Planar 110mm f/2 (6000)
Carl Zeiss · Rollei 6000 · 2003
Also known as: Rollei Planar 110mm f/2 HFT PQ · Rollei 110mm f2 Planar PQ · Rolleiflex 110mm f/2 Planar HFT · Zeiss Planar 110mm F2 Rollei 6008 · Planar 2/110 HFT PQ · Rollei Planar 2/110 · Carl Zeiss Planar HFT 110mm f2 Rolleiflex 6000 · Rollei 6008 110mm f/2 · ローライ プラナー 110mm F2 HFT PQ · ローライフレックス 6008 プラナー 110mm F2 · ローライ 110mm F2 PQ
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planar 110 mm f/2 HFT PQ (order no. 86 674) | Rollei 6000 | 2003 | — | Not published by any source consulted |
- Date. No source gives an introduction year. The lens is absent from Rollei's 6008 professional SRC 1000 brochure of January 1993, whose lens table runs from the F-Distagon 30 to the Tele-Tessar 1000 and lists the Xenotar 80 mm f/2 and Tele-Xenar 180 mm f/2.8 as the fast lenses, and from Greenspun's 1997 account of the line; it is in Rollei's lens brochure printed in May 2003 and on rolleigraphy.eu's PQ list, and Japanese Wikipedia lists it among the PQ lenses without the 1998 camera-yearbook reference it attaches to its neighbours. The year given is therefore 'documented by 2003', and the lens was most likely introduced in the second half of the 1990s.
- Construction. Rollei's 2003 table, rolleigraphy.eu and the English Wikipedia list all give 7 elements in 6 groups, which is also what Zeiss's own data sheet gives for the Hasselblad Planar T* 2/110 F of the same design. Japanese Wikipedia gives 5群7枚, seven elements in five groups, without a reference; Zeiss's later FE data sheet for the Hasselblad lens (Cat. No. 102150 successor sheet, hasselbladhistorical.eu) prints 'Number of elements 7, Number of groups 5' for the same glass, so the two counts describe one design. The table follows the maker.
- Weight and size. 1295 g, 104 mm across and 95 mm long are Rollei's figures (2003 table), repeated by Wikipedia. Zeiss's Hasselblad F lens, the same optics without a shutter, is about 750 g (Zeiss data sheet); the extra half-kilogram is the Rollei shutter, diaphragm motors and electronics.
- Price. No list price has been found in any currency. For the scale of the Rollei premium on Zeiss designs, Greenspun compared B&H's July 1995 prices: the Distagon 60 mm f/3.5 at $2,200 for Hasselblad and $3,650 in Rollei mount, the 40 mm about $2,000 dearer and the 250 mm $1,000 dearer.
- Blades. Not published by Rollei or by any other source consulted. The diaphragm is set by a linear motor in 1/3-stop steps (Rollei 2003 brochure).
How to tell them apart
- A Rollei 6000 lens, not a Hasselblad one: it has a leaf shutter and ten contacts in the bayonet and reads Planar HFT, where the Hasselblad Planar 2/110 is marked Carl Zeiss, T*, has no shutter and weighs about 750 g (Zeiss data sheet; rolleigraphy.eu)
- Order number 86 674 (Rollei 2003 brochure); the heaviest of the system's short telephotos at 1295 g, against 890 g for the Sonnar 150 mm f/4 (Rollei 2003 table)
- Filters are M95 × 1 and the hood mounts on a 104 mm bayonet, shared only with the Tele-Xenar 180 mm f/2.8 among the primes; no Bayonet VI (rolleigraphy.eu)
- Fits every body from the SLX to the Hy6, but the SLX, 6006 and 6002 use it in shutter-priority and manual modes only and the Hy6 in manual focus only; the 6008, 6003 and 6001 get all its modes (Wikipedia compatibility table)
Planar 110 mm f/2 HFT PQ (order no. 86 674):
- Engraved Planar HFT 2/110 without the Carl Zeiss name: Zeiss designs built by Rollei carry the design name only (rolleigraphy.eu)
- 'PQ lens' engraved or printed to the right of the aperture numbers; the aperture ring runs 2 to 16 and carries an A position for the body's automatic modes (rolleigraphy.eu; Rollei 2003 table)
- The front is 104 mm across with an M95 × 1 filter thread inside a 104 mm bayonet for the hood, the same Bayonet VIII mount as the Tele-Xenar 180 mm f/2.8; Bayonet VI filters of the other Zeiss lenses do not fit (Rollei 2003 table; rolleigraphy.eu)
- Ten gold-plated contacts in the bayonet and no shutter-speed ring or cocking lever: the body sets the shutter in the lens (Rollei 2003 brochure)
- Planar 110 mm f/2 HFT PQ (order no. 86 674): The only version. Rollei listed it as a PQ lens with a top speed of 1/500 s and never as a PQS or an AF lens, and it sits in the 2003 brochure's section of 'ultra-fast PQ/PQS lenses by Zeiss and Schneider' next to the Xenotar 80 mm f/2 and the Tele-Xenar 180 mm f/2.8. Those three are the lenses whose shutter blades Rollei made of a carbon-fibre laminate, 60% lighter than steel, driven by linear motors with neodymium magnets, to keep 1/500 s behind an aperture of this size. The brochure's own summary: a high-speed lens for portraiture and news photography, with 'minimum distortion and high image quality even at maximum aperture and close up'.
