Steinheil Cassaron and Schneider Kreuznach tele xenar 135

[Olivier]

Well... I got these 2 old lenses and an old Chinon flash for 10 € + delivery costs (7€).

They are not mint, externally full of dust, but optics are clear, no fungus, no haze. Focus rings work well. But aperture rings are hard to operate and don't open fully. It seems that the A/M pins are disturbing the good functioning.

1- Schneider Kreuznach Edixa-Tele-Xenar 3.5/135
My first Schneider !
With what tool may I service the front ?




2- Steinheil München Edixa-Auto-Cassaron 2.8/50




What does Edixa mean ?
What do you think about these lenses ? Any experiments ?

[bmwtraveler]

Edixa was made by Wirgin Kamera works,not the best made,they didnt make any lens,they brought them from other len makers,Steinheil cassaron was soso,stop down pretty good,Schneider lens top of the line

[Sevo]

Edixa was the SLR brand of Adox. West German, but no better than the Praktica in design and production quality - at times indeed worse.

The lenses are somewhat basic, ok for their (slow speed) but by no means the top performer of their type. And they doubtlessly need a cleaning. It will be hard to disassemble the Tele-Xenar with a front ring which is that severely bent - you might have to dremel it apart, which means that you'd have to find another copy with bad or missing glass but good barrel, to put it into.

[Seele]

[Lloydy]

I had a Rikenon lens that was damaged as bad as that on the filter thread and I stuck the whole lens in a lathe and turned the damaged part off back to a decent thread so I could screw the name ring out and clean the lens.

Then I used a scrap lens with a larger filter thread size, turned a section off that on the lathe, and fixed it on the front of the Rikenon lens I wanted to salvage with epoxy resin.

Sadly, after all that effort, the lens was crap anyway!

[scsambrook]

[indianadinos]

Hi,

The filter ring on the Xenar could be fixed with a chopstick: put the lens on a wooden support and, using an hammer VERY GENTLY, hit with the chopstick the inner side of the filter ring ... It will take some time to get fixed, but it can be done.

Otherwise, you can use something like this dent remover ...

For what concerns the IQ of the lenses, i have never used one of them, but my two Steinheil Edixa-Quinar 135/2.8 and 135/3.5 are incredibly sharp even wide open and, if i remember well, there has been a forum user who published some great pics taken with a Tele-Xenar 135/3.5 here ...

Cheers

[Olivier]

[indianadinos]

[Orio]

Yes, same lens, Edixa is just the name of a camera, like if Zeiss did write "Rolleiflex" on the lenses they made for the Rollei system.

[Univer]

Hi,

There's one little complication with respect to automatic lenses made specifically for the Edixa cameras. While they're normal M42 screw mount, the location of the auto-aperture pin is sometimes different from the "standard" placement. On my one Edixa-specific lens, a Steinheil 135mm, the pin is further "inboard" than it is on, say, a CZJ or Takumar lens.

In practice, this seems not to be a terribly big issue with respect to M42 film cameras, because the bar that depresses the pin is typically large enough to accommodate the slightly non-standard pin placement. And, of course, use on a DSLR is not an issue either, as long as the lens has an A/M switch. But if you're using a flanged adapter to depress the auto pin of a lens that lacks an A/M switch, you may find (as I did) that the flange just misses the pin.

A little thing, as I said, and likely not an issue in this case, since your Cassaron seems to have an A/M switch. But it's something to be aware of, in the event that you come across other automatic "Edixa" lenses.

Enjoy the lenses! (Looking forward to samples.)

Cheers,

Jon

[LucisPictor]

Steinheil and Schneider are big names in German lens manufacturing!!
Congrats!

[estudleon]

[estudleon]

Oh...I find one official advertice of edixa cams and lenses, made in 1968. They were showing the new (at the time) Edixa prismaflex mat D (as was known in Argentina). And the schneider lenses for it were atwo curtagons :4/28 and 2,8/35, a xenar 2,8/50, a xenon 1,9/50 and a tele xenar 3,5/135.

The 3,5/135 had a 5/4 (3-3) (2-1) scheme, and it's your lens. I don't know the schame of the Alessandro one.

Rino.

[Phenix jc]

Le monde est petit Je crois bien que j'ai oublié d'enchérir, et il semble me souvenir que ça vient de Marseille ? J'aurais comparé le Cassaron au Xenar.
Un lien de Peter Ganzel pour la réparation :
http://www.pbase.com/pganzel/diy_straightening_lens_filter_rings
(sorry)

[Olivier]

Thank you Rino for the Information,
and Dino for chopstick translation.

Univer, you're absolutely right. The pins have more centered locations and the flange reach only half part of them.

Phenix, ce n'était pas une enchère et ça ne vient pas de Marseille.
Merci beaucoup pour le lien.
Very good link !
What do you mean when you say Cassaron = Xenar ? Is it as good as Xenar ?

[Olivier]

Well,

I opened the Tele-Xenar to try to fix the stuck diaph ring.
I didn't see clearly what's wrong. I'm wondering how to supress the A/M system and make the diaph fully manual, moving straightly with the ring.

The helicoid went out.
It's easy to put it back in place... but what is the right position ???

Thank you for kind help.

[Lloydy]

[Phenix jc]