Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!
SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

Rollei Planar 1.8/50: if you have it, keep it !
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Manual Focus Lenses
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 11:45 am    Post subject: Rollei Planar 1.8/50: if you have it, keep it ! Reply with quote
Perhaps the best of hidden gems.
A lens that can be found on Ebay for little money (I bought my copy for 18 Euros!)
Yet please read this article by the great Marco Cavina:

http://www.luciolepri.it/lc2/marcocavina/articoli_fotografici/Zeiss_Planar_50mm_story/00_pag.htm
(use google translate if you can't read Italian)

He explains everything about this lens, how it was designed by nothing less than Erhard Glatzel, how it was different from all other 50 Planars made until then, how good it is, and how unique in the panorama of the 50 Planars.
He also explains how also the Voigtlaender Ultron 1.8/50 is really this very lens, the Planar.

A very good reason alone to have or buy a Rollei adapter!


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 1:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Interesting! Perhaps that's why I have two Color-Ultrons and I have two Planar 50/1.8s coming my way Very Happy


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 2:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sounds like a must-have lens for sure - is this the lens that needs to be adapted to fit a 5D? I have a very distant memory of there being the need to do some modification to the lens itself to make it work in conjunction with the QBM => EOS adapter.


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mal1905 wrote:
Sounds like a must-have lens for sure - is this the lens that needs to be adapted to fit a 5D? I have a very distant memory of there being the need to do some modification to the lens itself to make it work in conjunction with the QBM => EOS adapter.

It hits mirror at very near to infinity.
I have one and want to sell it after purchasing the planar 50/1.4 (Edit: I had written 50/1.8, corrected it), I'll make a comparision with these two and pancolar 1.8/50.

Last edited by yalcinaydin on Fri May 08, 2009 4:56 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 2:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio, Thank you for the great link. Surprised


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
thanks for the nice article!
lens schema isn't anything; quality of glass, coating, tolerance in assembly, mechanical precision in the long term are all important factors
fight piracy, buy only original (Zeiss Very Happy )


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 2:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
There is M42 Rollei Planar 1.8 50mm ( I have it)


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
poilu wrote:
thanks for the nice article!
lens schema isn't anything; quality of glass, coating, tolerance in assembly, mechanical precision in the long term are all important factors


Yes, but we're speaking from the lens maniac point of view.
50mm lenses are cheap enough for almost everyone to collect a few.
Zeiss users/fans should be interested, I think, in having a copy of an original Erhard Glatzel creation that is different from all other 50 Planars made and sold by Zeiss.
Since it's a collectioner's caprice that costs very little, I think it's cool to know so people can collect this lens instead of throwing in a bin because their Rollei camera (like most Rollei reflex cameras) gets broken...


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 3:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cool. I have one, an HFT, simply because I knew it wasn't crap, and it was too cheap to ignore - it cost €20something or so. Of course, it won't fit the Pentax, damn.


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 3:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have the HFT 1.4/50 in QBM mount - if the 1.8 is available as reasonably as has been said, it seems like a good idea to start hunting Wink

Last edited by Mal1905 on Fri May 08, 2009 4:09 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 3:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
yalcinaydin wrote:
Mal1905 wrote:
Sounds like a must-have lens for sure - is this the lens that needs to be adapted to fit a 5D? I have a very distant memory of there being the need to do some modification to the lens itself to make it work in conjunction with the QBM => EOS adapter.

It hits mirror at very near to infinity.
I have one and want to sell it after purchasing the planar 50/1.8, I'll make a comparision with these two and pancolar 1.8/50.


Thanks for the information Yalcin - I look forward to seeing / reading about the results Wink


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 4:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Would this obviously fine lens adapt to M42?


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Laurence wrote:
Would this obviously fine lens adapt to M42?


No, because QBM mount has shorter register than M42. You should search for the Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50mm f1.8 (my favorite 50), which is pretty much the same thing except for, possibly, the coating.


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
If you feel like looking at more pictures taken with the Rollei Planar from MF-fans in Malaysia, you can find them here:

http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22378&page=50


PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I agree. I will never sell my Rollei Planar 1.8/50. It does not only look gorgeous, it also performs very well...


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 2:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hi, is this the lens that Made in Singapore ? I had been trying to find a lens that made from my country. Very Happy


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 4:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Krisgage wrote:
Hi, is this the lens that Made in Singapore ? I had been trying to find a lens that made from my country. Very Happy


Yeah, I think so.

