Legendary Lenses: Post Photos Taken With Exakta Glass

Mos6502

Mos6502

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What this thread is for: Photos taken with Exakta or Topcon lenses. Some of the most interesting, legendary, or mythical lenses were made in Exakta mount, so this should be a fun thread.

To get started, here are some shots taken with a Meyer Primoplan 1.9/58. I picked this lens up a few years ago, and paid (what I consider) too much, but the shop included a functional Exa for "free" so it wasn't really that bad of a deal. I finally got around to cleaning the glass and re-greasing the helicoid a few weeks ago.

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All shots made on Kodak Ektar.
The Meyer Primoplan has enjoyed renewed popularity over the past decade or so, on account of its distinctive boke' qualities, which is a bit of a shame because it's actually a pretty nice performer at middle apertures, not just a lens with a gimmick. The color rendering pretty much exemplifies the "vintage German" lens look.

Now post your shots!
 
An Exaktaphile here. I like the colors and rendition in your photos.

I use my Exaktas quite a bit (three VX, a VX IIa, and an Exa 500). I have a very wide range of lenses - from the common CZJ 50’s to an Angenieux. What I don’t have are any photos in digital form - all prints.

I’ll have to select some. I lay claim to being the only person in the world to have used an Exakta to photograph the 2017 solar eclipse.

I also have a new-to-me Topcon Super D with Topcor lens - no photos with it yet.
 
Two shots taken with a Schneider Kreuznach Tele Xenar 105mm f3.5 lens in Exacta mount. To me these shots exemplify all that is beautiful in the rendering old glass, especially old German glass. They are sharp (or at least what I would regard as sharp -though in the second photo below the subject's face is a little OOF. My fault.) in a classic way with a touch of softness in the rendering and naturalistic rendering of color. Stumbling on this lens switched me onto old German glass and I now own several lenses for Exacta mount cameras and am always on the lookout for more.

Cafe Study 29 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Cafe Study 26 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
Schneider lenses are great (mostly). I don't think they get the respect they deserve. Here's a few shots taken with a Schneider Xenon 1.9/50.

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A lot of early fast 50s for SLRs suffer from "busy" boke' or OOF qualities, but the Xenon gives a gentle and soft softness. As well, it's pretty much on a level with contemporary lenses from Leitz or Zeiss Ikon, but I guess because they were for SLRs they don't get the same attention. Again, excellent color rendition and natural contrast, it's neither overly soft, nor overly contrasty (the examples above are on slide film, so perfectly demonstrate this).

I have two Xenons, an early version with 18 aperture blades, and a later "compact" barrel version with six blades. I prefer the early version. The compact version is very small, sure, but the ergonomics are bad (the knurling on the focus ring is so narrow and sharp) and it needs to be used with a lens hood, which sort of defeats the whole point of the compact design.
 
My father loved his Exakta lenses and bodies, and now I love using them, too.

One of my favorites, the Biotar 58mm f2 T

Untitled by Bryan Costin, on Flickr


Hark! by Bryan Costin, on Flickr

The lovely Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 75mm/f1.5

Late afternoon at the creek by Bryan Costin, on Flickr


Untitled by Bryan Costin, on Flickr

The tiny little Tessar 50mm f3.5, on an Exacta VX

Daniel by Bryan Costin, on Flickr

And this one with an Isco-Gottingen Westar 100mm f4.5, which I carry when I might need a tiny little telephoto

Wild Assateague Ponies by Bryan Costin, on Flickr
 
Cathedral: Schneider 50mm f/1.9 lens on Canon T90
Girl in Window: Schneider 50mm f/1.9 on Topcon RE Super
 

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Recently repaired a Schacht Travelon 1.8/50. It needed complete disassembly to get the aperture blades out and cleaned of oil. I can't say I'm a big fan of the way this lens renders. It's soft wide open, but more annoying is the color rendition. Reds and Yellows come out super saturated, while greens and blues seem soft.

yellow by Berang Berang, on Flickr

Untitled by Berang Berang, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Berang Berang, on Flickr

Untitled by Berang Berang, on Flickr

A couple shots with the Enna Lithagon 4.5/35. This was the first retrofocus wide angle lens made in West Germany, and the first in Enna's surprisingly expansive range of wide angle SLR lenses. Enna would go on to make a 3.5/35, a 2.8/35, a 2.5/35, and a 1.9/35! They also made a variety of 28mm and 24mm lenses. I have the late production, multi-coated 3.5/28 in M42 mount, and it's an excellent lens. Enna was one of the few German companies to survive the mass die-off of the German camera industry in the 70s, however not much development of new products happened from then on. The 4.5/35 is better known for being offered in the Argus C3 mount, as the Sandmar. It's a very compact lens, and of some historical significance, but nothing special so far as results go. It's soft wide open, which combined with the large depth of field of a slow 35mm lens makes it a chore to focus on a plain ground glass screen. Stopped down it delivers, but it's no Flektogon.
 
This is not a legendary lens. Indeed it's maybe the worst 50mm I have in my collection. The ISCO Westanar 2.8/50. I cleaned this one out, fixed the lazy auto-aperture, re-greased the helicoid, and for what? This is a Tessar type lens, but one which has performed (in the three examples I've come across) worse than the Westar/Iscotar triplet. It did not survive the silver barrel era, being discontinued before the mid 60s it looks like.

ohio by Berang Berang, on Flickr

bun by Berang Berang, on Flickr

On top of the so-so optics, the auto-aperture requires a very strong pressure, resulting in a high potential for motion blur. But, it does look really good when mounted on the camera!
 
Mos6502 said:
This is not a legendary lens. Indeed it's maybe the worst 50mm I have in my collection. The ISCO Westanar 2.8/50. ...

On top of the so-so optics, the auto-aperture requires a very strong pressure, resulting in a high potential for motion blur. But, it does look really good when mounted on the camera!
Click to expand...

The Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 50mm f2.8 Domiplan is probably the worst 50mm I have in my collection (Exakta or otherwise), but in fact it is not really bad overall. It is not great wide open, but it is contrasty and pretty sharp at smaller apertures. The Domiplan is basically a Cooke's Triplet design. The last two shots in my post were taken with the Domiplan. The last shot was closer to wide open. This was the budget 50mm for the Exas and Exaktas. Youi can see the Domiplan in this shot, on the left side of the bird house floor.


Exakta Varex (VX) with Carl Zeiss Jena 58mm f2 Biotar by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr

I have some other glass that was available in Exakta mount, but my examples are not (e.g., Schneider-Kreuznach 35mm f2.8 Curtagon, CZJ 50mm f2.8 Tessar, etc.). My examples are in M-42 or Kodak DKL mount, but are otherwise the same lenses as available in Exakta mount. Would those qualify for this thread?
 
markjwyatt said:
I have some other glass that was available in Exakta mount, but my examples are not (e.g., Schneider-Kreuznach 35mm f2.8 Curtagon, CZJ 50mm f2.8 Tessar, etc.). My examples are in M-42 or Kodak DKL mount, but are otherwise the same lenses as available in Exakta mount. Would those qualify for this thread?
Click to expand...

Probably should keep it Exakta mount specific. I know some companies did not use the same lens formulas for different mounts. Schneider for instance used a different formula for the 2.8/35 in M42 (Edixa) mount than in Exakta mount. I'm not sure why, but the cross sections shown in catalogs are different! And I believe they had yet another version of this "same" lens for the Alpa!
 
Mos6502 said:
Probably should keep it Exakta mount specific. I know some companies did not use the same lens formulas for different mounts. Schneider for instance used a different formula for the 2.8/35 in M42 (Edixa) mount than in Exakta mount. I'm not sure why, but the cross sections shown in catalogs are different! And I believe they had yet another version of this "same" lens for the Alpa!
Click to expand...

Fair enough. At different times in the same mount there could be differences also. This is why I am intrigued with the Exakta- they had very few lenses of their own (and they were mainly for the Exa), and a lot of great lens makers supplied lenses for the Exakta. Plus Exaktas are built like tanks so you can find working copies still. In fact, there really is no "Exakta glass" (what is marked Exaktar, etc. was made by other manufacturers such as Meyer for Exakta). There is "Glass for Exaktas".

Just to explore this a little (I accept your ruling, no big deal)- would you welcome images created with a digital camera with an Exakta mount lens adapted? To me that wold be stretching it even more than I suggested.
 
Untitled by Berang Berang, on Flickr

Another one from the Flek 2.8/35.

I think digital images taken with Exakta lenses would be fine for this thread.
I think the fun part of the Exakta mount is that it was very popular for a couple of decades, and then disappears. When you use Exakta lenses you are really sticking to the imaging technology of the 50's and 60's mostly.
 
Recently took the Exa with me on a short trip to Rome, New York. Visited Utica (a short drive away, and much more to see). On the way is Lock 20 of the Erie Canal. Gave me a chance to use the wide angle Enna Lithagon 4.5/35mm lens. Noteworthy lens only because it was the first retrofocus produced in West Germany.

Lock 20 by Berang Berang, on Flickr
 
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