Pentacon 135mm - what is it good for? (review)

hoanpham · Expire: 2015-01-18

Thanks you for the effort posting a review.

I haven't got time to look at until now.
My copy of the same lens is among the best 135mm I have.
Wide open is very good. Best f-stop around 5.6 and at f4 it still has almost perfect circle iris.
There is no problem using wide open with this lens.

memento · Joined: 05 Nov 2012 Posts: 79

I have had two Pentacon 135/2.8 copies and both performed exactly as bad as shown here. (Both my lenses were the newer style, one an "electric" for the Praktica VLC / LLC series). The quality difference to e.g. the CZJ Sonnar 135/3.5 is huge, especially on digital cameras, even at f/8 I see a quality difference mainly at the image borders to other 135s.

But what you can do well with the Pentacon is to use it with film, preferably B/W, the lens quality is good enough for that, and it makes a nice portrait lens. I kept my "electric" Pentacon for occasional use with my Praktica VLC / LLC. Thomas

TAo2 · Joined: 09 Mar 2012 Posts: 319 Location: Scotland

This is mine. Excellent condition...it does produce CA but only occasionally and usually, only around highlights. If ye have a"busy" background ye'll have "busy" bokeh.

#1

Wide open (iirc). Sharp enough? On Sony A700.

#2

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

You could switch from Nikon and make MF much easier.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

GaborF · Joined: 06 Nov 2012 Posts: 35

Thanks again for the posts - I find it very helpful, and there were a couple of really constructive posts. Much appreciated.

1, For me it still seems there is discord between Pentacon 135 lenses being great or some not. It would be of use if we could identify which production quality Pentacons are good - e.g. 15 bladed versions are all praised, but these are hard to find on the market today (at least for a reasonable price). However many posts here suggest that the 6 blades ones can be just as good - though some say they found underdogs.

2, I still need to understand if the quality is poor due to disassembly- even previous owner could have had removed a piece - the glasses are of great quality, but it was sold "after cleaning and not assembled" so there is a risk that these issues are due to some problems already received.

The repair shop I engaged promised to check if there is any missing piece altogether, and will try everything to restore it if its a mechanical fault. At least this will help - I will post results as well, as if there are lemon lenses to be found with such a good reputation, for the benefit of the community, we should identify these and make it public (e.g. from serial number onwards production could have changed, etc).

The picture Tao2 posted proves that there are good Pentacon leses out there.
To IanGreen's point, originally the lens was wobbly too, so after the first round in the repair shop, it come back really good - I thought it could work with the Nikon refit, however while wobblyness was corrected, the images were not up to what I would have expected.

Regarding the question on the ISO for the birds - these are fast flying animals, so these were shot in bad/dull grey-weather, not much light, with 1/750 shutter speed, so I was amazed still compared to bad conditions how good these turned out to be.

The question is still on, weather this lens is bad from a certain late version batch, or bad due to missing elements.

Turned to you guys, and thanks for the many posts that were constructive!
Will keep this going and let you know of the results.

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

Well you're to blame Gabor: http://forum.mflenses.com/m42-pentacon-2-8-135mm-image-quality-tested-and-guaranteed-t54624.html
Uh, this post number ends with 666 Smile

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