S-Planar 120mm f/5.6 (SL66)
Carl Zeiss Β· Rollei SL66 Β· 1966 Β· S-Planar macro, 6 elements in 4 groups, optimised for 1:8
Also known as: Rollei SL66 S-Planar 120mm f/5.6 Β· Rolleiflex SL66 S-Planar 120mm F5.6 Β· Carl Zeiss S-Planar 5.6/120 SL66 Β· Makro-Planar HFT 5.6/120 SL66 Β· Rollei SL66 Macro-Planar 120mm f5.6 Β· S-Planar 120mm f/5.6 Rollei Β· γγΌγ©γ€ SL66 Sγγ©γγΌ 120mm F5.6 Β· γγΌγ©γ€γγ¬γγ―γΉ SL66 γγ―γγγ©γγΌ 120mm F5.6
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S-Planar 5.6/120 (1966 onward) | Rollei SL66 | 1966 | β | β |
| Makro-Planar HFT 5.6/120 (late production, renamed) | Rollei SL66 | β | β | β |
- Rollei built the SL66 lenses under licence from Carl Zeiss from 1974, engraved 'Made by Rollei'; the earlier lenses are Zeiss-built. The brand is Carl Zeiss because the design and name are Zeiss's.
- Six elements in four groups in sl66.rolleigraphy.eu (4/6), English Wikipedia (6/4) and Japanese Wikipedia (4ηΎ€6ζ). Weight, dimensions and the f/45 minimum are from the English Wikipedia table, whose row for this lens was read with some difficulty (the fetched text rendered its focal length as 86 mm).
- Closest focus is the SL66 body's bellows limit, not a helicoid: Japanese Wikipedia gives 0.35 m, English Wikipedia 14 in (0.36 m, printed as 0.4 m).
- End date: sl66.rolleigraphy.eu ends it in February 1989, the month before the Makro-Planar 4/120 appeared; that lens keeps the 6/4 count but opens to f/4 and is a separate page. No aperture-blade count or list price was found.
How to tell them apart
- A 120 mm SL66 lens engraved S-Planar (or, late, Makro-Planar HFT) at f/5.6; the f/4 Makro-Planar of 1989 is the successor, the Hasselblad S-Planar 120 has a Synchro-Compur, and the SLX/6000 S-Planar has a focusing helicoid
- Like every SL66 lens it has no focusing ring: magnification is set by the body's bellows, read off the scale beside them, and the lens can be reversed on the double bayonet
S-Planar 5.6/120 (1966 onward):
- Engraved S-Planar 5.6/120; Carl Zeiss on Zeiss-built lenses, 'Made by Rollei' on the licence-built ones from 1974
- An automatic diaphragm to f/45, the smallest stop on any SL66 lens but the Tele-Tessar 1000 (English Wikipedia)
Makro-Planar HFT 5.6/120 (late production, renamed):
- Engraved Makro-Planar 5.6/120 HFT rather than S-Planar; still f/5.6, which separates it from the f/4 Makro-Planar that replaced it in March 1989
- S-Planar 5.6/120 (1966 onward): Launched with the camera in October 1966 as the system's macro lens, computed for best performance at 1:8 and able to be reverse-mounted on the SL66's double bayonet for higher magnifications.
- Makro-Planar HFT 5.6/120 (late production, renamed): The same 6/4 optic with HFT coating under Zeiss's later macro name; camera-wiki's '120mm Macro-Planar HFT f/5.6' row is this lens. When the engraving changed is not recorded in the sources read.
Specifications
- Formula
- S-Planar macro, 6 elements in 4 groups, optimised for 1:8
- Construction
- 6 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/5.6βf/45
- Min. focus
- 0.35 m
- Dimensions
- 79 Γ 91 mm
- Weight
- 435 g
- Filter
- Rollei Bayonet VI
- Years manufactured
- 1966β1989
- Country
- West Germany
- Coating
- Single-coated at launch; HFT multicoating on later production
What reviewers say
- Nuno Pinheiro (Kosmo Foto) (blog) β Owns the S-Planar 120/5.6 for close-up work and calls it "a wonderful lens", though he does most of his work with the 80, which already reaches 1:1 on the bellows; tilt he finds useful for adjusting the focus plane in close-up photography.
History
The S-Planar 5.6/120 was the macro lens of the Rolleiflex SL66 from the cameraβs launch in October 1966. It is a six-element, four-group S-Planar, the same count as the Hasselblad S-Planar 120 of 1964, computed for best results around 1:8 and made with a very small f/45 minimum stop. On the SL66 it is a plain barrel of 435 g: the bodyβs bellows do the focusing, to about 35 cm at full extension, the magnification is read from the scale beside them, and the lens can be reversed on the double bayonet for higher ratios. Zeiss built it at first; from 1974 Rollei made the SL66 lenses under Zeiss licence, and late examples carry HFT multicoating and Zeissβs later name for the type, Makro-Planar 5.6/120 HFT, which is the lens camera-wiki lists as a β120mm Macro-Planar HFT f/5.6β.
sl66.rolleigraphy.eu ends production in February 1989. The following month a Makro-Planar 4/120 took its place, a lens of the same size and the same 6/4 count but a stop faster; that is a separate page. Nuno Pinheiro, who owns the f/5.6 lens, calls it wonderful but admits he mostly reaches for the 80, since the standard lens already gets to 1:1 on the bellows and tilts for the focus plane; that is the honest case against the S-Planar on this camera, where the macro lens buys working distance and a flatter field rather than magnification.
No dedicated review was found. When buying, confirm the maximum aperture engraved (5.6, not 4), check the diaphragm at f/45, and expect a lens without a focusing ring, since one with a helicoid is the SLX/6000 version. The blade count, production total and list price were not found.
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 β but no human wrote these sentences.
Example photos
Sample photo wanted β shot with a S-Planar 120mm f/5.6 (SL66)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
The listings collector hasn't run for this family yet β check back soon, or search the marketplaces directly meanwhile.