My new 150/3.5... Schneider Xenar (1928)

no-X · Last edited by no-X on Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

I just bought this tele lens... I made only a few window shots before sunset to check, how sharp is it (the second one is a bit less sharp - equiv. of 260mm and my shaky hands needs a bit faster shutter speed than 1/160):

I like the absence of purple-fringes and (I think)nice resolution. But I have almost zero experience with tele lenses longer than 135mm, so I'd like to ask, if this performance can be rated as under-average / average / good...

Thanks in advance!

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

It looks nice and sharp! Are you going to give us a cluse as to what it is? Wink

YureW · Joined: 12 Feb 2009 Posts: 45 Location: Trieste, Italy

Mamiya?

gil · Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:41 am Post subject:

Yes, sharpness was there.
cheers,
gil

no-X · Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:34 am Post subject:

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

Well that is an outreagusly good looking lens!

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Amazing!

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

It's a nice looking lens alright. Well done.

no-X · Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:38 am Post subject:

Thanks

The shots are taken at f/8. Unfortunately, lack of coating causes lots of glows at f/3.5 and f/4.5. The lens has acceptable resolution at f/3.5, but the glows and reflections kill it...

no-X · Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:02 pm Post subject:

Some images taken by this lens Smile

Here is one of the pitures in full resolution:

Spotmatic · Joined: 18 Aug 2008 Posts: 4045 Location: Netherlands

Now those are very nice shots! Can the lens be used up to infinity?

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

What a fantastic lens.
If it had a normal coating of today, it would kill most lenses of its focal lenght.

scsambrook · Expire: 2011-11-18

Aren't these old lenses just dreadful? Why do we spend our hard-earned money on them?? Will we never learn??? Very Happy

no-X · Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject:

Thanks.

Spotmatic: With the original helicoid (hmm, not original, but the one you can seen on pictures) the lens goes from infinity to about 1:3 or 1:3,5. I used it also together with the longer helicoid from Alex.

It's quite interesting, that even at 1:3 or 1:2 on crop sensor the lens is still acceptably sharp. It was pretty overkill for 90x90mm format with film from 20'-30'.

But I found a weak point of the lens. Wide-opened bokeh is really distracting - shows colored (CA) rings. Stopped down works great.

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

The results are stunning. I have had similar results from an old Steinheil Culminar 105/4.5 - I love the colours, OOF rendition and sharpness. It is no surprise these lenses seem to command premium prices.

patrickh