Meyer Optik Goerlitz Trioplan 100 f/2.8

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My new baby arrived yesterday, slightly delayed by Brexit which caused the lens inbound to Britain over Christmas 2020 to be back-tracked to the manufacturer.

Anyhow it arrived safely yesterday and I look forward to getting to know it.20210112_115216.jpg
 
Back-tracked to the manufacturer? This is a very old lens design/name. It look brand new so are they still making them? I had one of these, let's see, about 50 years ago. It was polished alloy and it was to fit onto an Exakta 11b I owned at the time. I cannot remember much about it except there was precious little in the way of contrast and the lens barrel had quite a 'wobble' where it joins at the focusing section. (It was quite old) 100mm will make it a superb portrait lens. I would love to see what the results are like.
 
Back-tracked to the manufacturer? This is a very old lens design/name. It look brand new so are they still making them? I had one of these, let's see, about 50 years ago. It was polished alloy and it was to fit onto an Exakta 11b I owned at the time. I cannot remember much about it except there was precious little in the way of contrast and the lens barrel had quite a 'wobble' where it joins at the focusing section. (It was quite old) 100mm will make it a superb portrait lens. I would love to see what the results are like.


Yes, it's a brand new lens because they are in manufacture again. I've linked here Trioplan relaunch and yes, they are pushing it as a portrait lens here images.

I should offer a bit of personal history: I too have "legacy" Meter Optik lenses which I enjoy using on my 5DII. About 4 years ago I got drawn into a crowdfunding initiative to support a relaunch of the Meyer Optik legacy lens designs in a new manufacture. It wasn't kickstarter btw.

Long story short someone walked away with a lot of money from people like me who'd made a financial commitment and the story at the time was that the principal had been in some kind of life-changing traffic accident which stopped the project dead. He didn't die but he didn't give any refunds either.

Bankruptcy proceedings went through the courts in Germany and though I'd filed my details I didn't expect any kind of positive outcome.

Cut to 2020 when another company took over the designs, went into manufacture and contacted people like me (victims of the previous scam/bankruptcy) to offer a substantial discount. So the prices on the website I've linked are significantly higher than the amounts I've paid for this lens and a 30mm Lydith.

I'm probably going to get more use out of the Lydith but I will enjoy using this one.
 
Is it still a pre-set lens or have they graduated to electronics and auto diaphragm. In black it looks very smart. When it was just polished alloy it looked - well - cheap! I seem to remember there was a 50mm F2.9 lens called a Primotar. I can't remember if that too was a Meyer optic lens but that was truly dreadful there was so much definition fall of it would need a curved film plane to get it anywhere near usable.

I have driven past what used to be the Meyer Optic factory in Gorlitz in the old DDR and it was almost derelict but was being worked upon to renovate it.
 
Is it still a pre-set lens or have they graduated to electronics and auto diaphragm.

To quote from the website

"Do the lenses have an autofocus?
No. All Meyer Optik Görlitz lenses are completely manual, have no electronics and do not communicate with the camera."
 
I am a little disappointed in the reincarnation. It seems little better than the battered one I owned years ago. I think I paid something like £20 for mine. I would have thought modern lens coating would have improved things, but apparently not.
 
Back in the late 60s and early 70s Meyer lenses were the ones you bought for your Exakta or Praktica if you couldn’t afford Zeiss. This current enthusiasm for these lenses reminds me of Andersen’s story about the emperor’s new clothes. Having said that I did have a print accepted for the 1978 RPS International Exhibition that was taken with a 30mm Lydith.
 
Having said that I did have a print accepted for the 1978 RPS International Exhibition that was taken with a 30mm Lydith.
In my experience, most of the Meyer Optik designs were good to outstanding, The Oreston lenses, especially the 50mm / f1.8, were as good in practice as any other lenses of those focal lengths that I've used. The Trioplan was very much the exception.
 
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