Experience with Rollei Schneider Variogon PQ 75-150 f/4.5 sought

[rolleiflexpages]

Hello,
Would somebody have practical experience with the Rollei Schneider Variogon PQ 75-150mm f/4.5? Optical performance in comparison to the AF Schneider 80mm? Handling?
I was thinking of getting this lens as a "standard" lens for the Rolleiflex 6008 AF and Hy6 cameras.
Thanks for views.
Pascal

[EricWHiss]

I had one and used it briefly mainly in the studio but also as a walkabout lens.   It draws nicely - smooth in the bokeh like most of the schneider optics for Rollei but I would not say it was as sharp as the 80 xenotar. Not a bad lens in any way really.   It's not too heavy to carry around, like the the 60-140 is, but a bit on the long side especially with hood.   I found the biggest drawback for me at least was that I found it much more difficult to focus - particularly in the studio.  Outside it was no problem.   I replaced it with the 60-140 which is absolutely incredible in terms of sharpness but probably too heavy for most to consider as walkabout lens.

[Gigi]

Eric has had experience with these zooms - I've only seen them a few times. There were three - the 75-150, 140-280 and the 60-140. They are big and heavy, and I never gave them a moments thought, until I saw a shoot with the 60-140 which blew me away. I'm not sure what their purpose is or was, kind of "if they can do in 35 mm land, we can do it better in 6x6", but they are part of the larger story of Mandelmann (then head of Schneider and I think Rollei) committing a remarkable set of resources and brain power to making the full lineup of lenses for the system. Dinosaurs, but what wonderful beasts they were.

[rolleiflexpages]

Thanks to all for the advice. The vario lens was meant as a "walkabout" lens, i.e. a lens that would cover most photographic opportunities without having to change lenses too much. But I am a bit put off by Eric's observation that the lens may be giving less sharp impressions than the AF Schneider Xenotar 80mm f/2.8 lens, which is truly excellent. If that's the case, then it would be hard to justify!

[EricWHiss]

Pascal,
Probably compared to lenses from other MF systems the schneider 75-150 zoom would be actually pretty nice particularly stopped down some but as it is, most of the Rollei lenses are so excellent the 75-150 does not stand up as well.  I have both the 80/2 and 80/2.8 xenotars and am spoiled I guess.  Both of these are sharp wide open and have low distortion which lends itself to a very real looking image out of the camera.   I do not mean you shouldn't get one of the zooms however.  There are always compromises....   I wanted to pull some images I took with the 75-150 for you, but until I got the AFi's (I have both the ii-7 and the ii-12)  The lens focal length was not recorded so I'm having difficulty being sure which images were taken with it.

Now let me give you one other piece of information that you might find interesting.  The zooms do record the actual focal length used when shooting with the AFi's.  That's cool!   You don't need to enter it into the back.  (note that I don't know what is added to create this functionality or when it was incorporated to the lenses so not sure they all will do this)