Rarest lenses

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Currently Carl Zeiss Jena only I need time to finish..

http://www.mflenses.com/content/view/285/

bob955i · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 2495

CZJ Biometar 2.8/120.

CZJ Sonnar 2.8/200.

Any Kilfitt lenses especially the Makro-Kilar.

Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 1.9/50 and Tele-Xenar 3.5/135

And believe it or not, the Sigma Zoom Master 35-70....

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

thanks ! i have czj lenses do you have others ?

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

This Sigma is a good lens ? I have a rare and crap Sigma, I would list the best rare lenses.

bob955i · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 2495

I have a Biometar 120, S-K Xenon 50, S-K Tele-Xenar 135 and the aforementioned Sigma 35-70 but I don't have the Sonnar 200.

Actually I have two of the Sigma 35-70 zooms - the PB mount one I bought new about twenty odd years ago for ?70 and which spent most of the last twenty years on my BC-1, and a more recently obtained one in M42 for ?15 which I can't really use properly on my 5D yet as the lens is fully auto aperture and my adapter doesn't depress the stop-down pin.

Although I've got 100's of slides shot with the PB mount one, I can't provide any scanned film images as I don't have a scanner.

The Sigma is a good lens IMO but since I can't provide any evidence of it's abilities, it might be better to leave it out. You hardly see it now so in that sense it's rare, but it doesn't seem to be especially collectable.

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Hi!

I also have a Sigma zoom:
Sigma Zoom-0 (Theta) II 3.5-4.5/28-85 MC

This lens is really good!
And I only have seen it twice, once on ebay and once at a camera fair where I bought it. Wink

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

thank you I will put into sigma section If you have time please make test photos with this lens from nice subjects.

bob955i · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 2495

I think the Zoom Master 35-70 may have been the predecessor of Carsten's 28-85 although the 35-70 is f2.8-f4 unlike the 28-85.

Either make great walk-round lenses.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

If you have time please make also test photos with your rare lenses except czj lenses.

bob955i · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 2495

I'll see if I can bodge the Sigma so I can stop it down on the 5D.

soligor · Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 6

Talking about Sigma, I have several Sigma XQ series and they are pretty good. 18mm/3.2,135mm f1.8, 500mm/f4 mirror, 200mm/2.8(1:3 macro).
Sigma also supplied 55/2.8 16mm/2.8 in this line. The complete list has ~ 20 lenses including zooms, the rest are also interesting designs. Most of them are kind of rare now.
For quite a long period the XQ use the YS mount which is interchangebale and adapts to most todays camera including Nikon and EOS easily.
There was also a 18mm 2.8 at the same time by sigma but not YS mount. The lens uses 4 internal filters and has a builtin hood.
All these lens are trying to provide fancy extra features. The wide angles all have built-in 4 filters, and the telephotos all have macro ring goes to 1:1 or 1:2.
There were 3 third party high-end lines from the third party. Soligor CD, Sigma XQ and Vivitar Series 1. Of course Vivitar was the leader.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Welcome at our forum! Thank you for sharing this valuable information! Can you send some photos from your lenses and some samples about their quality ?

soligor · Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 6

Thanks!
Unfortunately, currently I do not have a good scanner or DSLR for these lenses. But I do recommend the XQ 135mm f1.8.
There actually was another 135/1.8 under many brands like spiratone, samigon, Rokunar Soligor Porst and Formula V, which also used YS mount or sometimes T mount. That one was acutally an earlier version of the XQ. The main diffrence is the earlier one has 82mm ring and the XQ is 77mm. Someone also told me that the earlier one is 6e/4g structure and the later is 6e/5g. Their wide open performances are much better than I expected from a 70's superfast lens, although still somehow soft. The problem is focusing at wide open cuz the shallow DOF. Another problem is the coating tech was much worse than today and finding a good hood with such size is not easy.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

This would be a quiet expensive lens people are crazy about fast lenses.

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Hi Soligor, thanks for posting and welcome to our friendly forum.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Welcome, Soligor!

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Tamron SP generally better than any Vivitar lens, except Kiron 105mm f2.8 macro.

Abbazz · Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 1098 Location: Jakarta

Here is my Tamron SP 70-150/2.8 soft focus. A really unique lens, which is quite rare:

And here are some pictures taken with this lens:

All these pictures were taken with the "soft" setting on 3 (maximum value). With the "soft" setting on 0, the lens turns into a very sharp fast telezoom.

Cheers!

Abbazz

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Wow! Thank you so much! I never seen before good soft lens, this is a great one!

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

That's really a rare lens. I have never seen one before.

Link: http://www.adaptall-2.com/lenses/51A.html

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

I guess this is also quite a rare lens (and a good one, too).

Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/135 1Q

Actually, the lens itself is not that rare but this copy is, since a former Zeiss Jena mechanic has adapted it to the EOS sytem for good. Thus it only can be used at an EOS cam, now. The blue ring works as a distance ring to grant focus on infinity.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

The subjects look great, too bad for the doughnut highlights in the background.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

This is not a common lens at all I saw only a couple of times only.