| Author: | | New Member Registered: February, 2019 Posts: 15 | | Review Date: March 14, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | It looks and feels good | | Cons: | Some are better than others - variable quality | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 8
Camera Used: Film and full frame digital
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There is the "zebra" Meyer Optik version and the Pentacon "zebra" version followed by the same shape non-zebra black Pentacon and then the more modern restyled version. The latter has a non-preset aperture and I have no experience of this Pentacon. The two original - and earlier made - Meyer Optik lenses I've tried suffered poor infinity and quite unsightly chromatic aberration up to and including F5.6 but had some nice bokeh effects, but not as "bokeh monster" fine as some people go on about with the "zebra" Meyer Optik. It also had good, but not very good anti-flare coatings. being ridiculously expensive because of the shiny bling of zebra styling, the Meyer Optik is probably one of the most over-rated f2.8 135mm lenses at the moment. It's good, but not very good.
So on to the black Pentacon preset version with the aperture on the front, not the back of the lens. This is what I review, below.
The black Pentacon copy of the original Meyer Optik lens looks superb and feels like quality to hold. The insides are different to the Meyer Optik and the quality of image production is a good and solid improvement in all regards. The non-zebra style makes some folks think it is not as pretty or eyecatching, but who cares about such superficial concerns? The Pentacon black lens lens is very good at F4 a F5.6 and excellent at F8 and F11 with a slight trailing off at the close aperture end. CA is slightly better wide open and at F4 in comparison to the Meyer Optik and coating are a bit richer and ore effective at calming flare. The Pentacon coatings - being more recent - are less likely to be corrupted/degraded through time.
The main improvement is dazzling sharpness at infinity at F5.6 to F11 and the second was that because people with much cash don't tend to opt for the black version (zebra bling attracts people with cash to burn who want superficial fine looking gear) the Pentacon is some 50% to 70% cheaper in most market places. Overall image quality is excellent in the F5.6 to F11 range. Bokeh is as good as the Meyer Optik but is arguably finer as the more effective coatings deal with flare much better.
A typical age related feature is that the central lump of glass comes loose and clonks slightly. To tighten the retainer ring the whole lens barrelling gear has to be dismantled and it is a fiddly job. So check your 'to buy' version is clonk free if you don't have the in house experience to fix it.
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| | | | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 14 | | Review Date: November 10, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp lens | | Cons: | some CAs | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: pentax k-5 Fuji x-t100 x-e1
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ORESTOR = PRACTICAR = SONNAR
very fine GDR lenses of high qualty at a very low price (produced in JENA by CARL ZEISS)
M 42 screw or Practica BC mount
++ excellent sharpness 
++ excellent bokeh
O/+ some CAs wide open
+ good CA correction stopped down a few 
+/O moderate contrast / some flare
all metal construction
very highly recommended
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2021 Posts: 15
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 1, 2021 | Not Recommended | Price: $5.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | The 15 blades make it special | | Cons: | Color, contrast, sharpness | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 7
Camera Used: Sony A7III
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It's a well made lens, the 15 blades are a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, but to be honest optically it's a bit of a letdown. The lens lacks contrast and color and it's not really that sharp. The starbursts are nice though.
Samples that I took with this lens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5oNjQYAob0 | | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2020 Posts: 3
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 30, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, beautiful bokeh, cheap! | | Cons: | for his age, he has nothing negative. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K20d
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Hello,
this is the zebra Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestor 2.8 / 135 version, mount M42. Better known as monster bokeh. For me one of the best tele for portraits. Here is a sample with the K20d.
   | | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2011 Location: Gotland Posts: 169 | | Review Date: March 17, 2020 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Well made. Good sharpness. 15 aperture blades. Interesting item! | | Cons: | 100 % manual and slowish to use | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-1
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My lens is called "Orestor" and is an early zebra version. I bought it as "defective". The 15 or so aperture blades had jammed. I wanted the mount for an 200mm Orestegor that lacked a mount.
I managed to put all those aperture blades in order and cleaned things as well as possible with no total disassembly. Then I tried the lens on my K 3 II and was deeply disappinted. So I left it alone for quite a while.
Then I found this thread in another forum:
Preventing M42 adapter light leaks and dust ingress - an easy solution! - Page 3 - PentaxForums.com
The problem was related to the fact that the Orestor M42 mount is too narrow to mate up against a K mount camera body. The lens just hangs squiggly on the M42 / K-mount adapter. That is mechanically troublesome and light leaks in.
I found a solution and now the lens works fine on my K-1.Quite sharp at f/2,8 and improves when stopping down. The pictures have less contrast than the best modern lenses. The focusing is critical, the long throw and pre-set system helps.
To me this is a valuable item to try out more carefully. Good for Slow Photography.
This link shows the modification I made and some test photos: https://www.fotosidan.se/blogs/manshagberg/meyer-optik-gorlitz-orestor-forts...ok.htm#9621208 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: May, 2015 Location: Hampshire Posts: 892
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 4, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | BOKEH, sharp enough, good value | | Cons: | None really | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5
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I bought this lens in a charity shop. They wanted £10 for it and it had notable fungus and both caps so I bought it.
