Zeiss Luminar 16mm f2.5 Macro Lens

[charley5]

Has anyone ever owned this lens? Apparently it has a 1:2.5 magnification. I was considering purchasing it, but I needed more information on it. Very sparse details to be found online. Can someone please help me out and give me more information... sharpness, ease of use, mount, etc?

Thanks,

-Charles

[Max78]

[charley5]

[JMC]

Thanks for those links Maksim, very useful, I'd not seen those before.

Charles, I have one but got it mainly to try it out for my UV imaging work (as some of the Luminars have pretty good UV transmission). Simple enough to mount, as it is RMS threaded. Easy to use, but you'll need a good tripod or stand, because depth of field as would be expected is tiny. Some of my work with its brother, the 25mm, is here - https://jmcscientificconsulting.com/uv-macrophotography-with-zeiss-luminar-25mm/

As it turned out the 16mm didn't have as good UV transmission as the 25mm (still ok for 365nm work though) - https://jmcscientificconsulting.com/uv-transmission-of-zeiss-luminar-lenses/

Jonathan

[charley5]

[JMC]

No problem.

Enrico goes into a bit more detail on them here - http://www.savazzi.net/photography/zeissshootout.htm - but unfortunately does not give examples from the 16mm, although there is a brief discussion about it. According to that it is more optimised for higher magnifications (10x to 40x) that what you're interested in.

A few pictures with the big brother, the 100mm, here - http://forum.mflenses.com/garden-shots-with-zeiss-luminar-100mm-f6-3-t81567.html

All the Luminar lenses are high quality, but they tend to be expensive.

[kds315*]

The 16mm Luminar is the "diva" of them and rather difficult to use for photography, except you have a very heavy and stable setup. The last version III (blue dot) is the best version of it.

Data of all Luminars may be found on my site http://macrolenses.de

[danfromm]

Klaus, for what it is worth when I was trying out all sorts of lenses I borrowed Charlie Barringer's 16/2.5 Luminar and shot his Edmunds USAF on glass target with it. Resolution was best at f/2.5, not surprising, and peaked at > 228 lp/mm at 27:1.

I had one that appeared to have been baked front down. It had a ring of balsam around the front of the front element and horrible gaps between the inner cemented elements. It di ~ 144 lp/mm wide open at 30:1. Sent back to the seller.

[kds315*]