Carl Zeiss 300mm f5.6 for 8x10 Photography?

[lightcat]

Does anyone know the image size for this lens? Besides the lack of aperture and shutter (which is fine by me) is this lens suitable for 8x10 photography?
Thanks.

[Louis Pacilla]

Hi Lightcat

What lens design are you talking? Is it a late Tessar?

The design has everything to do w/ coverage.

If it's the 300 Tessar f5.6. it should cover w/ a little room for movements.

The best way to tell is to put the lens on a 8x10 camera & check it out.

Peace

[lightcat]

Hi Louis, thanks! You guessed it, it's the Zeiss S-Tessar 300mm f5.6 -

Any idea where I might be able to get a 76mm or 77mm retaining ring to mount the lens on a board?

[ic-racer]

---Glennview has some flanges:http://www.glennview.com/shutters.htm
---SK Grimes
---B&H http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/46505-REG/Schneider_92_056016_Lens_Mounting_Flange.html

[aduncanson]

Does this lens have a shutter? or an aperture? Google reports suggest this lens was made for use in photocopiers near 1:1. You might want to cobble it onto a foamcore or cardboard lens board and see what kind of image it makes before you invest, even in a flange.

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

I have no idea what the coverage is of that lens, but be aware the Zeiss S-Tessar was designed as a copier lens. These have been floating around for years, at very cheap prices, but they are in a solid barrel that can't be easily adapted to using an aperture diaphragm, or even waterhouse stops. Coverage is also probably limited by the mechanical design and inability to stop down.

Do yourself a favor, and at least get a real barrel mount 300mm f4.5 Tessar with a working aperture diaphragm that was designed to be used as a taking lens. They are plentiful on eBay at very reasonable prices and offer outstanding optical and mechanical construction. Other than the lack of a shutter, these are excellent general purpose taking lenses of very high quality and a real bargain. Look for a late coated sample with a 4 or 5 digit serial number.

Kerry

[lightcat]

Thanks for all the info everybody.

Wow - $129 for a mounting flange at B&H! Seems like I could have one made locally for half that at most.

@ Kerry - If I don't need to stop down and am shooting with strobes, so no shutter is needed, what are the disadvantage of a copy lens as opposed to a taking lens. Don't copy lenses have good flat-field coverage and sharp optics?

I'm going to pop the lens on for a quick test. I'll report back in the next day or so.

-Thanks all-

[Jim Galli]

Something else to play with on that lens. If you unscrew the front it works like a Wolly Velostigmat with diffusion.

[lightcat]

Something else to play with on that lens. If you unscrew the front it works like a Wolly Velostigmat with diffusion.

I'll have to try that some time. What's a Wolly Velostigmat?

[Jim Galli]

I'll have to try that some time. What's a Wolly Velostigmat?

Velostigmat Series II was Wollensak's flagship Tessar type. Some of them had a front ring on a thread that allowed the space between element #1 and #2 to increase thereby introducing some diffusion on purpose which can be useful for portraits.

[lightcat]

Velostigmat Series II was Wollensak's flagship Tessar type. Some of them had a front ring on a thread that allowed the space between element #1 and #2 to increase thereby introducing some diffusion on purpose which can be useful for portraits.

Gotcha. SO I don't remove the front element, just loosen it for added diffusion...

[Jim Galli]

Gotcha. SO I don't remove the front element, just loosen it for added diffusion...

Right. It also changes the focal length slightly which is why they may have built them that way. It could have been used for final focus in the machines.

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

@ Kerry - If I don't need to stop down and am shooting with strobes, so no shutter is needed, what are the disadvantage of a copy lens as opposed to a taking lens. Don't copy lenses have good flat-field coverage and sharp optics?

It depends on the lens, and what you mean by "copy lens". There's a big difference between a lens taken from a photo copier and a lens designed for photographic reproduction of blueprints, printed circuit boards, etc. The former are usually very inexpensive and designed to work at fixed apertures over a small range of magnification/reduction.

The latter, also commonly called process lenses are designed for extremely low distortion and reproduction of much larger documents. These lenses were generally very expensive new, and also generally make excellent general purpose taking lenses at longer than normal focal length (due to relatively narrow coverage angles). The most famous, and one of the best, of this type is the Goerz APO Artar (and air spaced design of 4 element in 4 groups, also referred to as a 4/4 design). Later, coated samples (including the Red Dot Artars) make great taking lenses. Several other lenses are based on the classic Artar design. These others include the Rodenstock APO Ronar, Schneider Repro Claron (not to be confused with the more common G Claron, which is a 6/4 plasmat desiogn) and the Zeiss/Docter APO Germinars (in the shorter focal lengths, some of the longer focal lengths are 6/6 designs). The Fujinon C series is a general purpose, long focal length design based on the classic Artar formula.

But, your S-Tessar is not a process lens. A little googling shows that it's either a photo copier lens, or more likely, it was a special production industrtial lens for something called a paint comparator.

A few people have tried to use these as general purpose lenses over the years, but there doesn't seem to have been much success. Most reports of actual usage indicate a small image circle and unsharp results, especially in the corners (even on 4x5). I'm not sure what look you're going for, and I've never used one of these lenses, but maybe it would produce some "interesting" images for portrait work, maybe not. Only way to know for sure is to try it. However, before you invest big bucks in a flange, I'd come up with a temporary way to mount it on a board and make a few test images to make sure it is capable of producing images you like, or at least find interesting.

The most practical application for this lens seems to be for the construction of an inexpensive home made telescope.

Here's a few links I found using google:

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum147/58052-what-do-tessar-300-5-6-a.html

http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/00Ip5j

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=16366

Kerry