xenar longish fast lens?

[Rider]

Are there any longish (300mm+) fast Xenars (faster than f5.6)? What's their coverage and other characteristics?

[Tom Diekwisch]

300mm/3.5. A tessar type with gorgeous bokeh.

[domenico Foschi]

500mm tele xenar 5.5.
Cover 8x10 for sure but I din't test it for 11x14
Gorgeous lens, a tiny bit soft wide open,(just a bit) sharp after that.
Gorgeous bokeh and wonderful tone rendition.
I assume they are hard to find.
I bought one on ebay years ago and couldn't find them anymore.
It belonged to a movie studio of some sort.
Not for sale....
Unless you have $22.000 to spend

[Jan Pedersen]

300mm 4.5 Xenar not that hard to find.
Just got one in a #5 Compound. Is meant for my 5x7 but should cover 8x10 too.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Xenars (and Tessars for that matter) normally came as f3.5, 4.5, 5.6, 6.3, et cetera. So yes, quite a few faster ones. The f3.5 in longer lengths are uncommon and not often very sharp, while the f4.5 are quite good and usually very cheap. Xenars will cover about 62+ degrees or so, so you really want one a bit longer than your normal FL.

[Ole Tjugen]

If you look at my avatar, the lens I'm using there is a 300mm f:4.5 Xenar in a #5 Compound shutter. If it looks like a neat little lens, please note that the camera is a 13x18cm Linhof Technika III, and I'm 6'4" tall.

The 300mm was intended as a normal lens for 18x24cm, a little bit smaller than 8x10". Schneider gives the coverage as 364mm, which is more than enough for 8x10" and just about exactly enough for 24x30cm.

[Colin Graham]

Slightly OT, but I keep seeing a 210 4.5 xenar in a Copal 3 on ebay. Anyone know anything about this lens? Surely it cant be a 5x7 lens in that size of a shutter? Anyway, the value placed on it seems...optimistic! unless it covers 8x10 at least. I asked the seller about it but they didnt know what format it was for.

Ole, any interest in selling your 'neat little lens'? :-)

[Nick_3536]

The shutter is a function of the aperture. I wouldn't count on it covering 8x10 or even full plate. My old Fuji 300mm F/5.6 is also a Tessar IIRC and at that focal length doesn't have a lot of coverage for 8x10.

[Colin Graham]

Thanks Nick, that makes perfect sense.

[wfwhitaker]

I have two 300mm f/4.5 Xenars for sale, one of which used to belong to a tall Norwegian.