Tele-Xenar MF 250mm f/5.6 (Exakta 66)

Schneider-Kreuznach · Pentacon Six · 1984

Also known as: Tele-Xenar 250 · Tele-Xenar 250mm · Tele-Xenar MF 250 · Tele-Xenar MF 5,6/250 · Tele-Xenar MF 5.6/250 · Tele-Xenar 5.6/250 · Tele-Xenar 5,6/250 · Tele-Xenar 250mm f/5.6 · Tele Xenar 250mm f5.6 · MC Tele-Xenar 250mm · Schneider Tele-Xenar 250mm f5.6 Exakta 66 · Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 250mm f/5.6 Exakta 66 · Schneider Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 5.6/250 Exakta 66 · Tele-Xenar 250mm Exakta 66 · Tele-Xenar 250mm f5.6 Pentacon Six · Tele-Xenar 250mm f5.6 Pentacon 6 · Tele-Xenar 250mm P6 · Exakta 66 Tele-Xenar 250mm · Schneider 250mm f5.6 Exakta 66 · シュナイダーテレクセナー 250mm F5.6 エキザクタ66

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Tele-Xenar MF 5,6/250, 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 250 serials have been published	—

Specifications: 18° angle of view, 3.0 m, M67 × 0.75, 84 × 168 mm, 900 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, 84/168 mm, 3 m and 900 g, and adds 5 elements in 4 groups.
Production: no figure has been published for this lens. Camera-wiki's table gives 105 for the Variogon 140-280 and marks that figure uncertain, with the note 'serial group shared with 250mm f/5.6', so the zoom and this lens seem to have been numbered in one batch. It does not say how the batch divides.
Price: the Foto Oehling quotation of 11 January 1988 lists the body and the Schneider lenses and accessories net of VAT, the lenses from DM 625 for the Xenotar MF 80 to DM 6,890 for the PCS Super-Angulon 55, with the 2× converter at DM 1,620; pentaconsix.com reproduces the letter and notes that 3.15 DM bought £1 at the time. Roskam Optics' 1999 tax-free price list, forwarded to Robert Monaghan in March 1999 and archived on his site, has the 'Schneider 5.6/250' at US$995 against US$220 for the Arsat 5.6/250. No maker's list price has been found.
Not on this page: Schneider's Tele-Xenar lenses for large-format shutters (Compur, Copal) and for the Rollei 6000 cameras. No source found compares their optics with this lens.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Exakta 66 (1984) breech-lock, the Pentacon Six mount: lenses for the earlier Ihagee medium-format Exaktas of 1939 and about 1954 do not fit the Pentacon Six (pentaconsix.com)
Schneider made only one 250mm lens for the Exakta 66. A 250mm f/5.6 in the same mount marked Telear or Arsat is the Arsenal lens; a 250mm f/3.5 is normally the Jupiter-36B, but TRA's Telear/Arsat f/5.6 has a name ring that wrongly reads 1:3.5 (pentaconsix.com)

Tele-Xenar MF 5,6/250, Exakta 66 mount:

Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar of 250 mm and f/5.6 in the Pentacon Six breech-lock. 'Tele-Xenar MF' is the name in Foto Oehling's 1988 quotation and in pentaconsix.com's table, whose author says the table's designations come from the original Exakta 66 brochure of about 1984 and that the revised brochure of about 1990 gives no letter; he calls his own copy the 'MC Tele-Xenar'. How the name ring of this lens is engraved has not been confirmed from a photograph
Slim for its focal length: 84 mm across, 168 mm long, 900 g, 67 mm filter thread, focusing to 3 m (pentaconsix.com's Schneider data table). The Arsenal Jupiter-36B 250mm f/3.5 is far heavier and takes much larger filters (pentaconsix.com)
Aperture ring turns with the largest aperture on the left as seen from above the camera, like every Schneider Exakta 66 lens; Carl Zeiss Jena Pentacon Six lenses turn the other way (pentaconsix.com)

Tele-Xenar MF 5,6/250, Exakta 66 mount: The only version recorded. Schneider announced it for the Exakta 66 and the 1986 colour brochure listed it, but TRA of pentaconsix.com notes it was not ready when the brochure's photographs were taken, so when it first reached the shops is not known. It was on a German dealer's price list in January 1988 and still offered new by a Dutch dealer in 1999. Like the other Schneider lenses for the camera, it passes its aperture setting to the Exakta 66 metering prism, and like the other Exakta 66 lenses it can also be used on the Pentacon Six.

