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Rollei Planar 1.8/50: if you have it, keep it !
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PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 2:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi, is this the lens that Made in Singapore ? I had been trying to find a lens that made from my country. Very Happy


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 4:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krisgage wrote:
Hi, is this the lens that Made in Singapore ? I had been trying to find a lens that made from my country. Very Happy


Yeah, I think so.

I received my two HFT Planar 50/1.8s today (speaking of the devil), and one clearly says "Made in Singapore" but I believe all Rollei HFT Planar 50/1.8s were made in Singapore. Maybe the very very first ones were made in Germany. Same goes with the Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50/1.8.


Incidentally, one of my Planars was a dead ringer for the Color-Ultron, as in everything looks identical (except of course the mount).






I can easily take that front ring off the two lenses and swap them to make the M42 lens say Rollei HFT and QBM say Voigtländer Color-Ultron (that one isn't surprising because they actually made QBM versions of the Color-Ultron).


All, invariably, hit the 5D mirros above the 10m mark. Since the Rollei version can't be mounted on my K20D, they have to be used with my 5D, so I guess I'll just have to not shoot anything beyond 10m, or, I'll shoot to infinity using hyperfocal (f8 should do the trick, if not f5.6).


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rawhead wrote:

I received my two HFT Planar 50/1.8s today (speaking of the devil), and one clearly says "Made in Singapore" but I believe all Rollei HFT Planar 50/1.8s were made in Singapore. Maybe the very very first ones were made in Germany. Same goes with the Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50/1.8.

Early productions are all West Germany made but when Zeiss couldn't delivered the lenses in time to Rollei, Rollei started producing them in its own production facility, Singapore.


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I read somewhere that the Singapore lenses were build in the Mamiya facility.


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yalcinaydin wrote:
rawhead wrote:

I received my two HFT Planar 50/1.8s today (speaking of the devil), and one clearly says "Made in Singapore" but I believe all Rollei HFT Planar 50/1.8s were made in Singapore. Maybe the very very first ones were made in Germany. Same goes with the Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50/1.8.

Early productions are all West Germany made but when Zeiss couldn't delivered the lenses in time to Rollei, Rollei started producing them in its own production facility, Singapore.



I thought all HFT coated lenses were Rollei's? Wouldn't Zeiss made lens have a T*?

I think the early version of the lens could've been made by Rollei in West Germany at the old Voigtländer factory, in Brunswick. I don't know if Zeiss ever made a T* version with a QBM mount...


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rawhead wrote:
I don't know if Zeiss ever made a T* version with a QBM mount...


I am not sure either. I have a Tele-Tessar 135 which is branded Carl Zeiss Made in West Germany, and was for sure made at Oberkochen, but it still is HFT. Rollei isn't mentioned anywhere on that lens except for the front lens cap.
So it looks like Zeiss did use HFT even for the lenses they produced in Oberkochen.


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:

I am not sure either. I have a Tele-Tessar 135 which is branded Carl Zeiss Made in West Germany, and was for sure made at Oberkochen, but it still is HFT. Rollei isn't mentioned anywhere on that lens except for the front lens cap.
So it looks like Zeiss did use HFT even for the lenses they produced in Oberkochen.

My lenses' situation is like this:
Carl Zeiss Planar 1.4/50 HFT, Lens made in West Germany
Carl Zeiss Sonnar 2.8/85, Lens made in West Germany (no HFT or other)
Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 4/135, Lens made in West Germany (no HFT or other)
Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 4/200, Lens made in West Germany (no HFT or other)
Rollei Planar 1.8/50 HFT, Lens made in Singapore.

And I know that the Rolleinar branded ones are made in Mamiya/Japan factories.





PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ha!! Very interesting about Zeiss made HFT coated lenses!! Thanks you two for the info!

I always thought that there was little difference between T* and HFT and the biggest difference is that Zeiss made T* and Rollei made HFT. Learn something new every day! Very Happy


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
So it looks like Zeiss did use HFT even for the lenses they produced in Oberkochen

I read that Rollei made by Zeiss use T*, it is called HFT for consistence with Rollei naming
Zeiss used 1 less lens element for the Rollei 85:2.8, I don't believe they do it to make it better but to do it cheaper.


PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 12:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
I read somewhere that the Singapore lenses were build in the Mamiya facility.

All Rollei/Zeiss/Voigtländer "Made in Singapore" lenses were actually made in the huge ROLLEI factory in Singapore which was closed 1981 in the big Rollei bankcrupty. What happened to the factory later I don't know.

Re: the 50/1.8 Planar: According to Dr. Tronnier jun., son of the designer of this lens, the GERMAN made Planar (7 elements/ 6 groups) was the last design of A.W.Tronnier and was changed to a simpler 6/4 design when Rollei moved production to Singapore. I haven't opened both lenses to confirm this.


PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

taunusreiter wrote:
Orio wrote:
I read somewhere that the Singapore lenses were build in the Mamiya facility.

