Tele-Rolleiflex
“An interesting innovation in the Tele-Rolleiflex is a removable glass
plate within the camera, in front of the film. With such a long focal
length lens, it’s understandable that the maker of the camera should want
to keep the film plane as precise as possible.”
“You’ve got to inspect the glass each time you load. Beware of
thumb-prints, grease or dirt that sticks. These will cause greater harm to
the negative than if they were on the lens itself! However, we shot most of
our pictures with the glass in place and each picture we took came out
scot-free.”
” We then took the Tele-Rolleiflex out on actual field tests. Besides
checking the lens, we were also interested in discovering how well the
glass plate kept the film flat – in terms of actual picture sharpness.”
“With the glass in place, overall sharpness at f/4 was very good with only
the slightest fall-off in definition at the corners and a tiny amount of
flare. Maximum sharpness was achieved at f/8 – and this was sharp indeed.
This sharpness held right down to f/22.”
“Curiously enough, when we removed the glass plate, the loss of sharpness
was almost too minute to notice. – H.K.”
Rolleiflex Lens Quality Review
80mm f/2.8 Xenotar
f/2.8 (center sharpness) Acceptable (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/4 (center sharpness) Good (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/5.6 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Good
f/8 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Good
f/11 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Good
f/16 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Very Good
f/22 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Very Good
80mm f/2.8 Planar
f/2.8 (center sharpness) Acceptable (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/4 (center sharpness) Good (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/5.6 (center sharpness) Good (edge sharpness) Good
f/8 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Good
f/11 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) V.Good-Excellent
f/16 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) V.Good-Excellent
f/22 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Very Good
75mm f/3.5 Xenotar
f/3.5 (center sharpness) Good (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/4 (center sharpness) Good (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/5.6 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/8 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Good
f/11 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Good
f/16 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Good
f/22 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Good
75mm f/3.5 Planar
f/3.5 (center sharpness) Good (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/4 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Acceptable
f/5.6 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Good
f/8 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Good
f/11 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Very Good
f/16 (center sharpness) Excellent (edge sharpness) Very Good
f/22 (center sharpness) Very Good (edge sharpness) Good
“Which Lens is Best? Four or Five Element, F/2.8 or F/3.5”
“Which Lens is Best? Four or Five Element, F/2.8 or F/3.5”
“A. 80mm f/2.8 Zeiss Planar is a five-element alternative to the Xenotar
(below) on the Rolleiflex 2.8E. Although the line-up of optical elements is
rather different from the Xenotar, performance is similar. It produces
excellent definition to the corners of the negative, even at full
aperture.”
“B. 80mm f/2.8 Schneider Xenotar has five elements and can be had on the
Rolleiflex 2.8E. In extensive tests with this lens Modern found it
extremely sharp in overall definition. The five-element 80mm f/2.8 lenses
are considerable improvements over the discontinued four-element 80mm f/2.8
Tessars once available on the Rolleiflex 2.8.”
“C. 75mm f/3.5 Zeiss Planar is a five element alternative to the Xenotar on
the Rolleiflex 3.5. It shows excellent definition even at full aperture.”
“D. 75mm f/3.5 Schneider Xenotar with five elements has now completely
replaced the four element Xenar on all Rolleiflexes. Differences in
definition between the discontinued four-element Xenar and this
five-element Xenotar at f/3.5 are almost impossible to see, even with great
magnification of the negative corners. Definition, to say the least, is
excellent in the 75mm f/3.5 Xenotar.”
“E. 75mm and 60mm Schneider Xenar are available on the Rolleicord Va and
Rolleiflex 4×4 respectively. The Xenar design is of a traditional
four-element Tessar-type construction. Performance at such moderate
aperture (f/3.5) and focal length (75mm) is excellent compared with that of
the 75mm f/3.5 five-element Xenotars and Planars.”
TLRgraphy 