My first real go at opening up a lens and cleaning (with much help from kind forum members) came up with a clean (or at least as clean as I could get the front and back elements, (I did not chance my arm by going any deeper).
Result!
This lens is not the sharpest available at 135mm, I have a couple of sharper ones but sharp does not equal best. I sold two CZJ 135mm F3.5 Sonnars (M42) over the past couple of years as I had F2.8 lenses that were as sharp and in K mount but not this one.
The bokeh is great, the handling is good with a lovely long focus throw....but not the best min focus distance.
The weight is a bit much, so I tend to use a flanged M42 to K adapter for my piece of mind and not worry about infinity focus. Not a problem as this lens is probably at it's best for subjects not at infinity and have that bokeh.
I nned to take some portrait images with it as this is where it should really shine.
Some images of the extent of the fungus and a squirrel taken at F2.8
  | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: December, 2016 Location: London Posts: 1,079 | | Review Date: December 21, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very bright, good bokeh. | | Cons: | Heavy, all-manual | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: Canon Eos 400D
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I originally reviewed this five years ago, when I had a very poor example of this lens and rated it fairly low - in 2021 I picked up an immaculate example with virtually no dust, no fungus, and no whitening of the rear element, and the results were hugely better. Since I'm not allowed to review it twice I've decided to concentrate on the second example, which showed what these lenses are really capable of. No startling revelations, just a very nice lens with amazing bokeh and a very good handling for an all-manual lens.
One thing I should mention from the previous review is that the first one I had came with a Nikon mount, designed to replace the conical M42 or Exakta mounts Praktica usually sold them with. It was a very good fit on my Nikon body, and seemed to have been machined to exact standards. It would be useful to know if anyone is making something like this for e.g. Pentax K mount.
Some examples - all taken in Kensington Gardens, London
For the rest of this shoot and full-sized images see my album here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/albums/72157719860593976
Update - I forgot to mention that the conical rear of the manual version of this lens can cause problems if it is used with Pentax's M42 to PK adapter. Pentax designed the adapter so that the rear of a lens pressing against the flat surface of the camera's lens mount would lock the adapter rigidly in place inside the throat of the camera. This doesn't work well with the conical mount, since the rear of the lens is only 4mm wider than the M42 thread, and it may not be completely rigid. See also the page on preventing light links when using these lenses on a K-mount body, linked at the top of this page.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: March, 2013 Posts: 34 | | Review Date: October 14, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Solid build, sharp, good colour and contrast, preset | | Cons: | Heavy, stop-down metering | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax MX
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Mine is the zebra Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestor 2.8/135 preset version, M42 mount. It is very well built; feels like you could drive your car over it without damaging it (but I'm not trying!). In use, it has amazingly smooth focusing, but a very long focus movement, maybe 340 degrees from infinity to closest focus (1.5 metres, or 5 feet). You're not going to focus on any fast-moving objects without a lot of practice! Surprisingly to me, the aperture ring is further out from the camera than the focus ring (somewhat in the style of rangefinders lenses). Even more surprising, it is clickless; the first such lens I've come across.
When I first used this lens, I struggled with getting focusing and exposure right, as I often needed to open the aperture up to focus, then close it down to match exposure information. What I hadn't realised was that this is a "preset" lens, or indeed quite what that term means. There is a decorative-looking ring just beyond the aperture ring, with a red dot on it, which in my case was set against the 32. Slide that ring away from the camera and you can turn it so the red dot matches any other aperture value, and the lens will then not stop down any further than this. So the idea is to meter first, set the red dot to the chosen aperture, open it up to frame and focus, then a simple twist turns it (clicklessly, smoothly) back to the chosen aperture for the shot. Not quite as simple as my K-mount lenses, but better than other M42 lenses I have tried.
Looking into the lens from the objective end, the most obvious thing you see is the fantastic set of 15 aperture blades. Yes, this lens does create smooth bokeh, and great subject isolation.
Mine shows no obvious signs of coating; I'm guessing from the lack of flare or CA that there is at least some single coating. I also felt there was good colour and contrast, and (bearing in mind the limitations of film in terms of resolution) excellent sharpness. It seems to me to perform way better than my Pentax-M 3.5/135. I expected to try this out and then move it on straight away, but there's definitely something holding me back.
