Filters & hood for Rollei Automat

[dmhorne]

I recently bought a Rollie Automat 2 - serial # 739128, with a Zeiss

tessar 3.5 uncoated taking lens in good mechanical condition. Will

filters or hood improve contrast & if so which ones should I get. I

also have been using a rolleicord V with coated 3.5 Xenar, are the

two lenses on par. Thanks.

[kaiblanke]

Xenars and Tessars are the same formula, they should behave about the same given everything else is equal (lens condition, coating, etc.). Since the 'cord V has a coated lens, the results should be more contrasty and should have less flare, although the results are not necessarily sharper. Nevertheless the more contrasty an image has, the sharper it appears to the viewer. So theoretically the 'cord should give you the better results.

<p>

For any lens, coated or not, a hood will reduce flare and improve contrast - and so give the viewer the suggestion of a sharper image. Since coated lenses flare less than uncoated ones, the uncoated lenses gain alot more from using a hood than (multi-)coated ones. A filter will be an additional peace of glass reducing the effective sharpness, but some filters improve contrast which results in a better subjective sharpness. Filters increasing contrast are UV filters (if the lens coatings are not UV-filtering itself) for color film and colored filters (yellow, orange, red) for BW film.

<p>

The above is theory; in praxis the results from my Automat with an uncoated Tessar were (in BW @ f8, using a hood and sometimes an orange filter) equal to the results I got from my Rolleiflexes equipped with the 'better' coated Planar 2.8 and 3.5 lenses. Color results had a bit less contrast, but were in the same league of sharpness. Sometimes the results from the uncoated lens were preferrable, esp. on Velvia; sometimes the coated lenses were producing preferrable results.

<p>

So which lens you prefer is a personal thing: Using a hood is always a good ides with any 'cord or 'flex. If you are using BW film, an orange filter is also a nice addition, for color the hood should be enough to start with.