Rarest 50mm m42 lenses?

[Ian Grant]

Yes, I meant 30mm. Sorry. My Pentacon is 30mm.

The Pentacon 30mm f3.5 was the Lydith rebranded when the Meyer name was dropped by VEB Pentacon.

Ian

 

[Lucius]

FWIW, as one who owns an embarrassingly large number of 50-55mm lenses, I hafta say that there's a version of the Mamiya/Sekor 55 f/1.4 (M42) that's my favorite "normal" of that speed...

This Mamiya/Sekor MIGHT be related to the Tomioka/Rikenon lenses. don't know for sure

Would you care to share which version? I have a few 1.4s, including a Chinon Tomioka and a Mamiya/Sekor SX, but would be curious to hear more about the earlier iteration of the M/S.

 

[Lucius]

I must have 25 50mm lenses. They all perform about the same and lose contrast when wide open. They have different mounts and some are faster than others. In terms of 'rare' 42mm lens, this Enna Edixa Color-Ennalyt f1.9 is my rarest.
It has a unique auto aperture that has to be cocked after each exposure. One step ahead of a pre-set lens.

I recently got a Xenon 50mm f1.9 with this kind of semi-auto aperture, and it's got something like 15 blades. How many does your Ennalyt have?

 

[Paul Howell]

Another contender is the Chinon 50mm 1.7 Macro, a copy of the Kern Swiss 50mm made by Chinon for the M42 rebanded Alpa. While looking for a Chinion copy I found a Kern Swiss 50mm in M43 mount, never seen one before but so expensive. Seller wants over 6 grand for it.

Pardon Our Interruption...

,

 

[Lucius]

Another contender is the Chinon 50mm 1.7 Macro, a copy of the Kern Swiss 50mm made by Chinon for the M42 rebanded Alpa. While looking for a Chinion copy I found a Kern Swiss 50mm in M43 mount, never seen one before but so expensive. Seller wants over 6 grand for it.

Pardon Our Interruption...

,

That does seem rather excessive! And the lens isn't a true macro I think, it only goes to 1:3 magnification.
Now, the Macro-Quinon is a different story, as goes beyond 1:1 from what I've read.

Steinheil Macro-Quinon 55mm f1.9 M42 Pentax universal Screw Mount 1:1 Lens++RARE | eBay

This lens provides AMAZING images for film or digital SLR systems (manually focused). This lens focuses nice and smoothly. The aperture works well at all positions f1.9 - 22 with good aperture blades with no oil on the blades.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[loccdor]

Every vintage fast 50 I've tried has been a little soft wide open and very sharp stopped down. I've found something to like in all of them. None of them were head and shoulders above or behind their cousins. I have the less-desirable Super Takumar 50 1.4 and it's great. All the vintage normal lenses look a bit ghostly if you try to shoot them wide open at infinity. They are differing mostly in their out of focus rendering.

The sharpest fast 50s were not designed for film cameras, but some of them can be used on film cameras. There is even one with image stabilization that can be used on film. That is my primary lens and it's a total sleeper.

 

[eli griggs]

When I first started using 35MM SLRs, one of my fifirst was a Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL, which allowed me to take some really great shots in the mysts and fogs of the Pacific N.W. San Juan Islands, off and on Ft Lewis and in the mountains, etc.

Although I have the Pentax 1.4 radioactive lens, I believe I'd also like to find a second DTL and it's kit lens, even if the lens only gets used in Canon FD bodies.

There is one particular photograph made with that combo, that I can still see clearly in my minds eye and will onto death and beyond, I hope.

Cheers.

 

[eli griggs]

We are talking semantics again, but I think the lens must be rare and/or expensive in order to count as desirable.

The most desirable lens, unless you're a collector, I suppose, is THE lens that gives you the singular outstanding results you crave in your work.

Obviously, this is just my opinion, however, just as I buy my various artist paints, for the best quality pigment, not hue or brand, water miscibility, cost and/or other 'features', I've bought cameras, filters and lenses, in particular, for their performance, and, although it's been years since I could buy "top of the line" ie, usually quite expensive, there's still plenty of basic top quality glass out there that makes any "newest and greatest" 'nuances' into false values in light of actual performance on film and paper.

 

[ic-racer]

I recently got a Xenon 50mm f1.9 with this kind of semi-auto aperture, and it's got something like 15 blades. How many does your Ennalyt have?

It has the 'usual' six blade aperture.

 

[ant!]

