350 superachromat or not

[luca_pastorelli]

Hello everybody

planning to buy a second hand 350mm for my 501c/m I find there's a

350cf and a 350 superachromat. Can you tell me the difference? have I

to expect big difference in price?

 

thanks

[tarashnat]

Luca,

 

The Tele-Superachromat is better corrected for reducing chromatic aberrations. That is,

more wavelengths of light focus on the same point. This will reduce color fringing on high

contrast areas at high magnification. That is not to say that the Tele-Tessar (CF) isn't a

fine lens. I have the C version of the lens and am very happy with it. The Superachromat

will be more expensive.

 

What type of images are you planning to shoot with the 350mm?

 

Taras

[luca_pastorelli]

I will shoot mostly landscape using Velvia and velvia 100, I think but... let's see when I can really afford one!

Have you experienced differences between the Sa and the non-sa?

[ulrik_neupert]

Just another point: The 350 C and 350 CF lenses do not have a tripod mount. So the 350 SA/body combination is better balanced on a tripod.

 

Ulrik

[dermot_conlan4]

Easy, one is a specialty high performance lens designed to

deliver the goods wide open and work with the APO1.4 XE, the

other is no longer is the Hassey catalog, you are dealing with a

lot of variables with long lenses such as keeping them steady,

looking through a vf at f5.6 and coping with air polution etc,

technique is probably a more important factor... do you have a

$5,000 -$7,000USD budget, can you re-coup the money with

sales of your work, are you independently wealthy?

[kornelius_j._fleischer]

Luca, the fact that you ask tells me that you did not have the opportunity to compare the lenses you mention, yet. Being the Zeiss camera lens marketing manager, I had.

From that experience, which also includes the Tele-Tessar 4/350 for the 200 series Hasselblad, and of course the Tele-Apotessar 8/500, I can say this:

 

The Tele-Tessar 5,6/350 has the traditional focusing helicoid design, which can appear very stiff with long tele lenses.

The Tele-Superachromat with its internal focusing design, on the other hand, has clearly the best focusing mechanism in the industry. Try it once and you will be convinced.

The focusing mechanism of the 4/350 and Tele-Apotessar 500 are also very good, since these lenses also are internal focusing designs.

 

In terms of image quality, the Tele-Superachromat is way ahead of the other 3 lenses mentioned here. Sharpness and image brilliance are stunning. Once you have experienced for yourself the enormous overall quality of this lens, you will not want to settle for anything less. I use mine with a Novoflex adapter even on my 35 mm SLR cameras, since I have not found a tele lens of similar performance anywhere in 35 mm.

[luca_pastorelli]

Thank you very much everybody and especially to Mr.Kornelius J. Fleischer whose answer is definitive. About Quality everything's clear, now it's "only" a matter of budget!