There's lots of info on the web. Browse around. Especially check out cinematography.com, konvas.org, and reduser. Wider angles tend to be less good optically than more middle range and telephoto on lomos and many other vintage lenses.

@sethdp

as your example above: 1-50-6 the first number equals the variation : larger number means a later variation and generally improved optics, but you need to check each focal length for which variation to get. The second number equals focal length obviously. The third I think means functional variation, in this case I think the housing was designed to be used with an anamorphic adapter in front.

@robmneilson it would be possible to modify oct 18s too for PL, or replace the housing with more functional housing for PL mount, at a price of course.. The optical blocks are the same regardless of the mount.

I think I've read that duclos have done a couple of lomo conversions... Question is if it is worth the money at that point. The illuminas s35 (t1.2) have a price tag of 35 000 $ for a set (I'm sure you're looking at 10 000 for a set conversion), and those are all based on the best Lomo optical schemes from the Ekran factory, with newly producted optical elements, all in contemporary cine housing.

oct18 / oct19? At first hand it depends on what you want to pay and wether rack focusing is important. Oct18 have a thread focusing function - and making it stable with FF can be a pain (the mount was designed for a turret camera). Oct19 seems more in line with contemporary cine housing and has a focus mechanism, but they are generally more expensive nowadays - especially in good condition.

thanks everyone for the replies. @qwerty123 i'll take a look at the sites. @RRRR Ive looked at both the oct 18 and oct 19 seems most of the oct 19 are faster lenses which is nice but as you stated a lot more money, seem harder to find compared to oct 18's. with the thread focusing function these cant be racked at all or making a follow focus work is the hard part? thanks again everyone that has replied seth

@rrrr oct18?

@rrrr let me know how they focus and please tell me if you post any footage using them thanks Seth

oct18 lomo's work fine with focus pulls, the only down side is that the entire element spins, and if you have any flar0ing in the shot, you can actually see the optics rotate, which looks cool, sometimes.

It's also super easy to modify them to pl. I bought these for a shoot we have coming up with the pl scarlet. http://www.ebay.com/itm/260877444965?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Just get some focus gears and they are super easy to use.

Agreed, what an awesome color grade!

I believe the numbers 1-50-1 or 1-50-6 translate to: [overall design] - [focal length in mm] - [improvement number]. So the 1-50-1 is the 1st 50mm design, first revision, the 1-50-6 is the 1st 50mm design, sixth revision.

Given the choice and available budget I would go for the Oct19 over the Oct18 because of the better barrel design, although they are heavier and larger. Even if you do go wit the Oct18 they still have decent coverage, I hear that some of them even cover 35mm, but I don't know of a chart or general rule about that. I think this is because some Soviet era 35mm cameras used Oct18 and it's more cost efficient to use the similar optical designs and parts versus doing a whole line of 16mm lenses.