I received my two HFT Planar 50/1.8s today (speaking of the devil), and one clearly says "Made in Singapore" but I believe all Rollei HFT Planar 50/1.8s were made in Singapore. Maybe the very very first ones were made in Germany. Same goes with the Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50/1.8.


Incidentally, one of my Planars was a dead ringer for the Color-Ultron, as in everything looks identical (except of course the mount).






I can easily take that front ring off the two lenses and swap them to make the M42 lens say Rollei HFT and QBM say Voigtländer Color-Ultron (that one isn't surprising because they actually made QBM versions of the Color-Ultron).


All, invariably, hit the 5D mirros above the 10m mark. Since the Rollei version can't be mounted on my K20D, they have to be used with my 5D, so I guess I'll just have to not shoot anything beyond 10m, or, I'll shoot to infinity using hyperfocal (f8 should do the trick, if not f5.6).


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
rawhead wrote:

I received my two HFT Planar 50/1.8s today (speaking of the devil), and one clearly says "Made in Singapore" but I believe all Rollei HFT Planar 50/1.8s were made in Singapore. Maybe the very very first ones were made in Germany. Same goes with the Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50/1.8.

Early productions are all West Germany made but when Zeiss couldn't delivered the lenses in time to Rollei, Rollei started producing them in its own production facility, Singapore.


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I read somewhere that the Singapore lenses were build in the Mamiya facility.


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
yalcinaydin wrote:
rawhead wrote:

I received my two HFT Planar 50/1.8s today (speaking of the devil), and one clearly says "Made in Singapore" but I believe all Rollei HFT Planar 50/1.8s were made in Singapore. Maybe the very very first ones were made in Germany. Same goes with the Voigtländer Color-Ultron 50/1.8.

Early productions are all West Germany made but when Zeiss couldn't delivered the lenses in time to Rollei, Rollei started producing them in its own production facility, Singapore.



I thought all HFT coated lenses were Rollei's? Wouldn't Zeiss made lens have a T*?

I think the early version of the lens could've been made by Rollei in West Germany at the old Voigtländer factory, in Brunswick. I don't know if Zeiss ever made a T* version with a QBM mount...


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
rawhead wrote:
I don't know if Zeiss ever made a T* version with a QBM mount...


I am not sure either. I have a Tele-Tessar 135 which is branded Carl Zeiss Made in West Germany, and was for sure made at Oberkochen, but it still is HFT. Rollei isn't mentioned anywhere on that lens except for the front lens cap.
So it looks like Zeiss did use HFT even for the lenses they produced in Oberkochen.


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:

I am not sure either. I have a Tele-Tessar 135 which is branded Carl Zeiss Made in West Germany, and was for sure made at Oberkochen, but it still is HFT. Rollei isn't mentioned anywhere on that lens except for the front lens cap.
So it looks like Zeiss did use HFT even for the lenses they produced in Oberkochen.

My lenses' situation is like this:
Carl Zeiss Planar 1.4/50 HFT, Lens made in West Germany
Carl Zeiss Sonnar 2.8/85, Lens made in West Germany (no HFT or other)
Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 4/135, Lens made in West Germany (no HFT or other)
Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 4/200, Lens made in West Germany (no HFT or other)
Rollei Planar 1.8/50 HFT, Lens made in Singapore.

And I know that the Rolleinar branded ones are made in Mamiya/Japan factories.





PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ha!! Very interesting about Zeiss made HFT coated lenses!! Thanks you two for the info!

I always thought that there was little difference between T* and HFT and the biggest difference is that Zeiss made T* and Rollei made HFT. Learn something new every day! Very Happy


PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
So it looks like Zeiss did use HFT even for the lenses they produced in Oberkochen

I read that Rollei made by Zeiss use T*, it is called HFT for consistence with Rollei naming
Zeiss used 1 less lens element for the Rollei 85:2.8, I don't believe they do it to make it better but to do it cheaper.


PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 12:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
I read somewhere that the Singapore lenses were build in the Mamiya facility.

All Rollei/Zeiss/Voigtländer "Made in Singapore" lenses were actually made in the huge ROLLEI factory in Singapore which was closed 1981 in the big Rollei bankcrupty. What happened to the factory later I don't know.

Re: the 50/1.8 Planar: According to Dr. Tronnier jun., son of the designer of this lens, the GERMAN made Planar (7 elements/ 6 groups) was the last design of A.W.Tronnier and was changed to a simpler 6/4 design when Rollei moved production to Singapore. I haven't opened both lenses to confirm this.
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Manual Focus Lenses
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7  Next
Page 1 of 7