Steinheil Culminar 85mm/2.8 Lens

Hi Raid; here the old dinky Steinheil Culminar 85mm/2.8 is used sometimes on Russian and Leica too. It is a tessar formula; 4 elements in 3 groups. It has a full circular focus cam surface on the lens, so it works on all my Russian stuff too. (without a Leica roller cam). Mine wont open much past F4; the iris mechanism is goofed up. Its more compact thatn my Nikkor 85mm F2, and alot lighter too. Its a cool lens for portraits, but is abit softer wide open thatn a modern lens. I also have the Steinheil Culminar 135mm/F4.5; which has a stub cam; wont afit to a Russian body to well. :)It the past the Steinheil Culminar's have been called dogs to just average. The 135mm here is a fine lens. The 85mm lens was an Ebay buy many years ago for about 25 bucks as an as is deal. I like it because it is small.

Kelly: I paid $50 or so for the 85mm lens and I sold a year ago my 135mm lens by Steinheil. They are not bad at all, but they are not sharp wide open.

Raid - I have two of the 85s, one in Leica mount and one in Exacta mount. I have found them to be quite good. In comparing your Steinheil photos to those you recently posted that you took with your Elmar 5cm, I find the Steinheil images to be sharper, and, in my opinion, better photos.

Jim: All my tele photos come out sharper than my normal lens photos since I can focus better. I will keep this Steinheil lens for portraits.

I recently got one of these, with original caps and case. It is not the sharpest in resolution at the larger apertures, but sharpness isn't everything. I think it might be great for portraits. The aperture mechanism has so many blades that it makes an almost perfect circle; bokeh looks quite smooth. It rides nicely on the CL and intrudes only minimally into the 90 frame, using a shade. Its not a lot of fun to use, as the aperture does not have click stops, and you must set the aperture, THEN focus, or you can throw your focus off by setting the aperture. If anyone is interested in buying this one, pls contact me off site and I will give you a very honest evaluation of its condition. I have managed to find a beat-up but serviceable shade.

Doug: Which lens hood do you recomemnd for this lens? I don't think I have a lens hood for mine.

Ideal would be the very rare Canon 100mm f3.5 hood. The slip-on ring size is 42mm. Maybe some Leitz shade for 39-barrel lenses comes close. I have a beat-up very ugly one of unknown origin that intrudes slightly into the 90 frame on my CL.