I had a Technka V in 1984 with 150 and 90 lenses and a 220 6x7 back. Always used it on a tripod until one day I forced myself to hand-hold and rangefinder focus. Didn't like it much so went back to the tripod which was more useful for the work in did, such as shooting interiors, some portraits but mostly landscapes.Originally Posted by ersanzop
I think adding the rangefinder was an attempt to make it a more versatile camera. When the RF was added just before the 1950's we were getting into the era of faster lenses and faster films where before this handholding was not very practical. The Zeiss lenses of the 1950's 75mm/100mm/250mm were the pinnacle of this... fast lenses that were optimized for wide open shooting but not very capable as far as room for view camera movements... These types of fast lenses were prevalent until the mid 1970's... by then the Japanese lenses were competing with the Germans symmetrical plasmat types and super wide angle lenses took over. These lenses were slower but the film stocks had improved so much you could just use a faster film.
Three words: Graflex Speed Graphic. Huge swathes of industrial/ commercial/ military/ governmental/ institutional photography in the middle of the 20th century (and deep into the 1960s) was done with Speed Graphics, often with a monorail/ field camera as a backup. That the Speed Graphic was a popular press camera was only one aspect of its use - they were the ubiquitous professional camera in North America and a highly desired professional tool in the 1940s/50s within the US post-WWII sphere of cultural/ political influence/ persuasion. It's pretty obvious that the Linhof Super Technika was intended to be a one-camera solution that could do everything well in an extremely durable package - and with lenses that made E-1 Ektachrome more readily usable within markets that needed results in colour not just for pictorial, but analytical purposes. If you have too much time on your hands, there's quite a bit of old Industrial Photography materials (industry publications/ magazines) to be found that will give some important insights into the markets Linhof was after - and from the archives of those industries/ institutions, Sultan and Mandel's epochal work 'Evidence' sprung - which owes a great deal of its aesthetic impact to the fact that the original images were largely made on 4x5 negs.
Last edited by interneg; 10-Mar-2023 at 11:39.
Excellent post - thank you.
Responding years later, but curiously that's one of the strengths of this type of forum. We always think the Internet is all about immediacy, and destroys anything that is more than a few milliseconds old, but this is not always the case, and forums may continue discussion over many years, unlike legacy print media.
Your post indicates the large-aperture lenses directly spurred by the Linhof Technika IV project, including the Zeiss three-lens set, as well as the Schneider Xenotar 150mm f/2.8.
The argument for the Zeiss set seems established, but I wonder about the Xenotar 150.
I have seen the Kling ad published below, and I am fascinated by it, however I have never seen anything in ANY German-based Linhof literature concerning the Schneider Xenotar 150.
I have never seen any Linhof prospectus advertising this lens, nor is it mentioned in any way in any of the Verlag Grossbild Technik publications from the time.
I am wondering - the Klingfilm advertisement aside (and I am not discrediting this interesting document) - do you have any documentary evidence that would inform us as to the link between the development of the Schneider 150mm f/2.8 and the Linhof Technika project?
Linhof Catalog No. 46 (in German) from 1969 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50...8nsOdafgNWTezA shows the 150 mm f/2,8 Xenotar on pages 48-49. That's pages 48 and 49 of the catalog, page 21 of the pdf.
This is from Laflex's website.
David
Thank you for that - That's really interesting to see.
I have a prospectus from about the same time (maybe a couple years later) which shows almost all the same items, and all the same pictures and illustrations, but the only Xenotar it mentions is the 100mm f/4 (which is a very odd bird for a Xenotar).
So it is good to see it listed - thanks for that. I also have a couple of hardcover publications from Linhof, and several pricelists from over the years, but just no mention of the 150mm Xenotar. It appears it was never offered with the AeroTechnikas, though it would have been an excellent candidate - probably as good as the 135mm Planar they did offer. They did offer other Schneider lenses with the original Aero-Technika. Though the "basic" lens set was the Zeiss Biogon/Planar/Sonnar, they also offered Schneider Symmar 180mm, and Rodenstock Rotelar 270mm - possibly others. I have also never seen the Xenotar 150 mentioned as part of a lens "set" for any Technika camera.
