Curtagon MF 60mm f/3.5 (Exakta 66)

Schneider-Kreuznach · Pentacon Six · 1984

Also known as: Curtagon MF 60 · Curtagon MF 3,5/60 · Curtagon MF 3.5/60 · Curtagon MF 60mm f/3.5 · MC Curtagon 60mm · Schneider Curtagon 60mm f3.5 Exakta 66 · Schneider-Kreuznach Curtagon 60mm f/3.5 Exakta 66 · Schneider Kreuznach Curtagon 3.5/60 Exakta 66 · Curtagon 60mm f3.5 Exakta 66 · Curtagon 3,5/60 Exakta 66 · Curtagon 60mm Exakta 66 · Curtagon 60mm f3.5 Pentacon Six · Curtagon 60mm f3.5 Pentacon 6 · Curtagon 60mm P6 · Exakta 66 Curtagon 60mm · シュナイダークルタゴン MF 60mm F3.5 エキザクタ66

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Curtagon MF 3,5/60, Exakta 66 mount	Pentacon Six	1984	14 millions: Schneider's own serial list, as pentaconsix.com reads it, puts every Schneider lens made from October 1983 to January 2002 (the last month it covers) in the 14 millions, and TRA reports all his Schneider lenses for the Exakta 66 in that range; no individual Curtagon 60 serial has been published	615 (camera-wiki's Exakta 66 lens table, marked 'uncertain', no source given)

Specifications: 66.5° angle of view, 0.6 m, M67 × 0.75, 81 × 84 mm, 570 g in pentaconsix.com's Schneider data table, whose author says the figures come from published sources and that he has not weighed or measured every lens. Camera-wiki's table gives the same 67 mm filter, 0.6 m and 570 g, and adds 7 elements in 7 groups and a production of 615, the last marked 'uncertain' with no source cited. Its two size figures are the same numbers the other way round: 81 mm overall length and 84 mm diameter, against pentaconsix.com's 81 mm diameter and 84 mm length. The diameter and length fields here follow pentaconsix.com.
Not on this page: the Schneider Curtagon 3.5/60 HFT PQ for the Rollei 6000 system. The published figures agree (7 elements in 7 groups, 0.6 m, about 67°), but the Rollei lens has a built-in leaf shutter and Bay VI filters, no weight for it has been published, and no Schneider document has been found that ties the two to one optical calculation, so they are kept on separate pages.
Not on this page: the Curtagon MF 4/40, the wider lens announced for the Exakta 66 (9 elements in 8 groups and 700 g in camera-wiki's table). Exakta Foto promised it for early 1987 and told pentaconsix.com in March 1989 that it had not yet been produced; Schneider told him in April 1989 that the Photokina sample was a non-working one, and the lens was gone from the January 1990 brochure. Dealers priced it all the same: DM 2,502 net in Foto Oehling's quotation of January 1988, and US$7,950 on Cambridge Camera Exchange's web page in the late 1990s. TRA doubts it entered series production; the one he owns came in a Compur shutter and was converted to Exakta 66 mount for him by two repairers.
Price: the Foto Oehling quotation of 11 January 1988 lists the Schneider range net of VAT, from DM 625 for the Xenotar MF 2.8/80 to DM 6,890 for the PCS Super-Angulon 55 (the 2× converter DM 1,620); pentaconsix.com reproduces the letter and notes that 3.15 DM bought £1 at the time. No maker's list price has been found.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Exakta 66 (1984) breech-lock, the Pentacon Six mount: the earlier Ihagee Dresden roll-film Exakta 66 and Exakta 6×6 are unrelated cameras (camera-wiki) and their lenses do not fit
Schneider made only one Curtagon 60 in this mount; a Curtagon 60 marked HFT or PQ, with a shutter and a ten-contact bayonet, is the Rollei 6000 lens

Curtagon MF 3,5/60, Exakta 66 mount:

Schneider-Kreuznach Curtagon of 60 mm and f/3.5 in the Pentacon Six breech-lock; 'MF' in the name as the 1984 Exakta 66 brochure gives it (pentaconsix.com, whose table takes the designations from that brochure)
Compact for a 6×6 wide-angle: 81 mm across, 84 mm long, 570 g, 67 mm filter thread, focusing to 0.6 m (pentaconsix.com's Schneider data table). The Flektogon 50 takes 86 mm filters and the Mir-26 82 mm
Wide sliding black stop-down bar under the lens, which pentaconsix.com describes as common to the Schneider lenses for the Exakta 66; the Zeiss Jena Biometar has a tiny silver lever instead

Curtagon MF 3,5/60, Exakta 66 mount: The only version recorded. It is listed in the first Exakta 66 brochure of about 1984 and was offered by a German dealer in January 1988 (pentaconsix.com). Like the other Schneider lenses for the camera it passes its aperture setting to the Exakta 66 metering prism. The Exakta 66 uses the Praktisix mount (camera-wiki), so the lens also fits Pentacon Six and Kiev breech-lock bodies, where the aperture coupling has nothing to work with.

