V/S-Heidosmat 2.4/90 MC, another wow! projection lens

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1614

V/S-Heidosmat 2.4/90 MC must belong to the upper segment of 35mm slide projector lenses. Put in a metal barrel, having a nice multi-coating, it excels in IQ both on a bare APS-C and with a lens booster. The beauty ring says "Made in Germany", and I wonder if it is a Rollei-made one or for example an ISCO rebadged to a Rollei lens name.

In this thread 16:9 supposes it is a 4-element lens. To my eye, the rendering drives it to be rather a 5-element one. Anyway, it is a really great performer with a mild rendering, neat but not too sharp and giving a gracious smoothness to object surfaces. looks like a lens on par with ISCO V/S-Projar MC 2.5/90 (very similar rendering) and Agfa Color-Agolon 2.5/90.

#1 With a lens booster

#2 With a lens booster

#3 Without a lens booster

#4 A 100% crop from the previous, unprocessed, CA visible similar to Isco V/S-Projar

#5 With a lens booster, a 100% crop from a shot

#6 With a lens booster, a not too contrasty, smooth rendering of concrete and pebbles surfaces

#7 With a lens booster, contrast pushed further

blotafton · Joined: 08 Aug 2013 Posts: 1580 Location: Sweden

Looks good! I wanted that lens but accidentally got the V/S-Projar instead. If they are the same it was a good mistake.

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1614

Physically, these lenses look very similar, but not identical.

Heidosmat has a magenta tint MC while Projar's one is amber tinted. Heidosmat has a little bold opening of the barrel on the top (neglectable) and is slightly taller. Although all of this must relate to brand variations, as they have the same flange distance and very similar rendering. I'll post a couple of pictures from both on the next step.

#1

#2

#3

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1614

Here is a test shot comparison in both lenses. As the sun is harsh, and the lenses do not have aperture, I had to use a simple autocontrast in order to compensate the overexposure. If you take into account variations brought to the image by automatic WB and exposure camera settings in A mode, the rendering is really close if not the same.

#1 Projar

#2 Heidosmat

#3 Projar, cropped

#4 Heidosmat, cropped

#5 Projar, while the Heidosmat's image for reference is seen in the first post

blotafton · Joined: 08 Aug 2013 Posts: 1580 Location: Sweden

Quite similar. I wonder if there is more field curvature on the Projar.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1614

Thank you, Klaus! I am not sure, blotafton, but I may try to check it.

Meanwhile I took the Heidosmat for a walk, put on Sony Nex with a lens booster. Here are some shots from the urban large.

#1

#2

#3

#4 Sooc jpeg resized

#5

#6 Sooc jpeg resized

#7

simple.joy · Joined: 30 May 2022 Posts: 508

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1614

Thank you for your kind words!

Does not the optic's behaviour assimilate with such lenses as Rollei Planar? The latter has also strong CAs in contarst light, while its MC alows a good flare resistance in most part of light conditions.

Some SOOC shots show how the Heidosmat mixes purple fringing with good flare resistance.

#1

#2 A 100% crop from the previous

#3

#4 A 100% crop from the previous