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fastest Lens on Earth by Zeiss on Auction
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:09 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:09 pm
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A few months ago Charles Barringer died, Persident of Zeiss Historica USA.
Now his collection as per his last will will be auctioned off by Westlicht.

Have a look at this rarest piece of his collection, the

Carl Zeiss Super-Q-Gigantar 0.33/40mm



Further there will be also the "Kubrick Lens", where only a few have been made for filming of Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon"

Carl Zeiss Planar 0.7/50mm



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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:32 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:32 pm
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You would have to win the Euro lotto to afford them! Wink


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:50 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:50 pm
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Estimates are EUR 12-16.000 for the Gigantar and EUR 16-20.000 for the Kubrik lens
(plus 20% for the Auction house) - not that much actually. But I expect more.


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:23 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:23 pm
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Really awesome pieces of glass from one of the top manufacturers. Thanks for the info and pictures klaus

patrickh


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:58 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:58 pm
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What's the problem? I will not pay the taxes and get one! I will use it in jail! Laughing


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:30 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:30 pm
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Orio wrote:
What's the problem? I will not pay the taxes and get one! I will use it in jail! Laughing


Don't tell me you have a debtor prison.
Do you? Shocked


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:33 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:33 pm
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Himself wrote:
Orio wrote:
What's the problem? I will not pay the taxes and get one! I will use it in jail! Laughing


Don't tell me you have a debtor prison.
Do you? Shocked


I'm not a lawyer, but in some cases, at least surely where fraud is involved, if you have big unpayed sumes yes you can end up in jail.


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:39 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:39 pm
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You know I would love to just see some sample images taken with that 40mm. I'm very interested in the look of those images Very Happy


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:50 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:50 pm
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Yeah, I just need to convince my wife to sell our house and live under a bridge and I surely will be able to afford these lenses. Hey, the urge for rare lenses needs some dedication! Wink

Thanks for the info, Klaus!


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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:28 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:28 pm
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Wow, i like the look of that Gigantar....

But then a google revealed;

Quote:
> Much better than the extreme case in that direction, the 1966 Zeiss
> > Super-Q Gigantar (40mm f/0.33). (Which, for those not familiar with
> > it, was never intended for real use; it was a PR piece at a time when
> > Zeiss was taking a lot of heat for making slow lenses, and it was a
> > way for them to say that good quality was more important than wide
> > aperture.)
>
> Found via. Google:
>
> "And then there was the Zeiss Ikon "Super-Q-Gigantar" story, recited in the
> Zeiss Compendium (Barringer and [ahem!] Small), wherein Z-I's PR man took a
> dusted-off-the-shelf condenser lens and cobbled it into a "40mm/f.033"
> Contarex-mount and showed it at the '66 Photokina. The lens was so large
> (125mm diam.) that he bored a hole through it so the 'bullseye' meter could
> see the scene (literally TTL). It did make an image of sorts. The "Q" stood
> for 'quatsch' - 'nonsense' auf deutsch."


All that money for a dusted off condenser lens!


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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:54 am
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 2:54 am
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Wow, the Gigantar looks gigantic. I tried google but can't seem to find much info on the lens. Sad Will be great to see some photos taken by this beast.

Last edited by my_photography on Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:46 am; edited 1 time in total


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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:36 am
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:36 am
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You know, I remember watching Barry Lyndon back in the 70s and marveling over the low-light photography in that movie. I never realized they used a lens especially designed for it to shoot some of the candle-lit scenes. That movie's cinematography was one of its strongest points. Cinematography, costumes, and choreography of the actors pretending to be musicians . . . or musicians pretending to be actors, one of the two.


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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:24 am
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:24 am
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my_photography wrote:
Will be great to see some photos taken by this beast.


A pure collector don't use his gear, maybe he don't know how to. And it will be sold to a collector.


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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:50 am
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:50 am
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CarbonR wrote:
my_photography wrote:
Will be great to see some photos taken by this beast.


A pure collector don't use his gear, maybe he don't know how to. And it will be sold to a collector.


