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Rolleinar-MC 135/2.8

Rollei Rolleinar-MC 135/2.8

It is hard to find a bad 135mm legacy lens – at least that’s what the internet says. There are guides and comparison for them, but I was never really in the market to buy any. They aren’t very useful with a 6x magnification outside of sports and wildlife. However, someone put a Rollei Rolleinar-MC 135/2.8 lens on eBay, and I’m intrigued. In the 60s, Rollei bought both Zeiss and Voigtlander to produce great lens for their QBM mount cameras. As a result, most QBM lens are as of similar quality to Zeiss, which is only a little bit less good compare to Leica, the default forerunner. From what I gathered, this Rolleinar used the same formula as Voigtlander ARĀ  Color-Dynarex, both subcontracted and produced by Mamiya-Sekor, another great medium format lens maker. Not able to afford most Voitlander and Rollei, and new lens with the same focal length cost $1200 (basically I’ll never buy them), I decided that $50 isn’t a bad price to collect another lens maker into my arsenal. The only thing is that my copy is only wide open and all images below are shot at f/2.8. I’m still trying to figure out how to fix it, or return it. Otherwise enjoy my pictures as I go to the weekly Newark Natural Foods co-op Farmer’s Market.

Full Hood out!
1:2.8, f=135mm

Weird Bokeh.

I think the lens is pretty sharp! Would be nice if I can step down so I get a wider depth of field on the photos.

 

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