Marriage of HV DISTAGON 50mm and Leica S

Posted on Posted in HASSELBLAD, LEICA, Photo No Comments Tagged with , , ,
Marriage of HV DISTAGON 50mm and Leica S

A review and sample photos using the HASSELBLAD V DISTAGON 50mm T* with a LEICA S Typ007.

Table of contents

Amazon.co.jp＜広告＞

Gallery

Review

  1. Overview
  2. Usability
  3. Summary
Before imageAfter image

1．Overview

The HASSELBLAD V DISTAGON 50mm C T* is an old Hasselblad V-mount lens made after 1957, and the exact year it was first sold is unknown.

The lens I own has a black T* coated barrel, and the serial number 566xxxx indicates it was manufactured in 1973. The lens barrel is engraved with “LENS MADE IN WEST-GERMANY.”

The main specifications are listed below, and detailed lens specifications are listed in the table.

  • The focal length is 50mm in 35mm film format
  • Lens configuration is 7 elements in 7 groups
  • Aperture blades are 5
  • Aperture is almost evenly spaced from F4 to F22 with no half stops
  • No electrical contacts
  • Filter diameter is 67mm, a typical screw-in filter
  • The hood is a 67mm screw-in circular hood, which looks like a plastic hood but is made of metal

The mount adapter uses the genuine Leica 16024 Leica S Adapter V adapter, but it does not have a mechanism to drive the lens shutter and is a tube that connects the camera and lens.

In addition to the genuine LEICA mount adapter, Metabones also sells the “Hassel V Adapter for Leica S” and Fotodiox sells the “Fotodiox Pro Hasselblad V-System (HB) -Leica S (LS)”. It is characterized by being slightly cheaper than the genuine Leica version.

16024 Leica S Adapter V

2．Usability

When used with the Leica S series, the HASSELBLAD V DISTAGON 50mm C T* has a 45mm x 30mm medium format digital sensor, so a coefficient of 0.8 is applied, which is equivalent to a focal length of 40mm in 35mm film conversion.

The lens has some mold on it, but the shooting results show that there is no noticeable flare or distortion even in backlit conditions, so it is fine for normal use. Since it has an image circle that covers 6×6 medium format film at a focal length of 50mm, the shooting results with the LEICA S series are neat with no distortion and almost no vignetting.

The minimum shooting distance is 0.5m, which is not particularly close, but it has sufficient close-up shooting capabilities for shooting with a focal length equivalent to 40mm.

When I purchased it, I was told that the slow shutter speed on the lens was unstable, but as long as I use it with the LEICA S typ007, the shooting uses the focal plane shutter on the camera, so the built-in Compur shutter is not needed.

The focus ring is at the very front, and although it gets a little better with a mount adapter, it is still a little hard to turn. It has a rotation angle of about 250 degrees from infinity to the minimum distance of 0.5m.

Also, old Hasselblad V-mount lenses are made entirely of metal, including the lens barrel, which gives them a nice texture, but they are heavy and the focus ring is also made of metal and has fine serrations, so your fingers will hurt if you make delicate focus adjustments for a long time.

This is my second lens, but the focus ring on the V Planar 80mm that I already own is also made of metal and has fine serrations, so it has the same problem.

I bought the lens at a very low price, and as mentioned above, there is mold visible on the inside of the lens, so I plan to clean it up sometime.

The HASSELBLAD V-mount C-series wide-angle lenses come in three sizes: 40mm, 50mm, and 60mm. Comparing the sizes of the three lenses, the 40mm, which has the shortest focal length, has a large front element and a large lens, the 60mm is the most compact, and the 50mm is somewhere in between. All of them are a little too large for use with a 35mm camera.

3．Summary

In conclusion, to sum up the HASSELBLAD V DISTAGON 50mm C T*, although it is an old lens, it has a large image circle of a medium format lens, and when used with a medium format digital sensor or a 35mm full-frame sensor, you can use the good parts of the center of the lens, making it difficult to see rough edges.

There are many inexpensive 50mm wide-angle lenses for medium format cameras, so it is a lens worth using if you don’t mind the size since it is the standard focal length for 35mm. It looks great on a large flagship camera with an integrated vertical grip.

Specification

The HASSELBLAD V-mount C-series DISTAGON 50mm is available in three types on the used market: silver without T, silver with T, and black with T. The lens configuration of 7 elements in 7 groups has not changed since the old lens without T coating.

The CFi and ZV lenses released after the DISTAGON 50mm CF released in 1982 have a lens configuration of 9 elements in 8 groups.
The old DISTAGON 50mm is good enough for medium-format digital sensors, so I’m interested to see what has been improved.

The Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 4/50 ZV Classic [DISTAGON 50mm/F4.0 ZV (Hasselblad) mount], which is thought to be manufactured by COSINA, has the same lens configuration as the DISTAGON 50mm CF and CFi.
The ZV series was released in 2008, but was not very highly rated in the market until it went on sale around 2010, and sold very little until it went on sale. However, perhaps due to its striking silver appearance, it is currently being sold at a premium price in 2025.

The wide-angle 50mm lens is particularly popular. The ZV series was released in 50mm, 120mm, and 180mm, but the Planar 80mm was not in the lineup. I don’t know why it was removed from the lineup, but if there had been a Planar 80mm with the same design as the other ZV Classic series, the sales of the ZV series might have changed.

The figure below is quoted from the CARL ZEISS lens database. The figure of the C DISTAGON 50mm has been revised because the PDF was rough. The lens size and position are approximate, so it is not a strict comparison.

Before imageAfter image
ItemD50-CD50-ZV
focal length(mm)5050
Maximum aperture44
Minimum aperture2232
Lens configuration7 elements in 7 groups9 elements in 8 groups
Leaf blade55
Minimum distance(m)0.50.5
Lens length(mm)10092.3
Lens max diameter(mm)7880
Filter type6767
Weight(g)885790
HoodHassel lens hood (63) screw-in 67mm For C-50mm to 60mm Distagon lensesDedicated bayonet hood
Lens mountHASSELBLAD-VHASSELBLAD-V
Release date?2010~
Production numbers–

Reference links

Update history

  • 2025.03.15

Affiliate links



Leave a Reply

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

CAPTCHA