Review Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena

For the opportunity to review the Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena lens, many thanks to Dyachuk Roman.

Review Pancolar 50mm 1.8 ausJena

Review Pancolar 50mm 1.8 ausJena

The lens presented in this review is Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena numbered 8551345. Coming out of the lens number, most likely the lens was released between 1967-1970. They say the Pancolar is not a real Cazl Zeiss, the reason for such thoughts is this lens, on which there is no inscription Cazl zeiss, but only ausJena. The prefix "aus" in German means "from". It turns out “Pancolar from Jena”. You will find interesting thoughts about the collapse of production in the blog Dmitry Evtifeev.

Pancolar 50mm 1.8 ausJena - view from different sides

Pancolar 50mm 1.8 ausJena - view from different sides

I already have a review Carl Zeiss Jena MC Pancolar 1.8 / 50 DDR - this is a newer version of the lens, therefore, I will not re-paint about Pancolar. Basic information is in the overview Carl Zeiss Jena MC Pancolar 1.8 / 50 DDR, and here I will try to describe the differences between the old and the new version.

Pancolar 50mm 1.8 ausJena - view on the Nikon D40 camera

Pancolar 50mm 1.8 ausJena - view on Nikon D40

My Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena, unlike the new version, does not have multi-enlightenment. At Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena there is a simple enlightenment. Because of this, the lens gives a strong yellowness in the image, it seems that the lens is wearing a yellow filter, therefore, the color rendering of the lens is warm. On my digital SLR camera, automatic white balance copes well with yellowness and makes a very nice color rendition of the lens. To some extent, yellowness is only a plus.

Pancolar 1.8 50 ausJena. Sharpness and bokeh

Pancolar 1.8 50 ausJena. bokeh

But Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena It does not have multi-enlightenment, but it normally tolerates backlight, can catch hares, but the hood helps to avoid unnecessary flare.

Sample photo on Pancolar 1.8 50 ausJena

Sample photo on Pancolar 1.8 50 ausJena

Another major difference between the old version is the 8-blade aperture, which allows you to form a more even bokeh than the 6-blade in new versions of the lens. Diaphragm Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena matte, has a nice ring of switching values. The values ​​themselves on the ring: 1.8, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 with one intermediate value between the designated.

Attention: old versions with a color like "zebra" are of several types: with a 6 or 8-blade diaphragm. I also used the version with a “zebra” with 6 aperture blades - optically and externally, the lens does not differ in any way from the one presented in this review.

Sample photo on Pancolar 1.8 50 ausJena

Sample photo on Pancolar 1.8 50 ausJena

The lens barrel also differs from the new one. Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena - classic "zebra". Zebra is most often used to mean old Cazl Zeiss lenses in which the focus ring and aperture ring have a black and white striped color that resembles a “zebra”. Older zebra lenses are legendary among photographers. And in fact, the lens is very old, but it gives out just gorgeous image quality.

Sample photo on Pancolar 1.8 50mm ausJena

Sample photo on Pancolar 1.8 50mm ausJena

On my Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena there is a strange switch, its destination could not be determined. The lens does not have a jumping aperture, because the switch cannot be responsible for the aperture control mode.

Sample photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

Sample photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

How to use on modern cameras

У Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena There is a thread for attaching to the M42 camera. In order to install on a modern SLR camera, just find the right adapter. I used Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena with a camera Nikon D200 and an adapter KP-42 / N with the loss of the ability to focus at infinity. About adapters and compatibility with Nikon cameras, I painted everything in an article about Soviet lenses, some of which, too, have an M42 mount. Canon needs the M42 / Canon EOS adapter, for more information see the article on old lenses at canon.

Sample photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

Sample photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

Sample photos on Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena

All photos were shot on Nikon D200without processing. The size 2048*1536impressed data from EXIF, RAW -> JPEG, auto BB,Q80%.

For what purposes is it suitable

Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena will serve as an excellent portrait lens, especially on cropped cameras. On the crop EGF The lens will be 75mm for Nikon and 80mm for Canon. At full aperture, the lens blurs the background and foreground very nicely, which is important for a good portrait. And also, Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena Is a fast prime lens that can help you deal with poor lighting without raising your ISO or slowing your shutter speed. All fifty dollars are very similar to each other, but Pankolar stands out for its design.