Maybe we should start a service to these collectors, teaching them how to appreciate their gears and end of the day charging them equivalent collector fees. Wink


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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:53 am
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:53 am
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my_photography wrote:
Wow, the Gigantar looks gigantic. I tried google but can't seem to find much info on the lens. Sad Will be great to see some photos taken by this beast.


If you have read the replies above you (and I already knew the answer from the Zeiss Compendium by Charles Barringer and Marc Small) then you'd know that the Super-Q-Gigantar was just made for fun purposes and is NOT an usable lens. It was just a hotchpotch using the largest glass they could find. It even does not have a working optical scheme.


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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:20 am
Post subject: Re: fastest Lens on Earth by Zeiss on Auction
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:20 am
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kds315* wrote:
...
Carl Zeiss Planar 0.7/50mm



Thanks for sharing. Would love to take her for a test drive.


K.


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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:55 pm
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:55 pm
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I'm not sure if it is good practice to repeat old April Fool's jokes - especially if it is one's own. But here it is anyways:

http://forum.mflenses.com/anyone-know-this-lens-t15760.html


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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:13 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:13 am
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thePiRaTE!! wrote:
kds315* wrote:
...
Carl Zeiss Planar 0.7/50mm




Impressive optical diagram:
http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Schuster_0,75_litografia_uv/00_pag.htm


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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:01 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:01 am
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calvin83 wrote:
thePiRaTE!! wrote:
kds315* wrote:
...
Carl Zeiss Planar 0.7/50mm




Impressive optical diagram:
http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Schuster_0,75_litografia_uv/00_pag.htm


Impressive optical diagram, but it's not the lens used by Kubrick. It should be this one: http://pindelski.org/Photography/2009/02/12/barry-lyndon/


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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:47 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:47 am
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Spotmatic wrote:
calvin83 wrote:
thePiRaTE!! wrote:
kds315* wrote:
...
Carl Zeiss Planar 0.7/50mm




Impressive optical diagram:
http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Schuster_0,75_litografia_uv/00_pag.htm


Impressive optical diagram, but it's not the lens used by Kubrick. It should be this one: http://pindelski.org/Photography/2009/02/12/barry-lyndon/

Yes. Both are impresive. Wink


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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:21 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:21 am
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Spotmatic wrote:

Impressive optical diagram, but it's not the lens used by Kubrick. It should be this one: http://pindelski.org/Photography/2009/02/12/barry-lyndon/


It is very unfortunate that that site did steal Marco Cavina's graphic work without even crediting him.
Marco's original page and diagrams here:
http://www.marcocavina.com/omaggio_a_kubrick.htm

EDIT: I have informed Marco.
_

Last edited by Orio on Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:08 pm; edited 1 time in total


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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:50 am
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:50 am
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You mean "that" site not "this" .. Confused


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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:08 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:08 pm
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Thanks, I corrected.


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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:19 pm
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:19 pm
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Orio wrote:
Spotmatic wrote:

Impressive optical diagram, but it's not the lens used by Kubrick. It should be this one: http://pindelski.org/Photography/2009/02/12/barry-lyndon/


It is very unfortunate that that site did steal Marco Cavina's graphic work without even crediting him.
Marco's original page and diagrams here:
http://www.marcocavina.com/omaggio_a_kubrick.htm

EDIT: I have informed Marco.
_


And I placed a harsh comment on his (not well designed) site!


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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:28 pm
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:28 pm
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Spotmatic wrote:
It even does not have a working optical scheme.

Working? Who cares if it WORKS?!?!? Bragging rights are good enough!

Looking at this, and other bulbous lenses, reminds me of this article [ http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2010/11/the-schott-heard-around-the-world ] and this 'lens':



Quote:
"Photographers... didn’t really have a lens, back in the 1860s, that would let them shoot a wide-angle scenic image. Thomas Sutton, an English photographer, noticed the wide angle of view he saw when looking through one of those water filled snowglobes ... and designed a lens that consisted of a water filled globe."

It was slow and required a globular frame for film, so it didn't really succeed. But I makes me wonder: Could it be kludged? For those who can't afford an enlarger condenser lens, why not just get a globe fishbowl and half-fill it with optical resin, like that windshield-repair resin we can use to fix lens scratches and cracks? Put that on a suitable body and mount, and VOILA!
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