Leitz Focotar-2 50/4.5

Gauss enlarger lens awarded top marks by Photo-ciné Revue magazine in 1980, when the retail price was 1,890 francs. [Cat 17582]. Serial number faintly engraved on rear. Pre-Leica era. Product image by Secondhand Darkroom.

Compare
Weight 90 g
Dimensions 50 mm
Focal Length (mm)

Max Aperture (f)

Min Aperture (f)

Aperture Blades

Elements

Rear Mount

Serial Numbers

,

Production

Reviews

  1. 16:9

    Broadly there were three generations of commercially-available Leitz Focotar 50mm f4.5 – plus an unobtanium Focotar-3 prototype, of which copies exist, but were never officially sold.

    Pre-xxxx models share a similar body style and only appear to differ in their cosmetics and coating. These ‘first generation’ Focotars are solid performers, and typically beautifully made. However, they offered no performance advantage over the Nikon, Rodenstock and Schneider six-element lenses of their day. In fact, they were rather outperformed with regard to corner resolution at working apertures – of which there were fewer, by virtue of the Focotar’s miniaturised f4.5 design. A healthy example is merits a respectable ‘high-Silver’ award at short range – scoring c.87% – but its asymmetrical formula creates reversibility issues: long range performance tails off sharply, especially with regard to its already-sub-benchmark Zone C resolution.

    In collaboration with Schneider – proven masters of the Xenotar design – the so-called ‘LFE’ (Large Front Element) Focotar 50/4.5 was released in XXXX. It was touted as a significant upgrade – which was only partly true. Centre-frame resolution was certainly a healthy step up, as was overall contrast. However, corner performance was somewhat inferior to the original model. Although it’s a more desirable lens, it can’t be considered uniformly superior – particularly given the moderately strong barrel distortion evident in longer-distance captures.

    As if previously distracted by other priorities, in XXXX Leitz took the Focotar more seriously and replaced the stop-gap Schneider hybrid with a new Double Gauss design entirely authored by Leitz. Distancing it from the ‘interim’ Focotar, this lens was designated Focotar-2. It was convincing: combining the excellent centre-frame resolution of the LFE with hitherto unseen corner performance, partly attributable to redundancy in the large image circle. The Focotar-2 was apochromatic, and sits close to the top of the tree by all metrics, meriting a Gold award.

    In the digital era, all Focotars provide distinct utility as taking lenses: few such optics combine adequate resolution with genuinely attractive rendition: these lenses have ‘Leica bokeh’, and the advantage of a circular diaphragm. They also all cover the smaller digital medium formats – the Focotar-2 in particular performs superbly on Fujifilm GFX and Hasseblad X bodies.

Add a review

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related to . . .