Managed to pick up an absolutely mint, boxed copy of this lens locally in South Africa. Quite an unexpected find!
It's very apparent that this was/is a super-premium lens, designed both optically and mechanically to be a notch above the other offerings from Schneider / Voigtländer at the time. Quite something to behold:
Due to the massive solidity / weight of this lens, I immediately preferred to use it on a proper monorail like a Toyo View Deluxe 4x5, also because this camera is so rock-solid at long bellows extension for close-focusing the 250mm lens:
I have only made a couple of quick test shots, but wanted to share these here - it seems like very few images made with this lens ever get posted online. While "sharpness" is simply just not a concern in 4x5 (even 100-year-old lenses do very well), I have to say, this lens is quite something. The resolution, tonality, and absolutely perfect (neutral) rendition of out-of-focus areas make this a keeper. It should be extraordinary for both portrait, and serious scenic work.
I've used several other lenses in the 210mm / 240mm range, and I love my Nikkor-T *ED 360mm, but this Zeiss Sonnar is something else. I think the high prices are justified beyond the simple collect-ability factor - it's a flat-out amazing optic by the look of things.
Hope I can post some more worthwhile images once I've taken it with on a road trip.
It's very apparent that this was/is a super-premium lens, designed both optically and mechanically to be a notch above the other offerings from Schneider / Voigtländer at the time. Quite something to behold:
Due to the massive solidity / weight of this lens, I immediately preferred to use it on a proper monorail like a Toyo View Deluxe 4x5, also because this camera is so rock-solid at long bellows extension for close-focusing the 250mm lens:
I have only made a couple of quick test shots, but wanted to share these here - it seems like very few images made with this lens ever get posted online. While "sharpness" is simply just not a concern in 4x5 (even 100-year-old lenses do very well), I have to say, this lens is quite something. The resolution, tonality, and absolutely perfect (neutral) rendition of out-of-focus areas make this a keeper. It should be extraordinary for both portrait, and serious scenic work.
I've used several other lenses in the 210mm / 240mm range, and I love my Nikkor-T *ED 360mm, but this Zeiss Sonnar is something else. I think the high prices are justified beyond the simple collect-ability factor - it's a flat-out amazing optic by the look of things.
Hope I can post some more worthwhile images once I've taken it with on a road trip.