I could not detect significant vignetting or distortion on my cropped camera. HA very small. On the fully open aperture of F1.8, the images are quite sharp (even very sharp).

Example photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

Example photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

Personal experience

The lens is very easy to take. Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena small, with a smooth focusing ring. The front element extends 1 cm when focusing, the lenses do not rotate. The ring itself rotates about 220 degrees. The kit comes with a wonderful hood, with which the lens looks very vintage. The hood is screwed into place of the light filter. Also, the kit comes with two light filters.

Example photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

Example photo on a Pancolar F1.8 50mm ausJena

Catalog of modern Carl Zeiss lenses can look at this link.

Comments on this post do not require registration. Anyone can leave a comment. Many different photographic equipment can be found on AliExpress.


Conclusions

Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena - an excellent fifty dollars. Gives good bokeh, nice color rendering. Bokeh is slightly curled around the edges of the frame. Sharp already from the maximum open aperture. Ergonomics on top. Cons of Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena very little. I recommend to use on the crop as a good portrait.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

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Comments: 104, on the topic: Review of Pancolar 1.8 / 50 ausJena

  • BORIS

    I took it for 60 rubles, ideally, there is a Summilux for 270 thousand - I don't see the difference in sharpness, the bokeh is no worse, I would have known first, I saved it. The author of the merci!

  • anonym

    Question to the owners - does the jump rope switch work just like a repeater or should it be fixed in the “M” position?

    • Igor

      It is not fixed, only as a repeater.
      I use (on canon) an adapter with a flange.

      • anonym

        Thanks. Or maybe someone forced the jump rope?

        • Igor

          I heard that someone, pinching a pin, is dripping super-glue. I somehow removed the back part, and putting the pin back on I remained pressed) You can do it by analogy: remove the back part and, for example, put a washer from heat shrink on the tip of the pin or a piece of the rod from the handle, thereby preventing the pin from going through the hole.

  • anonym

    I took a yellow Pankolar for 60 rubles ideally, and I am satisfied! Duzhe satisfied!

    • Igor

      Congratulations.
      It seemed to me that only Moscow hucksters had such prices. More and more recently, advertisements with a price of 15-20tr have come across.
      But I can’t make friends with the yellow pancolar. This yellowness is suitable only for very narrow scenes, the AutoBB somehow does not cope very well: either it leads to blue-purple, then yellow-green. The color balance is disturbed in any way. I baked my own under the UV lamp, it got better, but not perfect. And then it was absolutely amber yellowness.

  • Michael

    I will sell yellow pankolar, in an old state, I will give back on purchase. Itself brought from Austria two years ago. Filmed on FF, but the crisis, switched to crop IFR is no longer suitable. The lens is super. There is an adapter for Canon with a chip. I won’t give it to Sony =)
    400 euro.

    By the way, everyone is asking about jumping

  • anonym

    I bought Yellow Pankolar 50 \ 1.8 with lanthanum radio-isotope glasses. In the presence of a substantial radio, one can forget about foreign and border control. The picture is different from simple, naturally better.
    The price, in my opinion, is high, but on the other hand, it determines the demand. I bought mine for 50 thousand. In Europe, they are not much cheaper, the price tag is biting.

    Conclusion: take if you have the appropriate wealth, but as the first acquisition for a novice photographer - no, you will not understand anything.

  • anonym

    available (yellow glass) mail konwoi1@mail.ru in Ukraine

  • anonym

    I will sell yellow Cazl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50 / 1.8, 8549296. Contact gelen@list.ru, Ukraine, Zaporozhye)

  • Nicholas

    I recently bought a pancolar 1.8 / 50 in Moscow from my hands for a NEX 5R crop for a large-scale landscape in the north, until I got a taste of it, but sigma 1.4 / 30 seems to me sharper, and even sharper than my other acquisitions: pentacon 2.8 / 29, Biometar 2.8 / 80, Jupiter-9, of course, everyone has a beautiful soap and I select the optimal hole, but they do not compete with sigma in terms of sharpness, but it is heavy on the neck in tourism and the size is too small ... it strongly removes the background, probably after the final tests I will sell the whole bunch in bulk and I will look for something modern

  • Eugene

    PANCOLAR is always on sale. In any version: just a zebra, MC electric version, and TA SAMAYA - with thorium enlightenment (in a super-state, 8 petals, of course - m42). efaleev@bk.ru

  • Thorium

    How much is? It seems to me alone that here they wind up prices for yellow glasses? What kind of 1000 ye or 400 euros are we talking about?