Obviously the Aero-Technika electric version required a much greater level of integration with its motorized lens cones, so the lens offerings were fewer - basically Biogon 75/Planar 135/ Symmar 180/Tele-Arton 270 initially, but the Zeiss versions would be eliminated entirely in later models, in favor of all-Schneider Symmars, Symmar-S, Super Angulon 90.
Do you have any text indicating the 150mm Xenotar f/2.8 was indeed designed at the behest of Linhof for the Super-Technika IV?
Thank You.
I have a Linhof publication titled "Linhof Report" and "The complete system of Linhof Photography", has a picture of the Technika 70 on the front. Can't immediately find a date code or copyright date. It includes the 100 mm f/4 Xenotar but not the 105 mm or 150 mm f/2.8 Xenotars. Is that the prospectus you have? Yes, an f/4 Xenotar seems odd.
Your last question is interesting. Did Linhof approach Schneider about designing a lens a bit longer (and faster) than the 135 mm f/3.5 Planar or did Schneider come up with the idea and inquire of Linhof if they were interested? Haven't seen anything about that.
David
The 150mm Xenotar 2.8 actually proceeds the 1956 45 Technika IV (1956-1963) and was available on the 45 Technika III (1946-1956).
The first Xenotar lenses are in 80mm length and are found on the Rolleiflex 2.8C in Late 1952. The 105mm for 6x9 and 150mm for 4x5 came a year or two later, I don't have an exact date but the serial numbers begin in the 3 millions indicating around 1954, and they end in the 10 millions about 1969.
The 150mm Xenotar is prominent in Linhof marketing/ advertising from about 1955 appearing on the Technika III ads in the first volume of the Grossbild Technik magazine.
When the IV is introduced in Koln at Photokina in October 1956 it is shown with the 150mm Xenotar lens, and it is prevalent in the marketing of this camera throughout the rest of the 1950's.
In addition to the 1969 catalog David Lindquist notes Laflex also has a 1956 pricelist which lists the Xenotar 150mm.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B50...9fqioMrWueoqbw
The Zeiss lens set came out first for the Linhof 23 III about 1954 as well, but the 45 lenses only showed up in the last days of the III and the beginning of the IV in 1956.
1954 +/- 6 months seems to be the sweet spot for the Arrival of the Xenotar 150mm so any any announcement of the arrival should be looked for here. Linhof made a series of small informational booklets called Linhof Information that preceded the Grossbild Technik magazine of 1955. They were only in German and Laflex has the first 4, starting in 1951, on its site, however issues 5,6 & 7 are likely the ones that contain the info we need. I have tried but so far not been able to locate these issues...
Yes, the prospectus I have is the "Linhof Report", exactly as you describe.
I also have a hardcover book called Photography in Industry, from Verlag Grössbild Technik ©1967. It lists the Xenotar 150mm as a "long-focus lens for 6.5 x 9cm film, with the note (Normal focus lenses which are really intended for the next larger format, but can be used for smaller formats). I get the feeling they were hesitant to advertise it as a 4x5 lens because it offers no adjustability on that size. The same book does however show a full-page photo of a Super Technika IV with a 150mm Xenotar on it.
Very interesting, thanks again.
I have two Rolleiflex 2.8D cameras, both with 80mm Xenotar f2.8 lenses. I have read that Franke& Heideke chose the Planar 3.5 and 2.8 lenses for these cameras, but Carl Zeiss was unable to keep up with the production demand of the popular TLRs, so Rollei turned to Schneider for a near-identical (albeit reversed) equivalent. Just a wild guess, for which I have zero substantiation, but could it be possible that Schneider reversed the Planar to avoid patent infringements on the Zeiss Planar? The Planars were always more expensive, and I believe even fetch higher prices on the used market today, but many users were equally or even more satidfied with the Xenotars.
I also have two 150mm 2,8 Xenotars - one is in the 4-million series and the other in the mid 7-million, so the production run must have been rather long. The two are slightly different, though I don't know whether it's just the machining or the actual optical formula that has changed. There is some documentary evidence of Xenotars in either five or six elements, however I have not seen claims of performance differences, unlike the Planar, which was substantially ameliorated in the 1968/69 version, according to Cröll's paper.
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