Edited to add some examples, all taken on film on a Pentax MX:
1) Rare example of apple flower and ripe fruit, f/2.8
2) Nice bench, not sure of aperture
3) Statue in Kenilworth Castle garden
 | | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2016 Posts: 5 | | Review Date: September 6, 2016 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | rather sharp, nice bokeh,solid build | | Cons: | m42, less sharp than my sonnar | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: k3
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I received this lens but after buying CZ Sonnar 135/2,8 c/y.Sonnar has better bokeh ,sharper and microcontrastI . I recomend to read this very good test:
http://forum.mflenses.com/twelve-2-8-135mm-lenses-compared-on-5dmkii-t39463.html
You can look on my review of the sonnar
 | | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2014 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: October 3, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | bokeh , color , sharpness | | Cons: | no | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: pentax k-5
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great lens, bokeh, color, sharpness, ease of use, all at a height | | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2013 Location: Jakarta Posts: 2
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 9, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $170.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ, bokeh, contrast, build quality | | Cons: | handling, price getting high (to sky) time to time? | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 6
Camera Used: K5, MX, ME Super, MV
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really love this lens, this lens inherits all of the characters on orestor 135/2.8, all identical....
you will not be disappointed to have this lens, highly recommended
| | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2011 Posts: 2
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 30, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $34.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ, sharp, nice colors and contrast, precise focus, CA, solid build... | | Cons: | 360º focus ring, minimum focus distance 1.5m | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 10
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"PENTACON 2.8/135 Made in G.D.R.", m42 mounting, serial: 7007xxx
I love this lens, sharpness is outstanding, colours and contrast are superb...
Don't need to mention the bokeh, do I?
The 360º focus ring gives you a precise focus, but when you want to go from near to infinite could be annoying.
Outside you must be careful because it is prone to flare, a lot, even with the hood and a filter mounted on, but in the shadows it's perfect...
If you are photographing in low light a tripod is probably a good choice.
I bought this lens on ebay in very bad shape, rust on iris and in some parts full of oil, the lubricant evaporated and condensed on the front and rear element, particles of rust felled into the front element, the focus ring hard to rotate, and the body would wobble... It took me a full day to fully disassemble, de-rust and degrease all the 15 iris blades, clean all the optics, bluing the iris blades to protected against rust and avoid internal reflexes. Reassemble all the 15 iris blades eas hard ( damned this took me 2 hours, but the last try only took me 15 minutes to reassemble the iris), but all this work paid off.
One example of colours contrast and sharpness:
resized down to about 33%
100% center crop:
 | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2010 Posts: 24
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 2, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $2.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | bokeh, very precise focus (360°) | | Cons: | 360° for focusing... | | Sharpness: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 9
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I like it for portraits, street shooting...
Wonderfull wide open!
http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/335613IMGP4045op.jpg | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2008 Posts: 8,823
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 9, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | build, usability, old style rendering | | Cons: | minimum focus distance, old style rendering | |
There is a lot of confusion already on this page. First of all, the lens should simply be named the "Pentacon 2.8/135" since that is what it says on the barrel. VEB Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz manufactured many preset versions, starting in 1965. The first was indeed branded Meyer-Optik Orestor and appeared in zebra styling. But the second, branded Pentacon, was also a zebra. Then followed no fewer than eight other variants. What they all have in common is the preset 15-blade aperture. The later "Auto" and "Electric" versions have automatic apertures, only 6 blades and do not compare on image quality. They should be considered a different lens, so the review above is out of place.
What I like about this lens is its modest weight and length, which increases only a little when you focus down. It has a dedicated screw-on hood, which you may not at first realise is removable. The minimum aperture of f/32 is more than most. The preset mechanism is a joy to use and the focus ring is large and grippy. The rendering is yellower than Pentax, which creates a lovely "old world" vibe. Sharpness is decent and perfect for portraiture.
What I dislike is the minimum focus of 1.5m, which is too long to be comfortable. However, this is the same as the Taks and no-one complains about them. My copy is very difficult to focus and tends to unscrew from the mount if I am turning in the wrong direction! But that is a matter of age. I can also dock the lens marks on sharpness, if I compared to the very best. Purple fringing is easy to create but also easy to destroy in software. You should not expect the sort of micro-contrast possible with more recent designs.
But for fifty quid this is an excellent addition to anyone's toolbox, providing you don't mind metering manually. Actually the preset mechanism rocks! And as I experiment further I am finding nice subjects for the way this lens draws an image.
More details and photos on my blog.
(By the way, I do not believe in assigning a numerical rating so ignore that.)
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: May, 2009 Location: Vancouver, B.C. Posts: 6,513
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 28, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | IQ, portrait specialist, bokeh, cool color, sharp | | Cons: | flare, not as sharp as the other 135mm lenses, not AF | |
the BOKEH MONSTER or BOKEH KING.
this lens was made for one particular specialty purpose, and that is to take great portraits at 135mm. there is nothing to hate about this lens, it just takes some really smooth and creamy bokeh. it's really a wonderful lens. the sharpness is pretty good at wide open and gets better stop down. very sharp at 5.6 - f8.
of course, there are other 135mm with better IQ sharpness and contrast like the K135/2.5, F/FA135/2.8, 135/3.5 (Pentax or CZ) and the MC 135/2.8 variants, but those lenses dont compare against the Pentacon or Meyer Orestor in terms of bokeh. it just rules over them when it comes to smoothness and very nice softy colors. what's better is that this lens has 15 aperture blades which makes the bokeh circles consistently circular at smaller apertures, thereby making the images more pleasing to look at.
the downside of this lens that it could pretty much flare up and lose a lot of contrast, not to mention that it's only single-coated. that's why a deep hood is necessary whenever you use this lens. aside from that, a very outstanding lens.
9/10
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