I love the Schneider Xenon lens on my Retina IIc so when I came across this article My Favorite Lenses – Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f1.9 DKL on the Lens Bubbles site it was something I started keep my eye open for. Eventually I found this one at a reasonable prize and picked up a DKL-Sony E mount adapter (so that I could use it on my Sony NEX 5n).

It’s a fairly low contrast lens, with the kind of color rendition I liked from my Retina IIc. It’s also a solid, well built and rather heavy piece of equipment and of course the adapter adds a fair bit to the size (in the picture the silver part is the lens, and the black part the adapter).

I must admit that I found it rather frustrating at first. I had some difficulty getting it to focus correctly. With these adapted vintage lenses I usually focus wide open and use focusing aids such as focus peaking and focus magnification. That didn’t seem to work with this one and I suspect that it’s because of its low contrast nature. Instead I had to stop the lens down, focus and then return to whatever aperture I needed.

It’s certainly a very sharp lens, even wide open.

One interesting feature is the red “ears”, which move as you change aperture to indicate depth of field.

Incipient blackberries.

Clematis

Planters in our garden.

One other post also featured this lens: Chimney in the Woods.