Xenotar 80mm f/2 (6000)
Schneider-Kreuznach · Rollei 6000 · 1988 · Xenotar type, 7 elements in 5 groups
Also known as: Schneider-Kreuznach Xenotar 80mm f/2 HFT Rollei · Schneider Xenotar 2/80 HFT PQ · Rollei Xenotar 80mm F2 HFT PQ · Rolleiflex 6008 Xenotar 80mm f/2 · Rollei 6000 Xenotar 80mm 1:2 · Xenotar 1:2 f=80mm HFT · シュナイダー クセノター 80mm F2 HFT ローライ · ローライ クセノター 80mm F2 PQ · ローライフレックス 6008 クセノター 80mm F2
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xenotar 2/80 HFT PQ, order no. 87 612 | Rollei 6000 | 1988 | — | — |
- Construction, closest focus, size and weight (7 elements in 5 groups, 0.8 m, 97.3 × 100 mm, 960 g, f/2–16, 52°/38°) are from Rollei's 6000-System lens brochure of May 2003; the Wikipedia list gives 99.7 mm for the length and otherwise agrees, Rolleigraphy gives 7/5 and Bay VI, Japanese Wikipedia 5群7枚 and 0.8 m.
- Filter mount. Rollei's brochure, Rolleigraphy and the Wikipedia list give the Rollei size VI bayonet; Japanese Wikipedia gives a φ86 mm screw thread, and Greenspun in 1997 listed 'the super fast Schneider optics' among the lenses that do not take Bay VI filters. The maker's brochure is the better evidence, but a lens with an 86 mm thread and a Bay VI adapter ring would satisfy both.
- Date: PQ lenses date from the 6008 professional of 1988; the Xenotar 2/80 was on sale by July 1995, when Greenspun priced the fast Schneider lenses at B&H, and is in Rollei's May 2003 brochure. No introduction date has been found, so 1988 is the PQ line's year, not this lens's. Muth lists it among the system's lenses in 2021 without saying whether it was still made.
- Price: Greenspun gives $4,500 to $6,500 at B&H in 1995–97 for the three fast Schneider lenses (80/2, 180/2.8 and 300/4) together, without saying which was which. No list price found.
- Blades: not given by any source. Rollei's brochure says only that the shutter blades of the fast lenses are a carbon-fibre laminate and the linear motors use neodymium magnets.
- Converter: the Schneider Longar 1.4x (cat. 59 670) was computed for this lens, the Tele-Xenar 180/2.8 and the Apo-Tele-Xenar 300/4; it turns the Xenotar into a 112 mm f/2.8 with unchanged closest focus (Rollei brochure; Rolleigraphy).
How to tell them apart
- The largest standard lens of the system: 97 mm across, 100 mm long, 960 g, with a front element to match and an aperture scale from 2 to 16 (Rollei brochure)
- Not the Xenotar 2.8/80 in any of its forms (520–593 g, f/2.8–22), and not the Zeiss Planar 2/110 PQ, the system's other f/2 lens, which is 104 mm across with an M95 thread
- No PQS, AF or AFD version exists; a 'Xenotar 80mm f/2' listed as PQS or AF is a mislabelled 2.8
Xenotar 2/80 HFT PQ, order no. 87 612:
- Schneider-Kreuznach Xenotar 1:2 f=80mm HFT with 'PQ lens' by the aperture scale; catalogue number 87 612 (Rollei brochure 2003; Rolleigraphy)
- A 97 mm barrel, 100 mm long and 960 g: nearly twice the weight of the Planar 2.8/80 and a stop faster, with a scale ending at f/16 rather than f/22 (Rollei brochure)
- Xenotar 2/80 HFT PQ, order no. 87 612: The only version. Made in PQ form alone: Rollei's brochure explains that the oversize shutter opening of the fast lenses allows 1/500 s even with blades of carbon-fibre laminate at 60% of the mass of steel, and only the Super-Angulon 2.8/50 among them reached 1/1000 s. Works with every exposure mode on the 6008 and later bodies, with shutter priority and manual on the SLX, 6006 and 6002, and in manual focus on the Hy6.
Specifications
- Formula
- Xenotar type, 7 elements in 5 groups
- Construction
- 7 elements / 5 groups
- Aperture range
- f/2–f/16
- Shutter
- Electronically timed leaf shutter in the lens, linear-motor driven, with carbon-fibre laminate blades: 30 s–1/500 s; PQ only, never PQS
- Min. focus
- 0.8 m
- Dimensions
- 97.3 × 100 mm
- Weight
- 960 g
- Filter
- Rollei Bay VI (Rollei brochure, Rolleigraphy, Wikipedia); Japanese Wikipedia gives an 86 mm screw thread instead
- Years manufactured
- 1988
- Country
- Germany
- Coating
- Rollei HFT multicoating
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The Xenotar 2/80 is Schneider’s fast standard lens for the Rollei 6000 system, a stop faster than the Planar and Xenotar 2.8/80 standards and built on a different scale: 97 mm across, 100 mm long and 960 g, with an aperture scale that stops at f/16. Rollei’s 2003 brochure sells it on the brighter finder and the focusing accuracy that come with f/2 as much as on the light itself, and points out that the matched Longar 1.4x converter makes it a 112 mm f/2.8 with the same 0.8 m closest focus. Seven elements in five groups, HFT-coated, PQ electronics; catalogue number 87 612.
The speed shaped the shutter. A leaf shutter has to clear the whole beam at full aperture, and at f/2 on 6×6 the opening is large; Rollei’s answer, described in the brochure, was to make the blades of the fast lenses from a carbon-fibre laminate at 60% of the mass of steel and to drive them with neodymium-magnet linear motors. That bought 1/500 s for the Xenotar 2/80, the Planar 2/110, the Tele-Xenar 2.8/180 and the Apo-Tele-Xenar 4/300, and 1/1000 s only for the smaller-aperture Super-Angulon 2.8/50. So this lens was never made as a PQS, and never in autofocus form either; a “Xenotar 80mm f/2 PQS” in a listing is a mislabelled 2.8. Being a PQ lens it runs on every body of the line, with the usual limits: shutter priority and manual on the SLX, 6006 and 6002, all modes on the 6008 and later, manual focus on the Hy6.
When it was introduced is not recorded in the sources found: PQ lenses began with the 6008 professional in 1988, and the lens was on B&H’s shelves by July 1995, when Greenspun put the three fast Schneider lenses at $4,500 to $6,500 without saying which cost what. Volker Muth still names it, with the Planar 2/110, as one of the system’s exceptional fast lenses in 2021. One point the sources disagree on is the filter mount, Bay VI in Rollei’s own table and on Rolleigraphy, an 86 mm screw thread in Japanese Wikipedia, with Greenspun’s remark that the fast Schneider lenses did not take Bay VI filters on the Japanese side.
No review of the lens has been found, and the forum remarks that exist are not cited here. What the record gives is the maker’s claim of “superb optical and mechanical performance” and the market’s: a lens made in small numbers for a system whose used prices already run high, listed by the dealers who have it as a rarity. A buyer should expect the same cautions as for every 6000-series lens, that shutter and diaphragm are driven by motors in the lens with no manual fallback, with one more: the big front element and the carbon-fibre blades are both specific to this lens, and no parts are guaranteed.
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 Xenotar 80mm f/2 (6000)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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