carl zeiss jena 15cm f4.5

[scrichton]

Just picked one up for £5. Although I'm unanble to find many great pictures with them can the forum owners who have samples post them in here. Interested to know whether it is worth shuttering or placing in a spare sinar barrel I have.

Many thanks for the responses in advance.

Steve

[Walter Calahan]

Was hoping you'd make the great photographs with it to inspire us. Grin.

[Michael Graves]

I used to own one of those, and I regret selling it. It was originally in a dial-set compur, so you might look around for one of those in the used market. Later on, I'll post an image I shot with it after I have time to scan the neg.

[Ken Lee]

I just got one, and it's at SK Grimes, getting set into a lens board.

When done, I will have a Tessar, Heliar, and Solinar of equal lengths for comparison shooting - since I'm interested in the bokeh issue. I may find, as Chrisopher Perez has found, that the differences in design are sometimes... exaggerated.

[Wimpler]

I have one too, in a dial set compur. Shutter fires at the same speed at all settings, but bulb and time still work :D Haven't used it yet...

[Donald Qualls]

I have a 15 cm f/4.5 Tessar still in original, and accurate, dial-set #2 Compur. And there's the problem -- the lens is too big for a #1 and would cost to mint to have adapted to fit in a #3 shutter, so you pretty well have to find a dial-set #2 (which is likely to come with another Tessar already installed), though if you can verify the lens was made after about 1928-1929, it might instead fit a #1 rim-set (and thus a modern #1 size shutter).

FWIW, the Tessar is still, in some ways, the standard against which other large format lenses are measured; I have a 13.5 cm Skopar, 13.5 and 15 cm Tessars, and a 10.5 cm Skopar (all same design, from different factories), and all are excellent, though I don't yet have any images from the 15 cm Tessar to show. They won't differ greatly from those made with a 13.5 cm, however; I'll tack on here about a 5x7 cm crop from a 9x12 cm negative made with a pre-1927 13.5 cm f/4.5 Tessar...

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/dqualls/Zeiss-Ikon%20Ideal/Grandma3a8bitspottedwebsize.jpg

[Ole Tjugen]

I have one of those too - but mine is in a rim-set #1 Compur.

I'm sure I have pictures taken with it too, but since I also have a 150/4.5 Xenar, a 150/4.5 Heliar and a 150/4.5 Apo-Lanthar it's often difficult to remember which picture was shot with which lens...

[scrichton]

Well lens arrived today.

A bit grotty but polished up when all parts split. The dial set was wrecked with a broken armature inside, however with my shiny old norma sinar shutter it really doesn't matter all too much.
So prized it all open jammed the leaf's open and then cleaned the aperture and placed into the sinar board with a homebrew bayonet made from foamcore.

All in all pleased as punch, but no pictures as yet due to the car going in to get welded again. Oh Well. I'll shoot a couple of polaroids and let you all see them when I can.

Finally though this whole excursion cost £9 delivered with about an hour of my time. Ebay rules :-D

[Ken Lee]

From what I can tell about my 180mm Tessar, the coverage is narrow (as often said) compared to other designs, but the resolution and bokeh are terrific.