Specifications
- Formula
- Planar, 7 elements in 6 groups (Rollei's 2003 lens table and rolleigraphy.eu; Japanese Wikipedia prints 5 groups for the same seven elements)
- Construction
- 7 elements / 6 groups
- Aperture range
- f/2–f/16
- Shutter
- Rollei direct-drive electronic leaf shutter in the lens, 30 s–1/500 s and B, timed and powered by the body through ten gold-plated contacts; carbon-fibre laminate blades (PQ)
- Min. focus
- 0.8 m
- Dimensions
- 104 × 95 mm
- Weight
- 1295 g
- Filter
- 95 mm, M95 × 1 screw-in filters; 104 mm Bayonet VIII on the front for the hood
- Years manufactured
- 2003
- Country
- Germany
- Coating
- HFT multicoating (Rollei's High Fidelity Transfer)
What reviewers say
- Lloyd Chambers (diglloyd), on a Rolleiflex Hy6 Mod2 with a Leaf Aptus-II 12 back (blog) — The free part of a paywalled aperture series shot on an 80-megapixel back: a creek scene at f/2.8 and the observation that on this format 'f/2 is like f/1.2 on a fullframe 35mm DSLR'. The sharpness verdicts frame by frame are behind the subscription.
History
The Planar 110 mm f/2 is Zeiss’s fast portrait lens of 1977, designed for the Hasselblad 2000FC and its focal-plane shutter, built by Rollei for the 6000 system with a leaf shutter inside. Zeiss’s own data sheet for the Hasselblad lens says why it could be so fast: with no shutter to design around, ‘the correction potential of this lens type at a focal length of 110 mm and a speed of f/2 could be fully used’. Rollei put the same seven elements in six groups behind its direct-drive shutter anyway. The 2003 brochure groups it with the Xenotar 80 mm f/2 and the Tele-Xenar 180 mm f/2.8 as the system’s ultra-fast lenses, the three for which Rollei replaced the steel shutter blades with a carbon-fibre laminate of 60% of the mass and drove them with neodymium-magnet linear motors to hold 1/500 s behind an opening this large. The result weighs 1,295 g against about 750 g for the shutterless Hasselblad lens, is 104 mm across and 95 mm long, focuses to 0.8 m, takes M95 × 1 filters, and carries a 104 mm bayonet for its hood, a mount it shares with the 180 mm. Rollei’s summary is a high-speed lens for portraiture and news photography with ‘minimum distortion and high image quality even at maximum aperture and close up’; order number 86 674.
When it arrived is not recorded. It is not in the January 1993 brochure for the 6008 professional SRC 1000, whose fast lenses are the Schneider 80 mm f/2 and 180 mm f/2.8, nor in Greenspun’s 1997 account of the Zeiss line for Rollei; it is in the May 2003 brochure and on rolleigraphy.eu’s PQ list. It exists in one version only, marked PQ, with a top speed of 1/500 s: there was never a PQS, AF or AFD 110, and the Japanese count of five groups for its seven elements is the same discrepancy Zeiss’s own later data sheet shows for the Hasselblad lens. As a PQ lens it fits every body of the system, with the SLX, 6006 and 6002 limited to shutter-priority and manual exposure and the Hy6 to manual focus. Like every 6000 lens it is Zeiss glass in a Rollei barrel: the ring reads Planar HFT, not Carl Zeiss.
No list price has been found. Greenspun’s July 1995 comparison of B&H prices gives the scale of the Rollei premium on Zeiss designs, the Distagon 60 at $2,200 for Hasselblad and $3,650 in Rollei mount, and the Schneider fast lenses at $4,500 to $6,500. Written reviews are scarce. The one found is Lloyd Chambers’s aperture series of April 2014 on a Hy6 Mod2 with an 80-megapixel Leaf back, of which only a creek at f/2.8 and the remark that f/2 here is ‘like f/1.2 on a fullframe 35mm DSLR’ are outside the paywall. The Hasselblad version of the same glass has the longer record, and its page is the place for the design’s rendering; on the Rollei the differences are the shutter, the weight, and the fact that on a 6008 the aperture is set by a motor in third-stops under the body’s control.
When buying, check the lens on a body: the shutter and diaphragm are driven by linear motors through the ten contacts, so a lens whose electronics have failed can neither fire nor be stopped down by hand, and the shutter’s top speed should be tested at 1/500. Filters are 95 mm, a size nothing else in the Zeiss line uses; the hood is the 104 mm bayonet hood of the 180 mm.
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
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Planar 110mm f/2 (6000)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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