Another lucky find? Steinheil Munchen Cassar S 50mm

Janet S

Janet S

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Janet
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Yes, yet again I think I've come across something decent.

Some of you may remember I asked for information over a year ago about a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 85mm lens that my friend found in his loft. It was found with a Zenit camera, but had originally belonged to a different camera.

Over a year after we found the Zeiss, his mother came across the other camera lurking in a drawer - unfortunately it was only another Zenit, but it had a lens on, the like of which I've never come across before, so I'd like to find out a bit more about it.

The lens markings say "Steinheil Munchen Cassar S 1:2.8 f=50mm 1694282" It's M42 mount and in pristine condition, very smooth - the focus ring moves like a dream.

It's the tiniest lens I've come across and I'd love to find out a bit more about it.

I used it this afternoon on my Olympus e520, and the results are outstanding. I'm currently staying with my friend, who isn't into photography, so I'll have to wait until I get home to upload the images for you to examine, and do a bit of Googling so I can make my friend an offer for it. It's so small I can actually get my e520 in my pocket with this lens attached!

Hope you guys can help yet again!

Janet
 
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This lens came with Edixa Mat M42 cameras as it's standard kit lens. I found it to be one of the worst 50mm lenses I ever used, with horrendous edge and corner performance. However, the images produced looked nicely vintage and were fine stopped down, but wide open it was appalling :lol:
 
It looks to be very compact though and might be worth getting just for that reason assuming that the results are at least half way decent.
 
I've just taken the lens out for a walk round the garden and I'm impressed with the quality so far. I'm still at my friends, so I'll upload some samples when I get home to see what you guys think.

As for not being good when wide open - you just wait and see! I was pleasantly surprised.

Janet
 
wide open it was appalling
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These were taken wide open last night and this morning...all were taken at f2.8...



These are just purely random shots, taken whilst out in the garden this morning...taken simply to see how well the lens focussed and if I liked the results. Now I'm home, I'll try and take some better ones, but at the moment I'm quite liking this lens! Its so smooth it's an absolute delight to use and it's great fun to be able to use this and enjoy it after it's been sat in a loft/attic since 1975...





When I manage to get the focus right it seems to perform pretty well for something that's been sat unused for 36 years.

I'm happy enough with it, so I've made him an offer he couldn't refuse and now I've added it to my ever growing list of MF lenses...

If anyone knows any more about this lens or the manufacturer, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

Janet
 
manualfocus-g said:
Wow, yours looks much better than mine was! As you can see, mine really glowed wide open, but then again I was using it on a full frame camera.

The maker is Steinheil Munchen by the way :)
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The full frame aspect made no difference, yours glowed all over the frame not just the edges!
 
BacktotheFuji said:
Good point :lol:

I suspect these lenses are different models, with different optical schemes ;)
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Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I was looking for info on the Cassar S and found this.

I think the one that's awful and was standard was the Edixa Auto-Cassaron 50mm f2.8. I have this as well as the Cassar S, and the S is so sharp, it's a completely different animal. I agree with you about the Edixa one, though. It is awful until f5.6.
 
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