18cm Tele-Tessar

[dsymes]

Having been outbid twice in recent auctions on eBay for a 18cm Tele-Tessar, I was wondering what the consensus view was on the price for these rare lenses. In both auctions, there were only two serious bidders, so if either one of us had not been there, both lenses would have gone for what to me seems a fairly low price (>$550). The most recent one sold for just under $1k (it looked to be in very nice shape, while the other a little less so but still quite good as far as I could tell).

I'm interested in a good user-condition lens, although I wouldn't say no to one in fine condition either.

Also, has anyone on the forum used this lens? How does it perform? Focus?

-dsymes

 

[furcafe]

I bought my Tele-Tessar K back in '01 off eBay (excellent condition, but no caps or case) & IIRC, the price was around $400 here in the U.S. The accessory viewfinder(s) are even harder to find, especially the dedicated black 18cm (can't recall the model #). There's a combination 13.5/18cm viewfinder that's slightly more plentiful, but still hard to find. I use a ZI turret finder that has 18cm.

As far as performance, I don't use it much, but in my experience it's what I expected from an uncoated tele: sharp but low contrast (slightly lower than the 13.5cm Sonnar of the same era @ equivalent apertures). Mine does have a noticeable amount of light fall off wide-open (f/6.3). Focus is not a problem since the lens is so slow.

Having been outbid twice in recent auctions on eBay for a 18cm Tele-Tessar, I was wondering what the consensus view was on the price for these rare lenses. In both auctions, there were only two serious bidders, so if either one of us had not been there, both lenses would have gone for what to me seems a fairly low price (>$550). The most recent one sold for just under $1k (it looked to be in very nice shape, while the other a little less so but still quite good as far as I could tell).

I'm interested in a good user-condition lens, although I wouldn't say no to one in fine condition either.

Also, has anyone on the forum used this lens? How does it perform? Focus?

-dsymes

 

[dsymes]

Thanks. I'm not surprised at your report regarding performance - I wonder how much the low contrast was due to potentially avoidable flare. I understand that there was an adapter ring to attach the body mounted hood for 5cm lenses to the front of the 13.5 or 18cm lenses, but that has to be incredibly rare, and in practice would rather awkward in use. I guess I'm fascinated by this lens because it seems to represent one dimension of the contax design being pushed to the limit - the rangefinder coupled 18cm f/2.8 that came later was simply beyond the accuracy of the rangefinder at wider apertures.