Specifications

Formula: Tele-Xenar (Schneider's telephoto name): 5 elements in 4 groups (camera-wiki's Exakta 66 lens table)
Construction: 5 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range: f/5.6
Min. focus: 3 m
Dimensions: 84 × 168 mm
Weight: 900 g
Filter: 67 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Country: West Germany (Bad Kreuznach)
Coating: Multicoated (TRA lists his copy as the 'MC Tele-Xenar')
Original price: DM 2,034 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 it new at US$995 tax-free, also a dealer price.

What reviewers say

TRA (The Pentacon Six System), 240-300mm comparative test (blog) — The sharpest 250mm lens in his test: clearly sharper across the whole frame than the Hasselblad-mount Zeiss Sonnar 250 at f/5.6 and still well ahead at f/11, with the Jupiter-36B a poor third; the Variogon 140-280 at 280mm comes very close. The price is a dim finder image, about a third as bright as the f/3.5 Jupiter's.

History

The Tele-Xenar MF 5,6/250 is the longest Schneider-Kreuznach prime lens made for the Exakta 66. The Exakta 66 was a West German 6×6 SLR built on the Pentacon Six chassis and shown at Photokina in 1984. Schneider announced the lens with the camera and the 1986 colour brochure listed it, but TRA of pentaconsix.com notes that it was not ready when the brochure’s photographs were taken, so its first delivery date is not known. It has five elements in four groups and fits the Pentacon Six breech-lock mount. For its focal length it is slim: 84 mm across (the same as the Tele-Xenar 150 and the Xenotar MF 80), 168 mm long and 900 g, with a 67 mm filter thread. It focuses to 3 m. Like the other Schneider lenses for the camera, it passes its aperture setting to the Exakta 66 metering prism. Like the other Exakta 66 lenses, it can also be used on the Pentacon Six.

It was expensive, and probably few were made. In January 1988 the Mainz dealer Foto Oehling quoted DM 2,034 for it, before VAT, when the Exakta 66 body with its waist-level finder was DM 973. In 1999 a Dutch dealer still offered it new at US$995, more than four times the price of the Arsenal 250mm f/5.6 in the same mount. No production figure has been published. Camera-wiki’s lens table says the Variogon 140-280 zoom shared a serial batch with this lens, and gives 105 for the zoom, marked uncertain.

TRA’s comparative test is the one published assessment. Of the 250mm lenses he compared, the Tele-Xenar was the sharpest. It was clearly sharper across the frame at f/5.6 than a Zeiss Oberkochen Sonnar 250 in Hasselblad mount, and still ahead at f/11. The Arsenal Jupiter-36B 250mm f/3.5 came a poor third. The Variogon zoom at 280mm came within a whisker of it. The cost of the small aperture is a dim viewfinder, about a third as bright as the Jupiter’s. TRA notes that with a 2× converter it becomes a much dimmer 500mm f/11, especially on the standard Pentacon Six or Exakta 66 screen, and that a Rollei screen slightly more than doubles the brightness. The test is of one copy, photographing the same town square with each lens, not a bench measurement.

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 250mm f/5.6 marked Telear or Arsat in the same mount is the far cheaper Arsenal lens (TRA’s has a name ring that wrongly reads 1:3.5), and a Tele-Xenar in a Compur or Copal shutter is a large-format 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, though it does not date the lens within those years. Check that the automatic diaphragm closes briskly and that the aperture ring turns the Schneider way, with the largest aperture on the left as seen from above the camera.

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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

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Tele-Xenar MF 250mm f/5.6 (Exakta 66)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Schneider Kreuznach Tele Xenar MF 5.6/250mm f/5.6 Multicoating S for Exakta 66 — $1,499.00 · eBay · likely mf
Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar MF 250mm f5.6 EXAKTA66 [Mint Boxed] #Y3 — $1,599.00 · eBay · likely mf

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