CZJ Tessar 2.8/50 1Q M42 (zebra)

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hi folks

Shot these yesterday when it was warm and sunny, exactly as they came out of the camera, no sharpening, no resizing, just saved as JPGs with PS:

[yinyangbt]

Wow !
What a dusty sensor you have there !
Seems a good lens !

[iangreenhalgh1]

I think the dust is in the lens, I cleaned the outer and inner elements which were very dusty/dirty, might have to take it apart to give it a proper clean and relube the helicoid as the focus is very stiff.

It does seem like a decent lens but I have to say, not one of my better 50s imho, my EOS 10D overexposes at least a full stop with this lens for some reason so I've found I have to underexpose by at least a stop.

I'm interested to try a Pancolar or Planar now, see if they really are better than the best 50s I already have (Petri 1.8/55, Oly Zuiko 1.8/50, Pentacon 1.8/50) because this CZJ Tessar doesn't seem to live upto the Zeiss hype I keep hearing imho.

[martyn_bannister]

Nice colors and contrast on this lens.

If you want to see how bad your sensor really is, shoot through a pinhole in a body cap. Horrific usually!

[dude163]

This is one of my favourite lenses , perhaps you might want to adjust the blacks and contrast a tad in PP but my copy is from 1953 and it really delivers the goods.

[fuzzywuzzy]

My copy is sharp and the colors are great, but the aperture blades are sticky as hell so it doesn't get much walkaround use.

I did get good mileage out of it last week. I was asked to scan a bunch of old photos in albums, and rather then trying to pry them all out for scanning I just laid the whole album flat, set up the tripod and shot them in place. I don't know if this lens is any sharper then my Tak 50/1.4, but at least I didn't have to go back and adjust the white balance to compensate for radioactive glass

[iangreenhalgh1]

Nice shots Robert.

I do like this lens and I agree, sharpness and colours are both very good.

I didn't know what to expect, I have shot plenty of Tessars before but not an actual Zeiss one, all clones and with this being the zebra version and having the 1Q symbol I thought it might be really good.

I still need to do a side-by-side with my fifties to see which I like best.

[ForenSeil]

I don't like the bokeh every Tessar-type lens I've met so far... I don't know why... but it's in most cases a little discusting to me

But I like your last pic with thistle anyhow Seems to be a good canditate for a bellows.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Yes, I know what you mean about Tessar bokeh, it can be quite distracting.

I agree, this ens would seem to be ideal for bellows work. I have a small set of bellows suitable for handholding and I have been using a Helios 44-4 on the bellows, I think I'll be using the Tessar for that purpose instead.

I'll take some pics with it on the bellows when the sun returns.