Gauging interest on Carl Zeiss 50mm f/0.77 with Nikon mount

marco0782

marco0782

Well-known member
Yes, that's right. f/0.77. This lens was made in Germany in the 70's. It was probably made for scientific use. It is 50mm and has a fixed aperture as well as focus distance of just a few centimeters. However, I discovered that by mounting the lens backwards it can be used as a regular 50mm (though super shallow), and by changing the backfocus you can focus from a few centimeters away up until infinity. Mounting it backwards requires a lens support and a bellows to block out light.

The lens Kubrick used in Barry Lyndon was also a fixed focus Zeiss 50mm f/0.7 which was rehoused by Cinema Products so that it could focus at different distances. Someone crafty could do the same with this lens, though my bellows trick works great.

This lens was originally made with a screw mount but I have it adapted for Nikon mount.

Will post some videos tomorrow and some pics as soon as I can get ahold of a digital camera. Basically I am trying to raise money for a project at the moment and I want to see how much interest there is in this lens because I may sell it if the offer makes sense.


Marco
 
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Also I forgot to mention that this lens is in mint condition. The lens is enormous and quite heavy, and the housing is solid metal. No scratches to speak of on the housing or the glass.


Marco
 
Would be very interested depending on footage and images of what the setup looks like all put together. I have a D90, so this could be really cool. I already love my 50mm 1.2, can't imagine what 0.77 looks like!
 
Its probably outside of my budget, and if it weren't I would need to see some photos and footage from it to see if I thought I could work with it. As far as "interest" I would definitely be interested in seeing it even if I probably wouldn't purchase it.

Have you thought about renting it? It sounds like a very special purpose lens, something that doesn't have a place in my kit but that I might want for a low light shoot some day.
 
I would like to see more coherent shots. Maybe of people or a building or something?

The footage looked neat, but it was hard to gauge.
 
Code Rad, that is the same exact lens. I will try to post more footage soon.

The orange shot was booming down from a lamp, and the green was dollying past an LCD projector bulb.


Marco
 
yup and it behaves like a over extended apeture lens too... if you pay attention the boken kinda flips inside out and backwards towards the edges.... because the glass is wider than the focal length....

Limited application, but with a fast camera youre shooting in candle light....
 
The bokeh is truly bizarre.

Also, the way I understand it, the lens would need to be rehoused to take advantage of its f/0.77 speed for low light performance, right? Reversing it will not give it that speed, just the DOF of such a fast lens...

Any idea what the distance is from the rear element to the focal plane at infinity (with the lens held the right way? It should be easy to estimate this by imaging to a piece of white paper which is mostly shaded, with a bright subject near infinity.
 
I believe it's an astigmatic lens, it will only focus in one point due to the element's curvature.
Interesting effect.
 
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