Schneider-Kreuznach PC-Cinelux-AV MC f2.8 45mm & 60mm

[iangreenhalgh1]

I picked up this pair of lenses for just 7ukp because they are branded Meridian and people didn't realise what they were.

Does anyone know where I can find diagrams showing the layout of these lenses? I've searched with Google and found nothing, not even a brochure.

[kds315*]

[kymarto]

PC Cinelux AV lenses are made by Isco not Schneider. They are for slide projectors. With a maximum aperture of f2.8 they are most probably Cooke triplets, whereas all the big brother Cineluxes are double gauss 6/4 AFAIK

https://www.theboutiquelens.com/blog/a-guide-to-the-legendary-cinelux

[iangreenhalgh1]

[iangreenhalgh1]

[kymarto]

I have found references to PC Cinelux AV lenses made by Isco. It seems strange that both Is o and Schneider would make PC Cinelux AV lenses.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Not really, ISCO was part of Schneider, it may still be, I'm not sure.

[kymarto]

[iangreenhalgh1]

I don't care if it's an ISCO or a Schneider, they were the same company for a while.

Every copy I have seen in Britain was labelled Schneider, beyond that, I do not know nor care.

[kymarto]

Yes, I see that there are Schneider AV Cineluxes. Right you are. Interesting that they put both the Isco and the Schneider name on those lenses, with the majority clearly being labeled Schneider.

[iangreenhalgh1]

ISCO and Schneider have always been somewhat intertangled, ISCO began as an offshoot of Schneider to produce lenses for the military as a backup factory in case the Schneider one was destroyed by bombing. Or at least, that is my understanding. There's not a great deal of material on it in English, I don't know if the history is better documented in German.

[kymarto]

I hadn't realized that Isco was a subsidiary. In the 50s-60s they produced a number of excellent SLR lenses for Exakta and Edixa cameras that rivaled or exceeded the counterparts produced by Schneider, Meyer, Zeiss, etc.

[iangreenhalgh1]

ISCO stands for Iosef Schneider COmpany.

I think most ISCO camera lenses are Schneider designs and usually use inferior materials, they are generally less well built than their Schneider counterparts, certainly the ones I have had have not been upto Schneider standards.

[tomasg]

A bit of info on ISCO (photography lenses only), it does look that at some point Isco was the "cheaper version" of S-K (compare the prices). According to this guy In 1936 Schneider founded the Optischen Werke GmbH ISCO in Göttingen on behalf of the Reich Aviation Ministry...

https://photobutmore.de/exakta/isco/

https://photobutmore.de/exakta/schneider/

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Tomas. Yes, the Gottingen factory was a backup factory for the Schneider works in Kreuznach, they produced lenses for the Luftwaffe. I forget the name of the common model they were producing for aerial survey at that time, it's something around 240mm and and f2.9 if my memory is to be believed.

[16:9]

The Isco and Schneider brands have entwined histories.

It makes it trickier to unravel that (in the case of Perspective-Correcting slide projector optics), Meridian re-branded lenses made by Schneider in Göttingen in the 1980s for Kodak.

Identical PC lenses (ranging from 35-105mm) appear in five guises:
1. Meridian PC
2. Isco-Optic PC-Ultra-AV (early models)
3. Isco Germany PC-Cinelux-AV (late models)
4. Schneider PC-Cine-Xenon (usually showing PC-Cinelux-AV)
5. Schneider Pro-Cinelux XY-PC (tube lens)


None are triplets (ranging from four to eight elements) but all are optically excellent for PJ lenses - throwing image circles in excess of 50mm diameter.

Cinelux and Cine-Xenon introduce further complication, as those brand names were used variously by Kiptar, Schneider and Isco to describe still (slide) and cine projection lenses – and movie camera lenses – in different territories at different times. But that's another story.