APO MAKRO PLANAR 120 for CONTAX645

Manual focus macro lens for medium format cameras

A review and Photo example of APO MAKRO PLANAR 120mm for CONTAX 645 with a LEICA digital camera.

Gallery

Photo example for APO MAKRO PLANAR 120mm from Leica S typ007

Review

Usage
Lens overview
Comparison with competitors

1．Usage

The APO Macro Planar 120mm is a macro lens with a focal length of 120mm released by Kyocera for the medium format camera Contax 645. When used with the Leica S series, it becomes a medium telephoto macro lens with a focal length of 96mm in 35mm format. When using 645 film with the Contax 645, it becomes 74mm.

When using it with the LEICA S TYP007, if the camera is in autofocus (AF) mode, the shutter will not be released unless the Leica S’s central focus point is displayed as in focus, which can be inconvenient when moving the focus plane to the corner of the screen. Of course, if you set the camera to manual focus (MF) mode, the shutter will be released where you intended, but when using it with other AF lenses, you need to change the focus mode every time you change lenses, which is a bit of a hassle.

I was interested in this lens because of its unique lens configuration. It is a solitary and unique presence among the many Macro Planars, and it uses the standard focal length of 120mm for medium format macro lenses. As the lens name says, the APO specification suppresses chromatic aberration, so you won’t notice any color bleeding in the images. The Zeiss coating technology also provides good resistance to backlighting, so I’ve never had any problems shooting without a hood.

2．Lens overview

The APO Macro Planar 120mm has 9 elements in 6 groups. As you can see in the image below, the front group has 6 elements in 4 groups, and the rear group has 3 elements in 2 groups, which corrects aberrations and improves magnification. The medium-format HASSELBLAD V Macro Planar has a typical planar configuration of 6 elements in 4 groups, and is a macro lens that relies on the amount of lens extension, so it is thought to have evolved to compensate for the disadvantage of low magnification. This lens configuration has been developed into the Makro Planar T* 2/100 and Milvas 2/100M (9 elements in 8 groups) under the ZEISS brand manufactured by Cosina. This is the only Makro Planar that clearly states APO in the lens name.

The image circle of the lens is compatible with the 645 format, so it can easily cover 44x33mm sensors and 35mm full-frame sensors.

When focusing, the front and rear groups extend in opposite directions. Due to this special focusing method, the CONTAX 645 itself supports AF, but this lens does not have an AF drive mechanism and is an MF lens.

The length of the flange back of the CONTAX 645 mount allows for flexible use with other mounts, so I think it would be a good candidate for a medium telephoto macro lens. Although this lens has an aperture ring, the aperture is electrically driven, so unless you use a mount adapter with contacts, you will always use it at full aperture.

Although the lens is equipped with an aperture ring, when used with a Leica S using 16038 [Leica S Adapter C], the aperture ring is ignored and the aperture value is set on the camera.

When the lens is set to infinity, the total length is 104mm, making it very compact and easy to carry, but when the focus ring is turned to the minimum shooting distance, the total length of the lens extends to 200mm. It weighs less than 800g, making it very light for a medium format lens.

The hood used is the GB-73, which is the same as the Sonnar 140mm.

3．Comparison with competitors

The APO Macro Planar 120mm F4 can be compared to the Hasselblad HC Macro 120mm-II F4 and the Leica APO Macro Summarit S 1:2.5/120.

The Hasselblad HC Macro 120mm is designed to extend only the front group, and is capable of AF shooting with HASSELBLAD H series cameras and LEICA S series cameras (however, the HASSELBLAD X series is MF only). The HC120mm has an additional lens shutter unit and AF unit to enhance its functionality, and its weight is 1.4 kg, just under twice that of the APO Macro Planar.

The Leica APO Macro Summarit S 1:2.5/120 has a bright maximum aperture of F2.5 for a macro lens, more than one stop brighter than the CONTAX645 and Hasselblad macros. However, it cannot reach life-size and is a half-macro lens. It seems to have been designed with portrait photography in mind rather than close-up photography. In overseas forums, it is said to have a more stable AF accuracy than the Summicron-S 100mm, so it is an interesting lens.

When used with the LEICA S typ007, this lens is MF, but the HC 120mm has the advantage of being AF, so it is difficult to decide which one to take.

The Makro Planar has a different configuration from the YASHICA CONTAX Makro Planar®T* f/2.8 – 100 mm (7 elements in 7 groups) for SLR cameras, and I think it is also an interesting lens, so I would like to try using it someday.

Specification

Items	Lens1	Lens2
Lens name	APO MAKRO PLANAR	HC120II
Focal length(mm)	120	120
Max aperture	4	4
Min aperture	32	45
Lens Construction	8elements in 5group	9elements in 9group
Min distance(m)	0.3	0.39
Lens length(mm)	104	166
Lens Max diameter(mm)	86	96
Filter Size(mm)	72	67
Weight(g)	796	1410
Release year	1999

Reference links

ZEISS History product for APO MAKRO PLANAR 120

Update history

2024.9.2
2024.2.11:Update
2022.06.19:First draft

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