Fast Carl Zeiss Jena Visionar 100mm f1.6 Lens in outstanding condition

Description: Fast Carl Zeiss Jena Visionar 100mm f1.6 Cinema Projection Lens and rare mounting collar in very beautiful condition with few signs of use (mint or mint-). You may spend a whole life time and not find a lens in better condition than this lens unless it is a sealed NOS. This is a premium six element cinema projection lens with a large entrance pupil (large front element) with excellent coverage and is suitable for adaptation to both full frame and digital medium format cameras. It really has wonderful high quality and dense all metal and glass construction (about 730grams). The lens barrel paint has a beautiful dark purplish / chocolate brown finish. Please note that it doesn't have aperture control and does not have a built in focusing helicoid, so you will need to get the proper adapter(s) to be able to focus it and adapt it to your specific camera. It is one of the very best fast 100MM lenses, with excellent sharpness, subject separation, rendition, and bokeh. This particular lens is in outstanding condition with few signs of use. It comes with a mounting collar perhaps designed to mount in certain cinema projectors (I am not sure). So it could be used with or without the mounting collar depending upon the type of use (for a cinema projector or for photography or cinematography). In short, it is capable of taking stunning photos or videos. It is also a wonderful lens for taking bokeh panoramas. It's also possible to turn this lens into a sharp wide open 70MM F1.15 speed monster (just read below for the links with examples). Glass: The glass is in outstanding mint condition: clear, no fungus, no haze, no scratches, no cleaning marks, no separation. Lens barrel: Few signs of wear (please refer to photos). In beautiful cosmetic condition. No dents. Bore diameter: 62.5MM (without the mounting collar for adaptation or use in 62.5MM cinema film projectors) Measurements (approximate)Weight with the mounting collar: 1065gramsWeight without the mounting collar: 730gramsWidth of the lens: 80MMHeight/length of lens: 94MMOptical design: 6 free standing elements (i.e. 6 elements in 6 groups: unique design, see last photo) Once held in your hand, it becomes clear that this is an extremely well built cinema projection lens, one of the very best of all time. Please refer to the last photo which has the optical design and lens cut outs of 2 different Visionar lenses (those cut outs should make it obvious that we're not talking about run of the mill lenses). According to company literature (translated from German): 'The patent reveals that the Visionar was based on a Gaussian type variant with six individual lenses, all made of heavy crown and flint glasses. In addition to improving the image performance, at least with the shorter focal lengths, this also made it possible to increase the light intensity to 1:1.6, which largely compensated for the loss of light due to the expansion factor of the anamorphic lens. The missing layers of putty (i.e. no need for balsam to cement glass elements into groups) also made the Visionar completely resistant to heat damage.' The Visionar lenses are high-speed premium (top of the line) 35mm film cinema projection lenses designed in the late fifties by Carl Zeiss Jena. Most likely the complicated calculations of the optical design was done via the first East German computer called "OPREMA" which stands for "Optik-Rechen-Maschine", Computer for Optics, a relay computer consisting of 16626 relays, 500 KM of cable and using up 55 square metres of space (a kind of a super computer for that time), developed by Carl Zeiss Jena and put into operation in 1955. Focal lengths were 50mm, 55mm, 60mm, 65mm, 71mm,77mm, 84mm, 92mm, 100mm, 109mm (all f1.6), and 119mm, 130mm, 141mm, 154mm, 168mm, 183mm, 200mm (all f1.9), roughly in increments of the focal length multiplied with the 8th root of 2. Out of the faster apertures at F1.6, the 100MM and 109MM lenses are perhaps the most desirable focal lengths (i.e. the lenses are not too big/heavy, have fast speed, and are intermediate focal length). Thus, I am presenting a very desirable lens from the series. Visionar lenses were sold under the brands "Carl Zeiss Jena" and "Rathenower Optische Werke" but are identically optically. More on the history of ROW and CZJ (translated from German): 'high-performance projection lenses of the Visionar type were developed at Zeiss Jena under Robert Tiedeken [DD22.291 from October 29, 1958, together with Harald Maenz and Rudolf Wanke] and then apparently manufactured in Rathenow. At