All Rollei/Zeiss/Voigtländer "Made in Singapore" lenses were actually made in the huge ROLLEI factory in Singapore which was closed 1981 in the big Rollei bankcrupty. What happened to the factory later I don't know.

Re: the 50/1.8 Planar: According to Dr. Tronnier jun., son of the designer of this lens, the GERMAN made Planar (7 elements/ 6 groups) was the last design of A.W.Tronnier and was changed to a simpler 6/4 design when Rollei moved production to Singapore. I haven't opened both lenses to confirm this.



Hmmmm, I don't think that makes sense; the "seventh" element of the 50/1.8 is the very first element, concave in the original Carl Zeiss Ultron 50/1.8, but changed to a more traditional convex, yet very flat primary element with the Color-Ultron 50/1.8, identical to the HFT Planar 50/1.8. The Rollei one I have that is definitely made in Singapor has the exact same flat looking primary element as my Color-Ultron and the HFT Planar that looks identical to it.

Ref.
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Rollei_QBM_Zeiss_dt.html
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Bessa_RF_histo.html


PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Taunusreiter wrote:

Quote:
All Rollei/Zeiss/Voigtländer "Made in Singapore" lenses were actually made in the huge ROLLEI factory in Singapore which was closed 1981 in the big Rollei bankcrupty. What happened to the factory later I don't know.


That should be easy to find out by asking some of the knowledgable people in the newsgroup I already mentioned. They almost all come from Malaysia/Singapore, and many of them love to use MF-lenses, especially those made by Zeiss.

http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22378&page=50


PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Little did I know that the two links I gave above was to "taunusreiter"'s own site Laughing Ignorance is bliss!! Just want to say I've found your site immensely informative, and have made purchase decisions based on it more than a couple times in the past several months Smile


PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 3:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One on ebay? With camera attached. Wink


PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Has someone tested the lens on a 5dii?

Are there also any infinity issues?


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have finally got a very good EOS-Rollei adapter (previous one was not very good). So I shoot a series of tests with the Rollei Planar 1.8/50.

My tests conferm (empirically) what Marco Cavina reports in his article: this lens is really sharp wide open! In this test series you have a wide open shot first followed by a stopped down shot. You can see that in all the wide open shots, the focused part is perfectly sharp, and you can really tell the smaller aperture of the stopped down shot by the depth of field only.

The colours are nicely realistic (not too warm not too cold).
The bokeh wide open is better, highlight-wise, than the Contax series (1.4 and 1.7). Stopped down, the bokeh becomes gorgeous.

This lens is really, probably, Erhard Glatzel's less known masterpiece. Note that my copy is a "humble" Singapore copy, 18 Eur cost.

Which confirms my impression: it doesn't really matter where a lens is build: what counts is the committant, the project, the materials and the workmanship. in my opinion, Zeiss managed to keep a high level of these production factors also in the abroad productions. I have yet to try a new "Z" lens so I can not comment on those. My impression from the Contax and Rollei lenses made abroad is, once again, absolutely positive.










P.S. to answer Magnet's question: note that in order to use this lens on a 5D MkII, you need to use live view for distances longer than 3mt.


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 1:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shocked Shocked that's a damn good lens


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
I have finally got a very good EOS-Rollei adapter (previous one was not very good). So I shoot a series of tests with the Rollei Planar 1.8/50.........

Orio, these are good samples and let me decide to keep mine.
Thanks. Smile


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
I have finally got a very good EOS-Rollei adapter (previous one was not very good). So I shoot a series of tests with the Rollei Planar 1.8/50.........

Orio, please share your EOS-Rollei adapter. How much you get it?


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

djmike wrote:
Orio wrote:
I have finally got a very good EOS-Rollei adapter (previous one was not very good). So I shoot a series of tests with the Rollei Planar 1.8/50.........

Orio, please share your EOS-Rollei adapter. How much you get it?


It costed 28.90 Eur
They are made by an italian man who builds mechanical optical components.
This is the Ebay shop:
http://stores.ebay.it/COMA-Costruzioni-Ottiche-Meccaniche
note that the photo of the Rollei-EOS adapter shows one without the metal plate that stops the aperture pin, but, they sell both, so when you buy make sure to let them know that you want one with the pin-blocking metal plate.


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nesster wrote:
Shocked Shocked that's a damn good lens


Yes. So far I only met some selected (and costly) lenses which are sharp wide open as they are stopped down. This lens is one of them, except the cost.


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 6:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks again Orio for your invaluable information about this lens - I found one this evening by chance and got it for €24.74 Very Happy


PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 7:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mal1905 wrote:
Thanks again Orio for your invaluable information about this lens - I found one this evening by chance and got it for €24.74 Very Happy


You're welcome!
I'm happy when I can share some knowledge that I have.


PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2009 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes , I'll keep my 2 copies (one made in singapore, one made in germany)


PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2009 8:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio thank you for the information about 5dii compatibility.

You don't use spilt focus screen, do you? That's why you recommend usage of the live view.