Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Tele-Xenar MF 150mm f/4 (Exakta 66)

Schneider-Kreuznach · Pentacon Six · 1984

Also known as: Tele-Xenar 150 · Tele-Xenar 150mm · Tele-Xenar MF 150 · Tele-Xenar MF 4/150 · Tele-Xenar MF 4,0/150 · Tele-Xenar 4/150 · Tele-Xenar 4.0/150 · Tele-Xenar 150mm f/4 · Tele Xenar 150mm f4 · MC Tele-Xenar 150mm · Schneider Tele-Xenar 150mm f4 Exakta 66 · Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 150mm f/4 Exakta 66 · Schneider Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 4/150 Exakta 66 · Tele-Xenar 4/150 Exakta 66 · Tele-Xenar 150mm Exakta 66 · Tele-Xenar 150mm f4 Pentacon Six · Tele-Xenar 150mm f4 Pentacon 6 · Tele-Xenar 150mm P6 · Exakta 66 Tele-Xenar 150mm · Schneider 150mm f4 Exakta 66 · シュナイダー テレクセナー 150mm F4 エキザクタ66

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Tele-Xenar MF 4/150, Exakta 66 mount Pentacon Six — 14 millions (Schneider's own sequence for lenses made from October 1983 to January 2002, as pentaconsix.com reads it); no Tele-Xenar 150 serials have been published 547 (camera-wiki's Exakta 66 lens table, no source given)
  1. Specifications: 29.5° angle of view, 1.5 m, M67 × 0.75, 84 × 101 mm, 760 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 all the lenses he has (in his test he gives 760 g 'according to the literature'). Camera-wiki's table gives the same 67 mm filter, 101/84 mm, 1.5 m and 760 g, and adds 5 elements in 5 groups and a production of 547. No source consulted gives the smallest aperture or the number of diaphragm blades.
  2. Dates: camera-wiki and pentaconsix.com have the Exakta 66 and its lenses announced at Photokina in 1984 and the camera on sale from 1986; Zach Horton gives the Schneider Exakta 66 lenses a run from 1985 to 2000. The family year is the announcement. The lens was on offer in January 1988 (Foto Oehling) and new in 1999 (Roskam Optics).
  3. Not on this page: the Schneider Tele-Xenar 150mm f/4 for the Rollei 6000 system. Its manual PQ and PQS lens has 5 elements in 3 groups (rolleigraphy.eu); the autofocus lens of about 2005 has 5 in 5, like this one, but is 95 × 114 mm and 890 g (Wikipedia), with a leaf shutter in the lens driven by the body through ten contacts. No Schneider document has been found that ties either to this lens, so they are kept apart.
  4. Price: the Foto Oehling quotation of 11 January 1988 lists the Schneider range net of VAT and shipping, from DM 625 for the Xenotar MF 80 to DM 6,890 for the PCS Super-Angulon 55, with the Tele-Xenar 250 at DM 2,034, the 2× converter at DM 1,620, the TTL prism at DM 895 and the Exakta 66 body with waist-level finder, magnifier and screen at DM 973; pentaconsix.com reproduces the letter and notes that 3.15 DM bought £1 at the time. Roskam Optics' 1999 tax-free price list, sent to an American buyer who forwarded it to Robert Monaghan for his medium-format archive, has the '4.0/150 Schneider' at US$825 against US$250 for the 'Arsat' 2.8/150 and US$400 for the Zeiss 2.8/180. No maker's list price is known.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Exakta 66 (1984) breech-lock, the Pentacon Six mount: the Ihagee medium-format Exaktas of 1939 and about 1954 are unrelated cameras whose lenses do not fit the Pentacon Six (pentaconsix.com)
  • Schneider's Exakta 66 range had one 150mm lens (pentaconsix.com). A 150mm f/2.8 in the same mount marked Kaleinar or Arsat is the Arsenal lens; a Tele-Xenar 150 marked HFT, PQ or PQS, with a Rollei bayonet, is the Rollei 6000 lens

Tele-Xenar MF 4/150, Exakta 66 mount:

  • Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar of 150 mm and f/4 in the Pentacon Six breech-lock, catalogued as 'Tele-Xenar MF' (pentaconsix.com's table, from the Exakta 66 brochure of about 1984; Foto Oehling's 1988 quotation). TRA notes that the Variogons he has seen in this mount are engraved 'M', not 'MF', so the name ring may not match the catalogue name exactly
  • Small for a 6×6 telephoto: 84 mm across, 101 mm long, 760 g, 67 mm filter thread, focusing to 1.5 m (pentaconsix.com's Schneider data table). The Arsenal Kaleinar-3B 150mm f/2.8 in the same mount takes 82 mm filters and weighs about 1,100 g 'according to the literature' (pentaconsix.com 150-180mm test); the Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180 takes 86 mm (Zach Horton)
  • Styled like the other Schneider Exakta 66 lenses: rubber-covered barrel with a blue ring, and a depth-of-field preview lever at the bottom front; the original hood snaps onto a bayonet at the front (Zach Horton)
  • Couples to the Exakta 66 TTL metering prism, which reads the aperture only from the Schneider lenses (pentaconsix.com)

Specifications

Formula
Tele-Xenar (Schneider's telephoto name): 5 elements in 5 groups (camera-wiki's Exakta 66 lens table, which alone gives the construction)
Construction
5 elements / 5 groups
Aperture range
f/4
Min. focus
1.5 m
Dimensions
84 × 101 mm
Weight
760 g
Filter
67 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Country
West Germany (Bad Kreuznach)
Original price
DM 1,710 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). In 1999 the Dutch dealer Roskam Optics offered the '4.0/150 Schneider' new at US$825 tax-free, also a dealer price.

What reviewers say

History

The Tele-Xenar MF 4/150 is the short telephoto among the Schneider-Kreuznach lenses made for the Exakta 66, the West German 6×6 SLR that Beroflex’s Heinrich Mandermann had developed from the Dresden Pentacon Six, using its chassis and some of its parts, and that was announced at Photokina in 1984. Schneider announced it with the camera, and it fits the Pentacon Six breech-lock mount. It is small for a 6×6 lens of its focal length: 84 mm across, 101 mm long and 760 g, with a 67 mm filter thread, the same thread as the Curtagon 60, the Xenotar MF 80 and the Tele-Xenar 250. It focuses to 1.5 m. Camera-wiki’s lens table gives it five elements in five groups and puts production at 547, without saying where the figure comes from. Like the other Schneider lenses for the camera, it couples to the Exakta 66 metering prism, which pentaconsix.com says reads the aperture from the Schneider lenses only. It fits a Pentacon Six or a Kiev body, but there the coupling has no use.

It was not cheap. In January 1988 the Mainz dealer Foto Oehling quoted DM 1,710 for it, before VAT and shipping, when the Exakta 66 body with its waist-level finder was DM 973; that is a dealer’s quotation, not Schneider’s list price. In 1999 the Dutch dealer Roskam Optics still listed it new at US$825 tax-free, more than three times its price for the Arsenal 150mm f/2.8 in the same mount and twice that for the Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180.

The two published assessments agree on its quality. TRA of pentaconsix.com found it acceptably sharp to the edge of the frame at f/4 and clearly better at f/11, and at f/11 slightly sharper than the Variogon 75-150 zoom at 150mm. The Arsenal Kaleinar 150 was quite soft at f/2.8, but from f/5.6 it looked as sharp to him as the Tele-Xenar at f/4, and at f/11 he could not tell them apart. Zach Horton ranks it among the really excellent Pentacon Six lenses and prefers it to the Sonnar 180 for travel, because it is much smaller and lighter and takes 67 mm filters where the Sonnar needs 86 mm. He still thinks the Sonnar the better lens if its size can be borne, and notes that it is the cheaper of the two. Both are users’ reports from their own copies, not bench measurements. The trade-off at f/4 is a viewfinder image half as bright as with an f/2.8 lens.

When buying, check the mount first. This is the 1984 Exakta 66 bayonet, which is the Pentacon Six breech-lock; lenses for the earlier Ihagee medium-format Exaktas of 1939 and about 1954 are a different system. A 150mm f/2.8 in the same mount marked Kaleinar or Arsat is the far cheaper Arsenal lens. A Tele-Xenar 150 marked HFT, PQ or PQS, with a shutter in the lens and a Rollei bayonet, is the Rollei 6000 lens. Schneider lenses made between late 1983 and early 2002 carry eight-digit serials in the 14 millions, so a serial of that form fits Schneider manufacture; TRA uses the five-digit serial of the Biometar-based 80mm to show that lens was not Schneider-made. Check that the automatic diaphragm closes briskly, and ask whether the lens shade is included: TRA’s copy came with one, and Zach Horton found the original snap-on hoods for these lenses no longer to be had.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Tele-Xenar MF 150mm f/4 (Exakta 66)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $180 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half $150–$190). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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

Related: Tele-Xenar 150mm f/4 (6000)

Sources (8)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.