that time, VEB ROW began to lose its independence through its integration into the Carl Zeiss JENA combine.' As a premium cinema projection lens, it is optimized for wide open use and have even illumination across the frame / screen. These qualities make it outstanding for bokeh panoramas, among the very best for bokeh panoramas, but please don't take my word for it, please see photo samples of amazing very 3D bokeh panoramas using a Visionar lens (are there better results using another lens?): https://flickriver.com/search/visionar+bokeh+panorama/ Other vintage "fast" teles of that era in the 100MM range have an asking price in many multiples. For example, the Kinoptik 100MM F2.0 which is almost twice as slow as this Visionar 100MM F1.6 lens, has an asking price up to $7000 or more. The vintage Angenieux S3 100MM F2.0 lens (another lens that is almost twice as slow as the Visionar) has an asking price of over $70,000 (yes, part of that is due to rarity), but does it produces images that are markedly superior to the Visionar lens? I argue that most people would not notice the difference in the final image. Or if there is a difference, most people would probably pick the images made from the Visionar as it will have better bokeh and subject separation. But you be the judge. This lens is adaptable to any mirrorless camera including the Leica L and M mount cameras, Sony A7 series, Nikon Z, Canon R, and Fuji GFX medium format.Here are some sample images of photographers using Visionar lenses on a Fuji GFX digital medium format camera (this lens has excellent coverage of this format):https://flickriver.com/search/visionar+gfx/Here are nice samples of using flare creatively for portraits with this lens:https://www.flickr.com/photos/cafedeblue/27345135926/https://www.flickr.com/photos/cafedeblue/26772322303/https://www.flickr.com/photos/cafedeblue/27378900885/Here is a sublime portrait sample of this lens used on a GFXhttps://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2935660343131907&set=gm.1430472690445912 Links to a DIY conversion of this lens with aperture control and focusing:https://www.flickr.com/photos/22876346@N02/14990388514/http://forum.mflenses.com/forcing-the-visionar-100mm-f-1-6-to-accept-a-diaphragm-t68374.htmlThe result with sample photos of the prior link conversion with a speed booster which turns this lens into a 70MM F1.15 lens!http://forum.mflenses.com/visionar-100-mm-f-1-6-and-speed-booster-first-shots-t68540.html Some people have adapted the 109MM Visionar lens to a Pentax/Mamiya 645 lens which leads me to believe that a similar adaptation would work for this 100MM Lens. Thus one could use it on both 645 film cameras or with a speedbooster on the GFX camera to get extraordinary subject separation and lens speed (of course one doesn't need a speedbooster to use it on the GFX, it just amplifies the subject separation on the GFX). The following are some photo examples of the 109MM on a 645 film camera (this coverage would also make it suitable for a Phase One 645 digital medium format camera). https://www.facebook.com/groups/761523304051245/permalink/2414174955452730 If you're a DP of cinematography who wants a unique look to a period feature film and wants to try a lens that few have for films (maybe no one has yet), look no further. Blaze your own path like Zack Snyder did using a re-housed Canon 50mm f/0.95 LTM lens to shoot the Army of the Dead or Olivier Boonjing who filmed Zero F**ks with vintage lenses. Perhaps it's time to call ZERØ OPTIK to get a rehousing quote for this Visionar lens? As a reminder, I do consider best offers and thank you for viewing my listing!Please see my other listings for other interesting vintage lenses for your collection.NOTE: Shipping from Berlin, Germany. Pick up in Berlin is also welcome. Import duties, taxes and charges are NOT included in the item price or postage. These are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine the additional costs prior to buying. As I am not a professional seller and sometimes I travel for work, there maybe up to a week delay before the item can be shipped out. Otherwise when not traveling, I strive to ship within 3 business days. If you do not have positive feedback please contact me before buying (however, I do reserve the right not to sell to buyers who do not have sufficiently positive feedback). If you want to know more certainly about the time estimate for shipping, you can contact me in advance depending upon when you would like to receive it.

Price: 481 USD

Location: Berlin

End Time: 2024-08-02T06:58:15.000Z

Shipping Cost: 50 USD