Rollei Planar 80mm HFT (L39)

Review and Photo example of the Planar 80mm F2.8 (L39 Screw mount).

Gallery

Planar 80mm F2.8 Photo example (with Kodak DCS-Pro/SLR n)

Review

Planar 80mm F2.8 is a medium telephoto lens released in 2003 along with Rollei 35 RF (COSINA-OEM) and Sonnar 40mm F2.8.
This lens is made so that the helicoid and lens parts can be separated, and in addition to the included Leica screw L39 mount, a helicoid for Nikon F mount has been released. When attached to the Leica screw L39 mount, the lens has a straight barrel with a tapered tip that resembles a cannonball, and it has no distinctive features and does not arouse the desire to own it.
Nikon’s F-mount Helicoid is only available in black, so when combined with a lens with a silver barrel, it gives a different impression.

PLANAR 80mm is a lens that is a little difficult to use with a rangefinder camera when the aperture is wide open due to the focus accuracy due to the coincidence of double images. I got a helicoid for the Nikon-F mount and started using it properly with the KODAK DCS Pro/n, but I couldn’t overcome the negatives of the minimum shooting distance of 1.2m and ended up selling it. If this could get closer to 0.8m, I think it would have been a little more useful. There is a way to add an extension tube, but I would like to avoid that for operational convenience.
The image quality is solid from the wide open aperture of F2.8, and the blur in the front and back is smooth and not unpleasant.
The overall impression is that it is a modern lens that takes good pictures, and although I have only used it for a short period of time, I was not surprised by the results.

The Rollei 35RF is simply a modified Cosina Bessa, and most of the 40mm/80mm lens parts that were provided at the same time were also provided by COSINA. The exterior of the PLANAR 80mm says “Made in Germany”, so it is assumed that the final assembly was done in Germany. The separately sold helicoid for Nikon-F is labeled “Made in Japan”, so it is thought to be manufactured by Cosina.
As a side note, the spool of my Rollei 35RF broke when I was winding the film.

When this lens was released in 2003, film was the mainstream for rangefinder cameras, and used L/M mount medium telephoto lenses such as the Summicorm 90mm and SUMMILUX 75mm were sold for about half the price of new ones. In that market, Rollei’s brand power did not make it a very popular lens, so I bought a new one from Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku in the 2010s when it was out of stock.

I bought it at the lowest price and sold it for twice that price, so I have relatively few regrets about letting it go. If I owned it, I would have liked to compare it with the Zeiss Planar 80mm using the X1D.
If you try to get one now, the used price seems a little too high. If a rich person wanted one, they would probably buy it, but considering the specs and performance of the lens, I don’t think it’s worth paying that much for.
I once saw a Rollei SLX Planar 80mm modified to an EOS mount, but I couldn’t buy it at the time, and it’s still one of the lenses I’d like to use.

Specification

Item	Value	note
focal length(mm)	80
Maximum aperture	2.8
Minimum aperture	2
Lens configuration	4groups 5elements
Minimum distance(m)	1.2
Lens length(mm)	77.4	90mm(with hood)
Lens max diameter(mm)	55
Filter diameter(mm)	43
Weight(g)	470