lenses

[darter]

I ran across a Schneider 75mm F2 Xenar lens in Prontor shutter. I could find nothing about it in any lens literature. It doesn't cover 4x5. Is anyone familiar with the lens and what it might have been designed for? It looks like it was designed for a fairly robust camera system as opposed to a little folder.

[Ernest Purdum]

Most Xenars are Tessar types, so work at only a moderate angle. The camera might have been a 2 1/4" square type, but more likely a 3 X 4cm model. Schneider made Xenars from 10 to 480mm, but the smaller sizes were more apt to be sold to camera makers than directly to the public. Before WWII, Schneider and Gauthier (the Prontor people) supplied many makers of inexpensive to moderately priced cameras, mostly, but not necessarily, in Germany. After WWII, there was less of this but it still continued for awhile.

[Dan Fromm]

Look again at the lens to see if it is a Xenon. If you visit http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/archiv/archiv.htm, you'll see that there was a 75/2 Xenon for TV cameras. You could have a remounted TV lens. Please try it out and report how big a usable circle it throws.

I don't b'lieve there are any 75/2 tessar types, and that's what the Xenar is.

[Philippe Gauthier]

There was a Schneider 75mm f1.8 Xenar - it was made for Bolex movie cameras. Dan is probably right when he says that you could have a remounted lens.

Ernest: Gauthier lenses? I must get one of these... ;-)

[darter]

The lens is a 75/F2 XENAR, not a XENON, so it is not a remounted tv lens. More likely it is a remounted movie camera lens - but not of a specification I found in the vade mecum. The circle at F2 looks to barely cover 6x6, if that. Stopped down it covers a bit more, but not 3x4cm. From the look of it, it is from the late 40's to mid-50's - kind of a heavy chromed look.

[Dan Fromm]

Phil, to find out when a Schneider lens was made, visit www.schneideroptics.com , look around on the site for "Age of lenses," look up the lens' serial number in the table.

Would you please shine a bright light at the lens and count reflections? If it is a tessar type, there should be four bright and no weak reflections from the front cell, two bright and one weak from the rear cell. The weak reflection can be hard to see.