Manual Focus Lenses Forum

Kimble · Joined: 22 Aug 2016 Posts: 18 Location: Finland

I recently received this lens, Steinheil MÃ¼nchen Quinon 50mm f/2, and I'm curious about it's lens mount. Google did not help me much. Apparently it could be for Braun Paxette camera? Never heard of it. Strangely enough, this lens accepts M42 extension tube which allows me to adapt it to Canon. But of course, it only focuses real close that way. Maybe if I got precisely long extension tube, I could focus to infinity? Or can that be done only with mirrorless cameras..?

What I also discovered is that this lens has high price on eBay - though my copy is in so bad shape that I'm not gonna get rich!

Here's someone elses photoalbum taken with apparently the same lens. Bokeh and contrast seem nice:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ging9725/albums/72157675935793840/

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jamaeolus · Expire: 2015-08-20

Yes very rare lens. Paxette were m39 thread and had a very short flange distance. If it natively m42 its not a paxette lens. Even so I seriously doubt you can get infinity on your canon. Here is the reference for flange distance for various cameras:

http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/mounts-by-register.html

blotafton · Joined: 08 Aug 2013 Posts: 1783 Location: Sweden

The strange things are the protruding rear end and m42 mount, are they homemade modifications or a rare special version.

yoyomaoz · Joined: 31 Jul 2018 Posts: 97 Location: Adelaide

I doubt that it is a Paxette mount lens. First the Paxette lenses had an M39 screw thread - physically the same as a Leica Thread Mount lens but requiring a far longer register distance (i.e. from lens to film plane or sensor) not an M42 mount though I see yours has an adapter with it - not sure what to make of this.

Second, the large rear projection of the lens is unusual and makes me wonder if this lens could be for something entirely different - maybe for one of the Visoflex type mirror boxes used with rangefinder cameras back then before 35mm SLRs became common. Some lenses were factory made or adapted for these though I have no idea about whether this applies to Steinheil lenses.

Chasing this rabbit down the rabbit hole, I see that when looking at the photo you posted the tape measure suggests that the difference in register distance between the thread on the lens and the thread on the extension tube is approximately 33mm (its hard to be exact from the image posted). But 33mm plus 28.8mm (Leica Thread Mount register) makes a total of (approximately) 61.8mm. Upon examining the table of register distances that another person has posted, I see that the first (LTM mount version) Leitz Visoflex has a register distance of........drum roll..............62.5mm. If you measure the distance carefully and it comes out at that measurement you then know what the lens is intended for in this configuration. A few other camera systems have similar registers but most are for medium format so till more info becomes available I am betting on the Visoflex system)

At the time I write this there is one which looks the same as yours on eBay complete with the adapter / extension tube (note the ad says it is in M39 mount not M42 which I understand yours is) :

https://www.ebay.com.my/itm/Steincheil-Quinon-2-50mm-No1011665-Screw-39/263126299416?hash=item3d438cb318:g:gBsAAOSwEatZhY6U

A quick read of the internet says this lens is a Sonnar type. This thread (which IS for a Paxette mount version of this lens) shows what it s capable of:

https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/who-knows-the-quinon.486841/

and this short album also shows some excellent rendering:

https://www.pix.sg/Samples/Leica-M8M82/Steinheil-M%C3%BCnchen-Quinon-50mm/i-MtwdXhk

Kimble · Joined: 22 Aug 2016 Posts: 18 Location: Finland

Thanks for the answers, especially yoyomaoz! Funny how the eBay link has pretty much the same setup I have with black extension tube, even though I had not seen that one while making my own setup for the lens.

I got the lens from my now deceased grandpa, whom I asked few years ago if he has old cameras hidden somewhere that I could use. He said no, and that he has not owned nothing but "just basic cameras". That probably ment there were no SLR's. But he sure was keen to film video. I remember he had Super-VHS camera, so now I'm thinking that maybe this is a lens for like 8mm homefilm camera?

By the way, I once had success making dia projector lens Will Wetzlar Maginon 85mm f2.8 focus to infiny. It only focused very close when adapted. All it needed was me to glue the lens into Contax/ Yashica adapter, and then attach it to my Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter. Teleconverter has it's own focusing ring, so with that I was able to make it into a 170mm f/5.6 macrolens that focuses to where I want. Image quality wasn't very good when focused to infinity, but the rendering of the lens stayed pretty much the same.

Here's a better photo (I hope) from the mount measured. It looks like the protruding element is exactly 20mm long + the rear lens element that moves when focusing. And yes, the screw mount on this lens is M42, not M39. Sorry for a photo with such distortion on the lens, it's taken with my phone.