"Aus Jena" Zeiss Triotar, 40 Euros

[Orio]

Almost accidentally, I won a M42 Triotar 4/135 "aus Jena" for 40 Euros.
I placed a bid just like that, just because it was an "aus Jena" copy, and forgot it. Then I got a message that I won the auction

This will be my second Triotar, the first one three years ago was foggy and gave hazey results. So I dumped it.
I hope to be luckier this time.

[Attila]

I cross my fingers , great lens.

[Bruce]

Yes, I remember your earlier one which never saw posting, hope to see this one working for you.

[Olivier]

Congrats Orio !
Keep your fingers crossed.

I have an alu version T 4/13.5. Nice lens. : To the Gallery

[Orio]

I have the lens in my hands now. Mint looking, focusing ring smooth as butter, and sharp like a needle wide open. Wow.
Bokeh looks great, and CA (this is the part that was the most surprise) is nearly zero.
Not bad for a stone age optical design
And yet another evidence that the "aus Jena" lenses are really worth to be looked after.

[Katastrofo]

Congrats, Orio, post some samples, please.

[Orio]

[Attila]

[martyn_bannister]

[mo]

I would like to see some samples too! I learn a lot from these sample photos, as the more I read and see and then look at my own lenses and photos. I begin to understand what you are all talking about in terms such as CA,crop factor,sharpness, contrast...etc...

[djmike]

A gem. Sample please.

[Orio]

Well, since you asked, here's a test pic, but I warned you they're boring, so don't complain now!

Full frame camera (5DII), subject taken hand-held, no hood on glass (lens is single-coated), some wind through the leaves. Two apertures, f/4 and f/6.5.
First the whole resized:





Two 100% of focused portion. Keep in mind the handheld and the wind motion. The stopped down take shows an increase in contrast, and of course in DOF,
but to my sight, the resolution does not increase that much compared to wide open. This is to say, that wide open is almost as resolving as stopped down.
A remarkable wide open performance for such an old design, in my opinion:





A 100% crop of the specular highlight. Notice the astigmatism in the wide open take. It however is not smeared (you can tell the astigmatic profiles),
which means that the lens has astigmatism wide open, but the spherical distortion is well corrected.
Interesting thing, notice how the highlight is significantly smaller in the stopped down take, this is how much simply stopping down changes the proportion of the objects!
Note that there is a slight cyan aberration edge around the specular highlight. This is of course some type of chromatic aberration.
I find it interesting however that it does not decrease in the stopped down shot, as I had expected; it basically stays the same.
So I am beginning to wonder if that has really all to do with the lens, or if it isn't perhaps something that has more to do with sensor.
In any case, the problem is really insignificant - I know many prized autofocus lenses that would create a much worse CA circle in this situation (and some MF lenses as well )





Overall, I like the tone of the image and the bokeh. The lens is sharp but not to the point of becoming obnoxious.
It retains a gentle characted that I am sure would do great with portraits.
Some test shots i took indoor showed a great image quality in the highlights and the bright/dark transition.