review
- Mohsen Jalali
- 24 hours ago
- 3 min read
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The next lens in our vault is a Soviet-era Triplet 78mm F/2.8 MMZ, which, like most of the lenses we've tested so far, is a vintage projector lens that gives good bubble bokeh and has character. Lenses like this were mass-produced from the mid-20th century until the early 1990s in the USSR, and were meant to be a basic utility optic to use on slide or filmstrip projectors. This specific lens is a long barrel model and was produced by MMZ (which stands for Minsk Mechanical Plant) in Belarus in the 1970s and 80s. It was named Triplet because it has three elements in three groups, and if you look at the lens, you'll see its name written both in English and Cyrillic letters. The colors of the light bouncing back from the elements of this lens show that it comes with coatings that in turn decrease the flare and light reflection, and are meant to help increase contrast, but still the contrast that this lens gives is relatively low. Like other projector (or projection) lenses, this one doesn't come with aperture blades, and we've photographed every single one of the stills and videos below with the aperture being as wide as it can get in order to maximize the character and effect that we can receive from it. We mounted it on a Nikon Z7 mirrorless digital camera set on vivid colors and on black-and-white. It is noteworthy that this lens comes without any mold on the elements, and very, very minor dust can be seen inside. Without further ado, you can scroll down to the photos and reviews below.
Color Shots and Bokeh Quality
The bokeh that the Triplet 78mm F/2.8 MMZ projector lens gives can be versatile based on the focus and background distance. For instance, like the first and sixth photos below, the bokeh can be busy, exotic, and to some extent harsh. In the meantime, it can also become a little softer, like the fourth photo below, and very much softer, like the third and last photos. Its bokeh is bubbly, and the bubbles that it creates on the out-of-focus bright spots can be very sharp and mesmerizing, but perhaps because of the lens structure, there's no swirliness in the bokeh.
Black-and-White
As I wrote above, the photos that we took with this lens have a relatively low contrast, and to compensate for that, we had to increase the contrast in post-production. The black-and-white photos below turned out to be very interesting, especially with the sharpness you can see in the first photo.
Flare
Because the front element of this lens is deeply recessed into the body, it was difficult to get much of a flare on it, and we decided not to spend too much time on getting a good flare out of it. As you see below, flare is not a significant strength of this lens.
Videography
You can basically see the same diverse range of bokeh that I explained earlier in the videos below. The bokeh can be very versatile.
Video Flare
A look at the video below shows what the marginal flare that we got from this lens looks like in transition.
I hope that you enjoyed this test and review post. Like always, don't forget to leave us comments or shoot us an email if you want more information about this lens or more photos or video samples. We'll be beyond happy to communicate with you anytime.
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