I recently got a Xenon 50mm f1.9 with this kind of semi-auto aperture, and it's got something like 15 blades. How many does your Ennalyt have?

I have a Praktina (so not m42) Zeiss Jena Biotar 58/2 in semi-auto. I guess most/all semi-auto lenses for Praktina were made for m42 as well? Most of them were from Zeiss, but a few others made them too: http://www.praktina.com/pulen01.htm (this does not list your Xenon, which was not released for Praktina).

 

[Lucius]

I have a Praktina (so not m42) Zeiss Jena Biotar 58/2 in semi-auto. I guess most/all semi-auto lenses for Praktina were made for m42 as well? Most of them were from Zeiss, but a few others made them too: http://www.praktina.com/pulen01.htm (this does not list your Xenon, which was not released for Praktina).

Does your Biotar have 10 blades? I have a (non-working) preset Biotar in m42, and there seems to be a fully automatic one too, but I'm not sure I've seen a semi-auto one in m42.

Come to think of it, it could be a good idea to put together a list of preset and semi-auto fifties in m42: there shouldn't an awful lot of such lenses, and they can be rather interesting one way (aperture blades) or another (optics).

 

[Ian Grant]

Does your Biotar have 10 blades? I have a (non-working) preset Biotar in m42, and there seems to be a fully automatic one too, but I'm not sure I've seen a semi-auto one in m42.

Come to think of it, it could be a good idea to put together a list of preset and semi-auto fifties in m42: there shouldn't an awful lot of such lenses, and they can be rather interesting one way (aperture blades) or another (optics).

My 58mm f2 Biotar (Prakinna - semi automatic) has 10 aperture blades.

Ian

 

[ant!]

Same here, 10 blades on the Biotar 58/2 semi-auto.

A few others, all Praktina:
- Sonnar 180/2.8 (preset, the version with Flektoskop screw mount and adapters to Praktina/m42/Exakta, not the later P6 mount one with adapter. There were 3rd party adapters to P6 for this version): if I count right, 18 blades!
- Biometar 80/2.8 preset (this is the 35mm version, not the P6 lens, smaller): 12 blades.
- Biometar 120/2.8 auto (technically the same as the P6 lens, but no adapter/fix Praktina mount): 8 blades
- Flektogon 35/2.8, auto: 6 blades only.

Still have a Tessar 50/2.8 preset, Sonnar 135/4 preset and a Pancolar 50/2 auto, but didn't had them close right now for checking.

 

[Lucius]

version with Flektoskop screw mount

Didn't even know such a thing existed!

 

[Vaidotas]

Same here, 10 blades on the Biotar 58/2 semi-auto.

A few others, all Praktina:
- Sonnar 180/2.8 (preset, the version with Flektoskop screw mount and adapters to Praktina/m42/Exakta, not the later P6 mount one with adapter. There were 3rd party adapters to P6 for this version): if I count right, 18 blades!
- Biometar 80/2.8 preset (this is the 35mm version, not the P6 lens, smaller): 12 blades.
- Biometar 120/2.8 auto (technically the same as the P6 lens, but no adapter/fix Praktina mount): 8 blades
- Flektogon 35/2.8, auto: 6 blades only.

Still have a Tessar 50/2.8 preset, Sonnar 135/4 preset and a Pancolar 50/2 auto, but didn't had them close right now for checking.

Biometar 80/2.8 (not P6) was made as cine lens (not sure for which camera) with kind of slip on bayonet. I modified it to M42.
Interesting color balance, with prominent coma in frame periphery wide open.

Everybody talks about bokeh, resolving power etc.
There is another criteria which preocupied my attention - performance at infinity wide open.
Here Zeiss C/Y lens shines on.
Not rare though.

 

[ant!]

The Sonnar 180/2.8 was first made for the Contax, and since you can't really focus it through a rangefinder, they added the Flektoskop reflex adapter. And swapping this adapter with an SLR adapter (m42, Exakta, Praktina) was easy, using it on P6 came later. https://zeissikonveb.de/start/objektive/wechselobjektive1950er/carl-zeiss-jena/olympic-sonnar.html

Regarding the Biometar 80/2.8, see https://zeissikonveb.de/start/objek...r/carl-zeiss-jena/biometar-80-und-120-mm.html , the history seems a bit confusing. If I understand it right, the 35mm version stems from a design for the Rolleiflex even though that's 6x6), and was used in a bunch of 35mm SLR and the 16mm film camera Zeiss AK16. A very different design is the Biometar 80/2.8 designed as standard lens for the P6 range...