120 mm C. P. Goerz Celor and 13.5 cm Contessa-Netta Sonnar Anastigmat -- usable for 9x12 cm?

[martin_embacher]

Hello, i have these two lenses.. both with shutter, one working, the other not.

http://www.sbg.at/embacher/upload/comp-comp.jpg

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C.P. Goerz Berlin, DOPP Anastigmat Serie IB CELOR

F=120mm 1:4,8 No. 127425

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Contessa-Nettel, Sonnar Anastigmat

1:4,5 f=13,5cm No. 87105

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i am not sure when they were produced, and what they cover. i have a linhof

9x12cm. does it work with it? is it worth to keep them and how much are they

worth? any infos or details appreciated.

 

thanks alot,

bests martin

[frank_menesdorfer]

Martin!

 

Here you will find a lot's of information about goerz.

 

http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/goerzcat/goerzcat.html

[thomas_vaehrmann]

Hi Martin,

 

the Celor is 4 lenses / 4 elements-design and was made in faster versions, too. It hasn't much coverage so 120mm might be a little short for 9x12cm. Main problem with these optical designs is flare as long as they are uncoated. I don't know anything about the Sonnar which might be of the same design and passed it's name later to the famous Zeiss-lenses.

Resolution and sharpness neither was nor is the problem to deal with, it's flare. As a rule of thumb: 4 glass-air-surfaces are best, 6 are accepable, 8 to avoid - if uncoated. Dagor, Collinear, Orthostigmat, Protar, Angulon, (old) Symmar are in the first group, Tessar, Heliar, Triplets go in the second, Synor, Celor, Eurynar, Plasmat in the last, just to name a few.

The shutters can perhaps been fixed by CLA. The Compur is common, the Compound al little bit rare. Keep them if you want to play with vintage lenses in the future.

 

kind regards

 

Thomas

[patric_dahl_n]

The Contessa-Nettel Sonnar is a four element/three groups construction, like the Tessar.

 

Goerz Celor is a dialyte, four elements in four groups (eight glass-air-surfaces). Dialytes can be really good, but use a lens shade. 120mm is a standard focal length for 6,5x9, so I agree with Thomas that it's little too short if you want to use the whole negative.

[martin_embacher]

..thanks a lot for your responses/tipps. i will try to use it then - after cleaning, and cla maintaining - with my 6x9 rollfilms.

bests martin

[dave_love1]

<p>My experience with Celors is that they have ample coverage - this 120mm lens, stopped down, should cover 4x5 with no trouble.<br>

The Goerz literature agrees with this, too.<br>

As well, you can use half (usually the back half) as a 240mm f+1:9 and get a pretty good result stopped down and nice portrait or nature softness wide open.</p>

[martin_embacher]

<p>hey dave,<br>

thx for your reply. i haven't managed to maintain the two lenses until now. when i find some time to get my linhof out, i am using the other lenses i have with the working shutters.<br>

thanks for sharing your experience..</p>