Ever come across a Rollei Tele-APOtessar 500mm lens?

[bradleygibson]

I've been looking around to try to see if I could find a 500mm Zeiss Tele-ApoTessar for Rollei, but in all the years I've been working with medium format, I've never even heard of someone owning one.

I was wondering if anyone out there has come across one?  I'd love to get a hold of a sample image from one, if possible, and/or a lead to a potential purchase.

Note, this is not for the non-apochromatic Tele-Tessar.

Thanks in advance,

[dergiman]

I can imagine that the Schneider 300/4 APO with the 2x and 1,4x TC will be a more versatile combo. 300 plus 2xTC gives 600/f8 APO, longer, lighter, cheaper and easier to handle.

Philipp

[EricWHiss]

Brad,
I've looked for one of these for several years and not seen one for sale. This lens is probably more rare than the 30mm fisheye.  You'll encounter the non apo version fairly frequently and I think there's one for sale at CameraWest through their ebay store currently.  But you'll know when you find one because the upper barrel and hood are silver
grey not black.

2 rare rollei lenses introduced at same time, 110 f/2 and 500mm tele apotessar


"For a long reach there’s the Zeiss 500mm f/8 Tele-Apotessar HFT PQS; it has five elements, an f/64 minimum aperture, a centered tripod socket, focuses to 5m, and takes 86mm filters. The integral, matte-silver lens hood contrasts smartly with the black lens barrel."

Text and image taken from the shutterbug 1999 PMA report

[Dennis Carbo]

There was one on Ebay recently ....first time i ever saw one...there was also a 1000mm for the rollei 6000 series, i never even knew they made one !  thing was HUGE !


D

[EricWHiss]

Dennis,
Didn't see those... and can't find them now in the completed listings.  Can you recall how much they went for?
Eric

[bradleygibson]

I've been checking regularly too--several non-APO 500's have been offered, but I haven't seen an APO 500...  Do you recall roughly when u saw it?

[EricWHiss]

I can imagine that the Schneider 300/4 APO with the 2x and 1,4x TC will be a more versatile combo. 300 plus 2xTC gives 600/f8 APO, longer, lighter, cheaper and easier to handle.

Philipp

I've tested this combination briefly.  The rollei / schneider 300mm f/4 is a beautiful lens and performs well with the 1.4x.  The 2x tele converter added to that combo works okay but IQ suffers some. But I can report that the stack of 1.4x and 2.0x TC's does not wobble or give problems with vibration etc.   Actually the biggest problem when I tested this combo was the 'aerial perspective'.  I was shooting across the city of San Francisco from one hill to another and the turbulence from hot air rising was definitely affecting my images.

I guess if you had the 500mm then you could still add the 1.4x.     But then if you had the 80mpix AFi-II 12 then you could also crop in some?       Options, options......

[Dennis Carbo]

Sry guys it was the Non APO version I saw 

[bradleygibson]

Np, Dennis--even if I'd missed it, it would be good to see a market price...

Eric, yes, as you know, I have the 300 + 1.4x combo...  I've never met a 2x TC that I've liked, although I've not (yet) tried the Rollei 2x.

Cropping--what's that??  I just looked it up--you mean throwing away pixels??! 

Realistically, I think 420mm f/5.6's about as good as it will get with this setup...

A Hasselblad Tele-ApoTessar was kind enough to post full-sized sample images to this question over at getdpi, for anyone curious about performance.  Unfortunately CA was 'fixed' in Phocus (images were shot on a CFV-39)

[EricWHiss]

Brad,
Next time you're down this way you can try out my 2x TC.   You might be right - there are definitely sweet spots in focal length or  for lens design and other points that are just tricky.  I think the 2x falls into the latter - might just be hard to do well.  That said the rollei 2x is really okay, just not at the level of the 1.4x. One really crazy idea would be to stack two 1.4x's.  Now that I haven't tried.
Eric

[Lacunapratum]

... your wish fullfilled - be careful what you ask for 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Zeiss-f-Rolleiflex-1-8-500-Tele-Apotessar-PQS-ultra-ra-/350435273863?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item519791ec87

[bradleygibson]

Haha--thank you, Lacunapratum,

Yes I saw that...  Just a tad spendier than I had hoped for!    It would be nice to test-drive, though...

[EricWHiss]

Someone should buy that 500mm tele-apo-tessar and let us know how it performs!  Come on only $13K   

And just to add, I did follow up with the thought that two 1.4x longars might be better than the 2x and tested it.  My conclusion was that yes indeed the two stack was just a bit better.   So all of you out there with the 2x, here's something you can do with it.  The internal elements are fit together in a package which installs with just three phillips screws.  You can quickly take it out and voila you now have an approx. 55-60mm extension tube.  Reversal is easy and you can go back and forth.

[donaldt]

hahaha I know right, JUST 13k anyone could spare that

it does look very impressive at least

I dont think there is another lens for Medium Format that is as impressive as this one looks

[RoadRunner]

Hi Bradley,

I have a Rolleiflex Tele-Apotessar 500mm f8, which will be available once I've found someone to repair it !

Please feel free to email me on tim@fluidimages.co.uk if you'd like to discuss further.

Regards,

Tim

[EricWHiss]

Hey Tim,
Could you share some images taken with the lens?  Thanks!
Eric

[Gigi]

FWIW, I've tried the 300 with the 1.4 TX, with the biggest problem being shake. Even with a good steady tripod 1/500 isn't so great for that length. In some cases, I've gone without the TX, and just cropped the image for a decent (sharp but not fantastically big) result.

Sobering thoughts that  put away the (unfunded) 500 lust.
 

[henrikfoto]

But isn't this the same lens as the Hasselbled 500 tele opo-tessar?
These can be bought for 2-3000 $, and really isn't that great. I have one and
am not impressed.

Is it just the the rarity for collectors that push the price?

Henrik

[EricWHiss]

Neptune photo sold two (or the same one twice) 500mm tele-APO-tessar for Rollei on ebay last year and each went for about $4400.    The only other one I've ever seen come up for sale is the one at photoaresnal which is just a silly stupid price at $13k.      Still I'm very curious to know how they perform.      One advantage of the 500mm tele apo is that it is a PQS while the 300mm + 1.4x would only be a PQ.    Not that there ever is enough light to shoot at f/8 and 1/1000...  but still it's there if you need it and might help with the vibration.  

I've shot with the 300mm APO f/4 with 1.4x, 1.4x+1.4x and 2x and it's all workable.   Originally I thought that two 1.4x longars stacked together was better than using the 2x  but I found a new copy of the 2x which brought them both fairly close.  It may be that two 1.4x's are still better.  Anyhow that's a viable solution.  At that focal length lot's of stuff can mess up the images - including turbulence from heated air rising or just aerial perspective.    Over all the 300mm is a fantastic lens that doesn't loose too much with  the 1.4x and you still get more detail with the 2x or two 1.4x's.    I'd love to see the 500mm compares.

[RoadRunner]

The lens isn't currently working (no sign of life at all), and will need rearing before I can fire off any test shots.

So far I've had little success with any repairers here in London.

Any suggestions ?