[rollei_list] Re: Whiteface T with Xenar question
- From: John Wild <jwild@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:46:57 +0000
My mentor, who encouraged me 'to take better photographs' back in the late
60's, had a Rolleicord Vb Mk1. He wanted to upgrade to a 'flex but could not
afford the top of the range models so he opted for a 'T' and sold me his
'cord. When he had been using the 'T' for a few weeks, he came to me and
said that he very much regretted selling me his 'cord because the Xenar lens
was far superior to his new 'T' with Tessar. The Tessar was supposed to be
the better lens. I do not know which model 'T' he had but it was probably a
1966 or 1967 one.
John
>
> It is not as simple as you suggest.
>
> First, Zeiss recomputed the entire Tessar range
> in the late 1950's. This was primarily done for
> use on the Contaflex SLR's -- the recomputed
> Tessars appear on the Super B, Super BC, and S --
> but the improved design was extended to the
> Rolleiflex T. As the recomputed lens appeared in
> 1962 and the T in 1958, I would suggest that
> early T's had non-recomputed lenses.
>
> The recomputing was done under the direct of Dr
> Hans Sauer. Sauer had come up at Carl Zeiss Jena
> as the protege of Dr Ernst Wandersleb, who
> himself had been the protege of Dr Paul Rudolph,
> the designer of the Tessar. Wandersleb spent
> four decades in working to improve the Tessar and
> Sauer was part of the last decade or so of
> that. So, there is a direct link from the
> original Tessar design. Sauer also designed the
> five-element Planar as used in the Rolleiflex
> TLR's and the early Planars for the Hasselblad SLR.
>
> By 1970, Zeiss was desperate to get out of the
> production of photographic lenses, as they made
> far more profit from military, industrial,
> medical, and scientific gear. Thus, when F&H
> decided to make a final run of T's to meet a
> contract with the Royal Navy, CZ declined to
> produce any more Tessars, and F&H then turned to
> JSK who produced the Xenars in question for that last batch of T's.
>
> Carlos is correct in saying that F&H would
> establish minimum quality requirements and that
> the Xenar must have met them as well as did the
> CZ Tessar. But that does not mean that the
> Tessar did not exceed these requirements. I
> would doubt it: JSK is a company who does not
> make mediocre lenses (well, they DO, but at
> Göttingen at their ISCO works). I see no reason
> to believe that the recomputed Tessar and the
> contemporary JSK Xenar were not on a par in terms
> of optical performance. But I do not KNOW this
> as I have never seen any test results such as MTF charts.
>
> Thanks to the courtesy of Bill Lurie from the
> ZICG, I was recently gifted with a copy of the US
> National Bureau of Standards Special Publication
> 374, METHOD FOR DETERMINNG THE RESOLVING POWER OF
> PHOTOGRAPHIC LENSES (June, 1973), which includes
> some really nifty resolution charts far superior
> to the USAF charts we all know -- the charts
> themselves were drawn in 1952 and were printed by
> the US Bureau of the Mint on engraving
> presses. But I've been laid up with some sort of
> head virus and haven't tested anything yet. And
> I have no version at all of a T, so I wouldn't be able to help, in any event.
>
> Marc
>
>
>
> msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
> ---
> 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
Other related posts:
