5 Element Schneider Componon-S 50mm F2.8 info wanted

[jjphoto]

...
I'm certain that Meopta in late 80s had technology and expertise to produce Meogon's on their own.

I am biased towards this view too, though it's just an opinion. I have a couple of Meogon 2.8/80s, coincidentally also a 5/4 design, which don't seem to have an equivalent from other makers.

 

[gorbas]

Yes, back then I had option to buy Meogon 2.8/80 but I did not trusted f2.8 lens in darkroom and f4 was more useful and safer bet. I never seen or heard about Meogon's until I stepped in that photo store in Prague. It was way before Internet. Meopta's budget lenses, Belar and Anaret were very good too.
Do we have here any members from former Czechoslovakia who can bring more light to this story?

 

[Hilo]

Has Schneider ever been contacted about this? On their site, there's a historical part but for the 70ties it says they won the technology Oscar.

From 1970 to 1974 Schneider supposedly made the Leitz Focotar 50/4.5 enlarging lens. Even though all 50mm Focotar versions are 4.5 this Schneider made lens has a larger front element.

 

[Ian Grant]

Ian, front entrance pupil of my Meogon S - 4/80mm #15x is 28.84mm, my Componon S 4/80mm #141894xx entrance pupil is 25mm. From front side, multi coating of Componon is more magenta, Meogon is more on blue side. On the back, MC are much more similar. They have totally different barrels and irises, its very hard to compare them without doing X-ray or taking them apart.
Yes, I did read Barry's chapter about enlarging lenses. Have no idea who Martin Reed is?
I'm certain that Meopta in late 80s had technology and expertise to produce Meogon's on their own.

This is from a 2007 post:

Quoting Martin Read (copied fron the Silverprint website):

"ANARET ENLARGING LENSES
It is not well known that the Meopta Anaret S lenses are optically identical to the Componar S range, and indeed are made on the same production line, although sell at a lower price, substantially lower in some cases."

Martin's been involved with photography and darkroom supplies since the 1980's when he worked for Peter Goldfield at Goldfinger, before setting up Silverprint the UK's leading darkroom suppliers. prior to that he worked at Harringay Photographic Supplies.

Sorry I missed your assumption about Meogon S and Componon S. Schneider made the cells for the Anaret S which is the same as the Componar S their original high quality 4 element 3 groups enlarger lens. Not to be confused with the original Componar triplet introduce in 1914 still made as a budget lens into the 1990's.

Ian

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I wonder if this isn't the LFE version of the Focotar. Maybe Leica limited it to 4.5 because the 1c can be a little off across the range.

 

[AgX]

Marti Reed
"ANARET ENLARGING LENSES
It is not well known that the Meopta Anaret S lenses are optically identical to the Componar S range, and indeed are made on the same production line, although sell at a lower price, substantially lower in some cases."

.Schneider made the cells for the Anaret S which is the same as the Componar S their original high quality 4 element 3 groups enlarger lens. Not to be confused with the original Componar triplet introduce in 1914 still made as a budget lens into the 1990's.

From Martin's statement one can as well deduce that Meopta made those lenses for Schneider.

 

[Ian Grant]

From Martin's statement one can as well deduce that Meopta made those lenses for Schneider.

Well it's not unknown for companies to subcontract, Zeiss did.with Novar's and later Shnei der Dagors's.were made by KERN. Memory is Meopta and the composite barrels though not the lens cells.

I have a componar S 58mm f2.8 NIB IT'S an excellent lens, although I use a50mm Compnom S, I bought a Componar (triplet) 50mm for 5 € NIB last year while in Ireland with a much more desirable Voigtlander lens hood

Ian

 

[jjphoto]

Here's another reference to the Componon-S 50mm F2.8 being 5 elements in 4 groups. Strangely this is dated 9/91.

http://web.archive.org/web/20111011...groesserungsobjektive_bedienungsanleitung.pdf

Again, no product codes.

 

[gorbas]

Hi John, not to steal your original thread, but how do you like Meogon s 2.8/80 both for enlarging and for picture taking?

 

[jjphoto]

Hi John, not to steal your original thread, but how do you like Meogon s 2.8/80 both for enlarging and for picture taking?

