Century Tele-Athenar 215mm f/3.5 - A US-made Nikon Lens

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

This is one of those very unusual things, a US-made SLR lens.

In a factory Nikon mount to boot -

There you go - "USA" and "color coated"

But the coating is damaged - this lens has been used hard.

Century Optics is almost unique - a company founded to serve the needs of Hollywood and the movie industry, its the only significant US lens maker I know of that was based in California. Their main products were always long lenses for movie cameras, with a small minority of adaptations for still cameras. You usually see Century Athenars with some sort of interchangable mount if they have a still camera mounting. This one though is fairly unusual in having a fixed Nikon mount. Because of this, the reputation of the Century company, and the condition of the lens, I think this was certainly used by a professional photographer or business.

It still betrays its cine lens design - to focus the whole barrel turns, just the bit on the mount end is fixed. The aperture is preset, but the aperture ring itself has an aperture lock (the knob). The front end of the barrel has no proper thread for any sort of normal hood; the outside of it though seems to be tapped for some sort of dedicated hood I don't have. So I made a hood out of black paper and tape. Perfectly adequate !

The lens is marked to focus down to 15', with a very long throw (this was designed for very precise focus), another mark of many cine lenses. It does however screw out far beyond that mark (it does almost two full rotations), and the effective minimum focus is more like 6'/2m. I don't know if that is as designed or if it is a modification. In any case, this makes it competitive with the typical 200mm SLR lens.

It is of course very beaten up, and the coating on the front element is as you can see. It is not a pretty lens to say the least.

Performance - in a word, wonderful. This thing is sharp wide open, so sharp that I can't tell if it improves at all by stopping down. It is one of the sharpest tele lenses I have tried, maybe the absolute best, though perhaps that may be my impression because it is so easy to nail focus with this - perhaps because of the very long focus travel. Its perfectly fine with backlit subjects, though I expect it will always require a decent hood. Contrast is so-so.

Everything at f/3.5

The bird -

crop -

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Nice one! Century Precision Optics was once just a service provider to the film industry in Hollywood (they are located in North Hollywood), then slipped into making cine lenses - quite good ones actually and well reputed especially for their long tele lenses. 2000 they were bought by Schneider Optics, Germany and now are an integral part of them.

A friend of mine and professional nature film maker once showed me his Century lenses and commented on their excellent sharpness - his "secret weapons". You have very nicely showed how true that is!!

The LensVademecum notes Tele-Athenars as being well reputed for Arri and resolving power up to 100 lpm (!!)

P.S.: I have just bought yesterday a 2.8/150mm Century Precision cine lens, so I hope it performs as well as yours!

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

I like your reports/reviews of more unusual or rare lenses and cams a lot. This post is a perfect sample. Many thanks for sharing.

Wink

Cistron · Joined: 25 Feb 2011 Posts: 238 Location: London/Vienna

Wow, this one neat piece of glas. Is it very heavy?

Thanks also for the little history lesson Smile

56 DIN · Expire: 2021-11-18

thanks a lot for showing such a rare lens

SVP · Expire: 2017-12-17

I couldn't agree more.
I personally own a 300f/4.5 in M42 mount, a 385f/4.5 in Praktina mount, a 800f/6 in M42, as well as a monster 1200f/6.8 in T mount. All are great performers.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Its not heavy, as it does not seem to have a lot of glass in it.

I don't know if its just an improved doublet. It does have rear elements.

It is quite long though. Its probably not correct to call this a telephoto, I think its just a long focal length.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

A very nice review, Luis. Glad to see another CPO devotee here. I own two, both are Tele Athenar IIs -- a 500mm f/5.6 and a 650mm f/6.8. I agree about their razor sharp character.

Back when I was a camera dealer, CPO's former president also frequented the camera shows. I had the opportunity to talk with him a few times. When asked about the 500/5.6, which was the only CPO I owned at the time, he said that the 500/5.6 Tele Athenar II was composed of a "well corrected achromatic doublet." There is an optical flat before and after the doublet, so I dunno if his remark was an oversimplification or not, but I can attest to the "well corrected" nature of the doublet, at least.

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Just in case someone interests that...

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Thanks !

This list is I think much later than my lens - 1984.

I think mine is from the 1960's.

The ones listed are a later series of designs, that used T-mounts.

Surprisingly cheap even for the time !

What would a new 300/3.2 go for today ?

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

The price of the 300/3.2 in 1984 was $850, so using http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ one would get:

Current data is only available till 2010. In 2010, the relative worth of $850.00 from 1984 is: $1,780.00 using the Consumer Price Index
$1,570.00 using the GDP deflator
$1,740.00 using the unskilled wage
$1,930.00 using the Production Worker Compensation
$2,420.00 using the nominal GDP per capita
$3,170.00 using the relative share of GDP

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Luis, your lens was meant primarily for movie applications. If it has a permanent Nikon mount, it likely was converted at some point. An easy way to tell the difference between the T-A-IIs and the regular T-A lenses, is with the T-As the entire front lens tube rotates when turning the focusing ring. The T-A-IIs don't do this. According to what I was told by the CPO folks, the T-A-IIs were optimized for 35mm still photography use, and the use of T-mounts as well as the non-rotating front tube reflect this. However, even with the T-A-IIs, the T-mount is part of a larger mount system that unthreads from the base of the lens, allowing one to adapt mounts for (various?) movie cameras to them.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Well, that price list denotes the many possible mount versions. A very clever idea CPO had - maybe borrowed from Kilfitt who did the same (not a T-mount though)

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Yes, it is similar to Kilfit. With the Century, when you remove the mount, it exposes a locating pin. The mount has six holes the pin can be put into so the mount can be rotated if desired.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

I just got my CPO 3/150mm and made a few tests - amazing!

http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic,p,1134387.html