The Good German ...

... Not really related to the Steven Soderbergh film, but, instead, to a very nice sample of a Steinheil Auto-D-Tele-Quinar 135 f/2.8, in M42 screw mount, with its original cap and hood ...



Bought some months ago, i didn't really had the time to test it, until a few weeks ago. Having used a broken Quinar 135/3.5, i was aware of the great quality of the Steinheil lenses, but this one exceeds all my expectations ...

It has a very good color rendering and perfectly usable sharpness even wide open, as in the sample below:



And the bokeh, even when stopped down, is really pleasant ...
At f/5.6:



There is no lack of definition, too, as you can see in the eye of the peacock below:



especially if you check the full size picture, here ...

Note that this picture has been taken with a 12mm extension ring, to lower the minimum focusing distance from 1.7m to about 60cm ...

The CA is almost absent, too, or easily fixed through a little processing:



The focusing ring turns for about 330° from infinity to the minimum focusing distance of 1.7m, allowing a very precise focus point. And the diaphragm ring is really easy to use with a single finger, with clicks every half a stop ...

The big cons of this lens is its filter thread of 54mm, which makes almost impossible to find any polarizer for it (luckily, i got this lens with the original hood) ...

If interested in more sample pics, feel free to browse to my Flickr photostream here ...