No problem. My answer might be 'illegal' here, in that I use it as a taking lens on digital bodies. I've never used it as an enlarging lens so I can't comment on that. It's one of my favorite lenses as a taking lens, that's why I have a couple of them (they're not common on ebay). As a taking lens it has excellent wide open sharpness and quite funky or harsh bokeh behind the subject which is useful to me. I tend to use it as a portrait lens thought tbh it's been a while since I've used it. I'm not sure how good it is at infinity or in the corners though, but I suspect it's not great compared to 6/4 designs which tend to be better in the corners. I don't know of any other F2.8 75/80mm enlarging lens, there are barrel lenses like the Xenotar, so it's unique in that respect so maybe not comparable.

 

[gorbas]

Thank you very much John!

 

[Lachlan Young]

Barry Thornton's lens tests but more importantly Martin Reed founder of Silverprint (he later sold the company) bought enlarger lens direct from Meopta. Some Eastern Block countries were more open than others and the Czechs were always known for their engineering skills and that included new materials.

If you check the Wayback Machine/Internet Archive you can find Martin Reed stating clearly that the top end Mopta lenses were using Schneider lens cells, he may have said it here as well. My Vivitar VHE has made in Germany on the front cell if you unscrew it and is identical to a Componon-S and very different to the Rodagons (I have both).

Ian

My understanding was that this relationship between Schneider & Meopta was post-1989 and it may not have been full lenses, but major sub-assemblies, then assembled in the different plants. Much like Leitz's Portuguese plant & its relationship to the German plant.

I also recall reading somewhere that (on the basis of the visual evidence on the lens barrel) Meopta seemed likely to have manufactured the optical elements for the Heidelberg Tango & Primescan drum scanners, which are some of the finest scanners ever made.

 

[Ian Grant]

My understanding was that this relationship between Schneider & Meopta was post-1989 and it may not have been full lenses, but major sub-assemblies, then assembled in the different plants. Much like Leitz's Portuguese plant & its relationship to the German plant.

That was my understanding as well, the 50mm f2.8 Anaret S is in the same composite barrel as the Componar, S in fact apart from the name they look identical.

Ian

 

[AgX]

In the case of Leitz it was outsourcing to a plant abroud, they had erectred abroad and it was not including optics.

Optical firms outsourcing a complete lens of their own to a competitor though is not a singular fenomenon: Meyer for instance had at least one of their own lenses completely manufactured by IOR.

 

[16:9]

Schneider made at least nine (maybe ten, depending on how you count them) versions of the Componon-S 50/2.8. Only the first two had five element formulas, but coatings, optical schemes and diaphragm types have varied in the 42 years this model has been in production. A full guide to identification and serial numbers is at Delta Lenses. In the case of some lenses it's not straightforward, but the serial numbers tell all.

------------
Version 1 [10146]: Produced 1975-1981. Five-element, concave-5 aperture. Single-coated.

Version 2 [14849]: Produced 1981-1990. Optically identical to [10146] but with aperture illumination and lever. Single-coated.

Version 3 [Catalogue # unknown]: M25 mount version of [14849]

Version 4a [16828] V1: Produced 1990-1995. New six-element design with concave-5 aperture in BLV-L. Similar appearance to [14849] with crucial minor differences. Lenses produced in 1994 have the same curved-5 diaphragm as [16828] V2, but no green band. Multicoated.

Version 4b [16828] V2: Produced 1995-2008 and beyond. Same six-element design as [16828] V1 but all models have curved-5 diaphragm in BLV-L. Green identifying band. Multicoated.

Version 5 [18827]: M25 mount version of [16828].

Version 6 [14796]: V-mount version of [16828] with Makro Iris body.

Version 7 HM [Catalogue # unknown]: Produced c.1993 in unknown quantities. Likely industrial or high-magnification application.

Version 8 V2 [1097301]: Revised optical design produced from 2020-2021 and marketed as an industrial lens in V38 mount only, but equally suited to enlarger and taking application. Max aperture now f32. All metal body.

Version 9 Pyrite [1097301]: Produced 2021 to date. Rebranded version of V2.