Schacht Travenar 85mm f/2.8 LTM

[David Silver]

Here's another alternative Leica thread mount lens I'm going to try in the near future, a Travenar 85mm f/2.8 from Schacht:



I did use this lens for some general shooting last year when I first got it, and the results were generally sharp with good workable contrast, but I was thinking of doing some portrait work with my neighbors kids (cute little faces on 'em) and my cat (don't laugh...she's a tough customer!). I'm really not that familiar with Schacht's products. The optics on this one seem pretty good. Any opinions?

[daveinpasadena]

Wow. Impressive. These are hard to find and command pretty good $$ when sold. I've used Exakta and Praktina Schacht's with very good results, although at 35mm and 135mm. I think they were one of the German companies playing catchup with Zeiss serving the third party lens market in Europe, but they were undoubtedly top notch by any historical standard.

[David Silver]

Good Lord, you're right! I was just curious about this lens as a user, not as an "investment", but after reading your response I did some quick research and found three of these that had sold in the past couple of months between $400 and $500! Well, like I said in several threads tonight, my knowledge of LTM alternatives is pretty nil. I'm afraid I've been too much of a mainline "Leica snob" over the years to pay attention! But in this case, I'd still like to know if the performance justifies the price. I'm even more excited about trying the lens soon, but does anybody else have experience with it?