The Bertele Sonnar 5cm F2 Picture Thread.

The (post war) Opton lenses have a different look in my opinion. More punchy, slightly less focus shift, better closed down rendition (at the price of worse wide-open aberrations) which is of course something that some people (including me!) like. Zeiss Opton were just getting their bearings and sample variation, at least from my experience, worse than the (up to war-time) Jena lenses.

Near the end of the run they seem to have managed to square the circle and you get all of the benefits and the full aperture rendition is also improved! However these are hard to find and most have separated lens elements. I often wish Zeiss had stayed on the Rangefinder horse than throwing everything they had into the Contarex... altough these lenses are indeed also lovely... and now we're well off topic. Apologies!
 
Going back on topic, strangely enough - at least in my experience the post-war f2 lenses seem to have been a bit neglected. They do not offer much notable improvements that I can see over their pre-war brethren (assuming equal condition and both being fully T coated).
 
I've seen a lot of sample-to-sample variation on the Zeiss Opton lenses, and a lot of lens separation in the later Carl Zeiss lenses. I wish they had stuck with Balsam!
I have a really nice Carl Zeiss 50/1.5 Sonnar with perfect glass- keep it on an Amedeo adapter, and an early (90K SN) Zeiss Opton that someone tried to make into LTM but blew it. That one- back to Contax mount, and in an inexpensive LTM adapter. The Post-War lenses are closer in performance to the wartime Sonnars.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
I've seen a lot of sample-to-sample variation on the Zeiss Opton lenses, and a lot of lens separation in the later Carl Zeiss lenses. I wish they had stuck with Balsam!
I have a really nice Carl Zeiss 50/1.5 Sonnar with perfect glass- keep it on an Amedeo adapter, and an early (90K SN) Zeiss Opton that someone tried to make into LTM but blew it. That one- back to Contax mount, and in an inexpensive LTM adapter. The Post-War lenses are closer in performance to the wartime Sonnars.
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You and others have expressed the same opinion about not using Balsam glue for lenses. What caused the change away from this cement? The trees are still growing.
 
I assume it was some of what Brian said, and also (this is my educated guess!) that this was likely an early UV (or other trigger) cured cement which would have made lens assembly more controlled and generally easier, as you could move the elements about until you were happy and then "bake it" in UV light or similar to make the cement set. With balsam you have to work in a tight window before all the solvents evaporate out and it starts to solidify which depends on a lot of things such as spacing, room temperature etc. making it a more - for lack of better words - artisanal process.

Aka this was a simplification and a cost reduction measure, most likely!

Rolleiflexes and other Zeiss lenses of the same era also often suffer from separation, especially if the cemented surface has steep curvature (Sonnar - Check!) and very different glass types (Sonnar - Check!).
 
dexdog said:
I saw the Matt Osborne youtubereview of the pre-production Bertele lens. He liked it, but seemed to favor the Carl Zeiss version (it kinda grated on my nerves that he repeatedly referred to the Carl Zeiss lens as a Zeiss-Opton). I wonder how long it will be before Skyllaney has these available for purchase. I will probably buy one.

I have a fox that conducts regular patrols of my front porch in early morning, spot it on my front door camera 3 or 4 times a week.
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I had a small dialog going with Matt over this lens and getting him interested. I like it a lot for the color. Matt does not do color as much, but likes to see a Brit lens as he said in his review. As he is a mono guy he was less impressed than he would have been with color and an M-9. Be that as it may he did like the lens. I just wish he liked it more. Anyway, it got some good press which is good for Chris at Skyllaney and hopefully for the production of the lens going forward. There is a rash of retro lenses out now. I hope Skyllaney can compete against the PRC juggernaut. Skyllaney's Bertele is such a sweet lens. I am grateful to have my copy and love its color and IQ.
 
wlewisiii said:
Well, I understand that but my budget sez that the retro lenses are nope nope and an even bigger nope.

OTOH, perhaps I'll get lucky and they'll help make a decent quality (unhazed) Nokton 35/1.4 fall into my hands at a price I can afford 😉
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Are Nokton 35/1.4 prone to haze, too? It seems like a lot of CV lenses are. Which is a shame - I quite like a lot of them.

And yeah Skyllaney appear to do good work (I have no personal experience, though) but cheap they sure aren't!
 
I'm not a 100% sure about that Nokton but so many of the Cosina Voigtlanders are that I consider them guilty till proven innocent. I should ask Sonnar Brian some time when I'm bothering him about something else anyway 😉
 
wlewisiii said:
Well, I understand that but my budget sez that the retro lenses are nope nope and an even bigger nope.

OTOH, perhaps I'll get lucky and they'll help make a decent quality (unhazed) Nokton 35/1.4 fall into my hands at a price I can afford 😉
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Check out the KMZ Jupiters. I have gotten some nice ones. My '57 Jupiter 8 is a honey. $100

These are not great photos but they do show color and image quality, at $100. The '57 J8 is just great.

Night scene in the Astoria Harbor, West Mooring Basin by Bornstein's Sea Food. M9 - '57 KMZ J8 by West Phalia, on Flickr

M9 plus Jupiter 8, a great combo. The Jupiters are uneven because of lousy Soviet QC. This one is a honey. by West Phalia, on Flickr
 
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This is the Skyllaney Bertele Sonnar on the front of an X2D. The lens is quite sharp. If you follow the link to Flickr and double click the image it will enlarge to Flickr's largest. Look at the night sky and see stars, and that I was not steady as the stars are smeared. One half second. I am not sure how IBIS works with non-HB lenses.

B0001309 by West Phalia, on Flickr
 
Another Skyllaney shot. The lens had a glitch in it when I got it and that was handled by our wizard/guru in residence, Sonnar Brian. Brian asked for some test shots with the lens to see how it worked on my camera and this is one of the shots. Again, go to Flickr and double click the image and see the details and color, both great but not too much. Just a good image. Yes, yes, the sunlight helped a lot. And the collaboration between Chris at Skyllaney and Sonnar Brian out here made a lens with edible color. I think that the lens pushes color right to the reasonable limit. Great solid color without verging into postcard garishness. I am biased. OTOH this is how I felt about the lens before it was mine. I really like how it handles color, in the sweet spot.

If you browse the album this image is in you will see some shots of people and the skin tones are spot on.

Leica M9, SOOC, at f/4.0, AWB, no lens profile used and all standard settings in camera and no EC.

We have a lot of boats around here. This one is a pusher tugboat.

L1003129 by West Phalia, on Flickr
 
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splitimageview said:
So the lens elements float to counter focus shift?
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First ask Brian. He consulted on the Skyllaney Bertele Sonnar which had these properties. I have one of those lenses and believe it incorporates this feature. It is one superb lens. It brought the 5cm f/2.0 Bertele Sonnar to its peak. I am curious about this new offering. If Skyllaney can bring that lens to market I think they can sell a lot. I have heard spontaneous willingness of US$5K for one. These are very good lenses. This is a link to some shots I did with mine only as example of lens ability, not graphic art. M9 + Bertele

This is how the Bertele Sonnar looks on an X2D:

B0001309 by West Phalia, on Flickr
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If you follow the link to Flickr and double click to max it out you can see the stars in the night sky. Some lens.
 
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