    • Igor

      There was a stir at one time, created by hucksters, pouring ears about incredible properties and the drawing of this glass thanks to special glasses, a small party also affected. They sold at 1000ye. Now the people came to their senses, demand fell. Often I meet at a price of 10-20tr, although this is also a bit too much.
      There is no unique, fantastic drawing and sharpness in it, and it does not represent any collection value, it’s just a good old manual. For 1000ue watering can-R wiser to take.
      PySy. At some foreign forum, people argued heatedly about the origin of this lens and the glass used. One person got confused and wrote a letter to the Zeiss Museum. He received an answer that Zeiss never produced glass with radioactive lenses.

      • Eugen

        The stump is clear, because Pankolary was let out by the left office in the GDR, which had nothing to do with the real Zeiss.

        • 10111

          It's a shame, of course, that Carl Zeiss Jena from the same Jena turns out to have nothing to do with Zeiss. Old Zeiss would have been offended.

          • Michael

            I had, and then stopped. This is an old story. The Zeiss plant was in fact until the GDR was born

  • Sergei

    And the lens with inscriptions on the front frame Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 1.8 / 50 has a zebra version with the inscription Carl Zeiss on the front frame, how many diaphragm blades are there?

    • Rodion

      "Yellow" (for transmission, as in the review) lenses - eight, pale blue / violet - 6.

  • Agasyan

    Hello, tell me please, I have this lens, but I can’t understand in any way, everywhere they write that starting from serial number 85… .. the lenses have blue coating, but for me it is yellow. In addition, there is no infinity when installed on Canon, I can focus within 5-6 meters.

  • Agasyan

    Attaching photo
    https://ibb.co/ewMFMw

    • Vasya Hunt

      So if there is no infinity, then either the glass was not twisted on the adapter, or the adapter is thicker than necessary. There is only one sane reason - the glass is farther from the sensor than necessary.
      Well, or someone's playful hands during assembly-disassembly did not get into the helicoid.

      • Anatoly

        I bought a yellow radioactive inscription on the lens from ENA, which means that it was made for export to the United States at a time when there were legal disputes over the right to the name of the Karl Zeiss brand between the assignees in the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. The ideal way out of the situation when there is no infinity, I just have to cut ... I remove the M 42 shank or my native bayonet. I put my native bayonet without a lens on the digital mirror, the lens at infinity, I see what gap between the lens and the camera I add a transition ring or grind the edge of the lens, then 2-3 locking screws and a thick layer of epoxy resin. So I put with infinity more than 40 Leiki Planar lenses Distagon Keno Zeiss Topkory ... many of them became macro from 5 cm. I have been shooting them on Nikon d 7000 for the last 5-6 years, the price is affordable and the quality of photos is excellent.

        • Eugen

          To tear off playful hands. So many wonderful glasses zakolkhozil ((.

          • Arkady Shapoval

            There is a separate topic on the Lens Club where they collect a torture chamber for me.

            • Rodion

              Now they (as an Egyptian punishment?) Are trolled by Chinese bots notably))) And, what especially delivers, of a "chemical" profile.

  • koba

    in my opinion, just a gorgeous fifty dollars ...

    • Rodion

      The only trouble with him is that when you buy a geometric aperture of 1.8 real, you have 2.8 due to the low light transmission of thorium glass.

  • Denis

    But what difference does it make (they write in the comments) whether this lens is related to Zeiss or not. Glass is the bomb. I shot them on a Samsung NX-1000 (I sold the carcass (buggy), but Zeiss, of course, left it). His sharpness is hurricane. My copy, as I later noticed, turned out to be with a light, light fungus. Why a lever? And the devil knows. Repeater, say. Now I am enjoying this lens paired with the Tourist-FL attachment.

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