by TRA
White dots in Flektogon Lenses
Sometimes I receive enquiries about white dots in the 50mm Flektogon lens. These are some of the questions that I get asked:
Q: “I
have been looking for a Flektogon 50 in the internet but I see in some
of the photographs of the lenses exhibit some little tiny round and seemingly
raised white dots that look like star trails in the front. I have
found a cinematographer's blog that warns against buying them because of
"nasty reflexions".”
Another visitor asked: “Is
this something I should be worried about? If so, can it be repaired and
is it costly?”
A: Many 50mm Flektogon lenses seem to have or to develop little white dots within the barrel, and I have one like this (and others without them).
I must say that I have never noticed a problem with the pictures that I have taken with this lens. I phoned the lens specialist Peter Olbrich in Görlitz, Germany and asked him if he could re-paint these sections of the inside of the barrel, and he said that he could, but that it would not be a good use of my money to get him to do this, as they do not affect picture quality in any way and after he had painted the inside of the barrel I would not observe any differences in the images that I obtained. He also said that, no matter the care he took, he is not a machine and so the finish would not be as smooth as the original, machine-sprayed, surface.
I have therefore followed his advice and not had my Flektogon lens re-painted.
Naturally, if you are looking for a lens to buy, you will want one in the best condition possible for the amount of money that you plan to spend, so I suggest that you ask the vendor to send you clear pictures of the front of the lens, and if you have doubts, you should not buy the lens. There are plenty of 50mm Flektogon lenses that do not have these dots.
I hope that this is helpful.
Enjoy your photography with the Pentacon Six – and with a 50mm Flektogon lens, which is capable of producing superb pictures!
Mr Pentacon Six
Here are two 50mm Flektogon lenses. The one on the left has a
serial number in the 10 millions and was completed on 8th March 1978.
It shows the famous white dots.
The one on the right has a four-digit serial number and was completed
on 21st August 1984. It does not have any white dots.
For reasons of security, the final digits of the serial number on each
lens have been blurred in this picture.
[2fleks.jpg]
A proof that the white dots do not appear to have any effect at all on image quality: see the last image on the 50mm lens test page, here. That contrasty and sharp picture was taken with the lens on the left in the above photo.