Zeiss Jena 300mm f/4 MC

Has anyone compared one of these to either of the Pentax offerings

(645 or 67)? Is it worth the hassle of stop-down metering?

The Pentax ED IF 300mm f/4 for the 645 is certainly way better. The difference is quite obvious. The Zeiss is acceptable starting f/8 while the Pentax is already excellent at f/4. Telephotos 300mm and above have greatly benefited from the introduction of ED or FL glass elements.

Thomas-

Have you done a side-by-side comparision of the Zeiss Jena 300/f4 MC with the Pentax lenses -- are there results you can share?

 

The Zeiss Jena 300/f4 MC is a very good performer, and a bargain at the price. It is better than the "Pentacon" branded 300/f4, and the Meyer 300/f4. It is the top 300mm for the Pentacon 6. and It is also much better than the, earlier, non-"MC" designated Jena lens. The MC lens saw a number of improvements over its non-MC predecessor. I hope you are not confusing it with any of these other Pentacon 6 300mm lenses. The lens has nice color and contrast and an attractive, smooth bokeh. I have used one to test it. If I get a chance to a scan a couple of the images I will post them.

Here is a test on Provia 100F. This was shot at wide open at f4 to see what the lens' bokeh is like. You will note that only part of the tree in the lower right hand corner is in focus at f4, but the area that is in focus is pretty sharp. I should also say that covernting the file to a jpeg for posting lost some of richness of color exhibited in the original.

For some reason I wasn't given the option of attaching a picture to me last post. Strange. So I uploaded it separately. You'll find it here: http://www.photo.net/photo/3566161