Specifications

Formula: Curtagon (Schneider's retrofocus wide-angle name): 7 elements in 7 groups (camera-wiki's Exakta 66 lens table)
Construction: 7 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range: f/3.5
Min. focus: 0.6 m
Dimensions: 81 × 84 mm
Weight: 570 g
Filter: 67 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured: 1984
Country: Germany
Coating: Multicoated (TRA lists his copy as the 'MC Curtagon')
Original price: DM 1,791 net, without VAT or shipping: a dealer quotation, not a list price (Foto Oehling, Mainz, offer of 11 January 1988 to a customer in England, warning that the maker's new prices due at the end of February 1988 would be higher)

What reviewers say

Zach Horton (Convergence), 'The Pentacon 6 Lens Hit List' (blog) — Puts it in his top 'World Class' tier as the best wide-angle for the Pentacon Six and perhaps for any 6×6 camera: a large image circle with excellent edges at every aperture, in a body much smaller than the Flektogon 50 and on 67 mm filters; both his copies were equally good.
TRA (The Pentacon Six System), wide-angle comparative test (blog) — Sharp and contrasty at f/11, but at f/3.5 less sharp and less contrasty than the 50mm Flektogon at f/4; the Mir-38B 65mm matched it at f/11 in his town-square test.

History

The Curtagon MF 3,5/60 is the Schneider-Kreuznach wide-angle of the Exakta 66, the West German 6×6 SLR built on the Pentacon Six chassis and shown at Photokina in 1984. It was in the first Exakta 66 brochure. Zach Horton calls it Schneider’s widest lens for the format, since the announced Curtagon 40 probably never entered series production; the 55mm PCS Super-Angulon shift lens has the wider angle of view, but among the ordinary lenses the 60 is the widest. An Exakta 66 advertisement of 1990 gives the Schneider range as 60 to 280mm. It is a seven-element, seven-group retrofocus lens in the Pentacon Six breech-lock mount. It is small for a 6×6 wide-angle: 81 mm across, 84 mm long and 570 g by pentaconsix.com’s table (camera-wiki gives the two dimensions the other way round), with a 67 mm filter thread and a closest focus of 0.6 m. Like the other Schneider lenses for the camera, it passes its aperture setting to the Exakta 66 metering prism. Because the Exakta 66 kept the Praktisix mount, the lens also fits Pentacon Six and Kiev breech-lock bodies, which have no use for that coupling.

It was expensive and it is scarce. In January 1988 the Mainz dealer Foto Oehling quoted DM 1,791 for it, before VAT and shipping. On the same letter the Exakta 66 body with its waist-level finder was DM 973. Camera-wiki’s lens table gives 615 made, but marks the figure uncertain and cites no source. A Pentacon GmbH brochure of 2002 still showed it, fitted to the firm’s scan 3000 film scanner. Schneider also made a Curtagon 3.5/60 for the Rollei 6000 system. That lens has a built-in shutter and Rollei’s electronic bayonet. Its published element count and close focus match this one, but no Schneider document has been found that shows the two share one design, so it has its own page.

Opinions on the optics differ. Zach Horton ranks it the best wide-angle in the Pentacon Six system, sharp to the edges at every aperture. TRA of pentaconsix.com found it sharp and contrasty at f/11, but less sharp than the Zeiss Jena Flektogon 50 when both were wide open. At f/11 he found the Arsenal Mir-38B 65 at least as good, possibly a hint better, though he allowed the difference might be down to the lab. Neither verdict comes from a bench test: TRA photographed the same town square with each lens, and Horton writes from use of his two copies. The cheaper rival lenses are larger: the Flektogon takes 86 mm filters and the Mir-26 45mm 82 mm.

When buying, check the mount first. This is the 1984 Exakta 66 bayonet, which is the Pentacon Six breech-lock. It has nothing to do with the earlier Ihagee Dresden roll-film Exakta 66, and a Curtagon 60 marked HFT or PQ is the Rollei lens. Schneider’s own serial list puts every lens it made from October 1983 to at least January 2002 in the 14 millions, so a serial of 14 and six more digits is what a genuine Exakta 66 Curtagon should carry. Because so few were made, ask for photographs of the front engraving and of the rear of the lens. Check that the black stop-down bar and the automatic diaphragm work, since the Exakta 66 meter relies on the lens’s aperture coupling.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Curtagon MF 60mm f/3.5 (Exakta 66)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Schneider Kreuznach- Curtagon MF 3.5/60mm MC S "1a Zustand/ Exakta 66" - TOP — €1,299.00 · eBay · likely mf
[ Near MINT- ] Schneider Kreuznach Curtagon MF 60mm f/3.5 S Lens from JAPAN — $1,499.90 · eBay · likely mf
Schneider Curtagon MF 60mm f3.5 MC S Objektiv Exakta 66 mount 98033 near mint — €1,550.00 · eBay · likely mf
Schneider Kreuznach Curtagon MF 3.5/60mm Multicoating S Wide Angle for Exakta 66 — $2,599.00 · eBay · likely mf

Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.