Certainly the sonnar 50mm f1.5 was the best fast 50 in its time, and I am in agreement that it will have been designed to give the sharpest performance possible, but by modern standards it is not that sharp and it -does- have a quality that I think Matanle was trying to describe. Unfortunately we have lost this look nowadays in 50mm lenses since coating has been readily possible, probably because a planar type lens can be made sharper for less money once the flare problem is resolved. I actually think your photograph illustrates this point well, a beautiful look. Frank On 12 Dec, 2009, at 01:49, CarlosMFreaza wrote: > 2009/12/11 Stephen Attaway > > To quote from Ivor Matanle: "The portrait of Mr Robert Cox was taken in 1974 >> to mark his fifty years of service to his company ... with a 50mm f1.5 >> uncoated Zeiss Sonnar, and shows perfectly the curious characteristic of >> defined yet slightly unsharp detail that makes the optical quality of >> classic lenses so attractive." > > I tend to disagree with Ivor Matanle, the uncoated Zeiss Sonnar 1.5/50 > was designed to be a very sharp lens, in general lens designers look > for lenses to produce an image as close to the real image as possible, > it means aberrations free, sharp and the best micro-contrast, except > lenses for special purposes. It's true some old lenses produce > pleasant images thanks to some no well corrected aberrations (I think > about portraits specially), but they couldn't be the standard to > obtain a good image. > > This is a sample about a snapshot "portrait" taken with the uncoated > Contax II Sonnar 1.5/50 _wide open_ f1.5 and 1/1250 sec shutter speed > , I think the in focus areas show very good detail for a 71 years old > uncoated lens despite a scanner not so good for 35mm : > http://www.flickr.com/photos/itarfoto/3199809044/ > > Carlos > --- > Rollei List > > - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' > in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org > > - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with > 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org > > - Online, searchable archives are available at > //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list > --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list