Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 500mm f/5.6 for Pentax 645Z

[pentaxitin]

Hello all,

The most likeable of the images I shot in the Masai Mara came from Pentax 646Z and not the K1 or K3 ii, despite all the limitations of the 645Z.

I own the 645 lenses 300mm f/4 and 400mm f/5.6. I have been thinking of buying a 645 A* 600mm f/5.6 lens. However, good copies are all upwards of USD 2000.

Then I read about this interesting lens Carl Zeiss Tele Tessar 500mm f/5.6. It is at least 40 years old, but could be bought at less than half the price of the Pentax 600mm. It is however a Hasselblad lens adapted to Pentax 67, and would need to be further adapted to the 645Z, whereas the Pentax 600mm could be directly mounted without any associated paraphernalia. And the Pentax is an ED lens whereas the Zeiss is unlikely to have any ED elements due to its vintage. The Zeiss weighs 2 kg and seems to be unused.

Does anyone have any first hand experience with this Zeiss lens? Any thoughts? Any conjectures or theoretical musings?

[EricWHiss]

I tested the 500mm Tele-Tessar PQ for Rolleiflex and think it's probably similar to the one for Hasselblad mount.  I wasn't all that impressed with it to be honest.  My thoughts were that the 300mm Schneider APO f/4 with two 1.4x extenders stacked would outperform it.  You may be better off with the Pentax 600mm ED which I hear is great.  That said, some of the faults of the 500 tele-tessar are now easily corrected in post  - CA and purple fringing.

[pentaxitin]

Thank you Eric. Indeed it appears that the Pentax 600mm lens would outperform the Zeiss 500mm being of modern design with ED Lens elements.