Lens Review: 50mm & 75mm Arriflex-Cine-Xenon Lenses
- William Temple
- Jan 11
- 3 min read
This pair of Cine Xenons came into our stock last November. We had them converted to Leica M mount with rangefinder coupling in HK and last month they arrived back, serviced and remounted. They are both on quality Yifeng helicoids and the focus tabs have been moved from the original focus rings to the aperture rings. This makes aperture changing very easy. You can view the for sale here.
The aperture is quite interesting on these Cine Xenons, firstly the can completely close for fade in/outs, secondly there is a witch on the aperture rings marked 'E' and 'A'. E allows for clicked aperture and A for clickless, very neat.
This is my first go at a lens review, intended to be the start of many. I've opted for a table layout that should allow for a lot of information to be absorbed quickly and make for fast referencing. Feedback on this and suggestions for table values are very welcome.
Specification | |
Year of Manufacture | 1967 |
Country of Origin | Germany |
Focal Length | 50mm & 75mm |
Maximum Aperture | f2 |
Minimum Aperture | f22 |
Number of Aperture Blades | Both have 6 blades |
Aperture Blade Shape | Curved |
Optical Construction | Double Gauss, 6 elements in 4 Groups |
Special Elements (ED, Aspherical, etc.) | None |
Coatings | Yes, both are multi coated |
Minimum Focus Distance | RF coupled to .7m uncoupled to .5m |
Focus Mechanism | Manual |
Filter Thread Size | 50mm = 49mm, 75mm = 40.5mm |
Dimensions (Length × Widest Ø) | 50mm = 54x54mm, 75mm = 87.5x55mm |
Weight | 50mm = 362g, 75mm = 393g |
Weather Sealing | No |
Hood Included | No original hood made, cine hood/matte boxes would have been used. |
Original MSRP | Not sure |
Current Market Price (based on past sales & condition) | In original Arriflex mount £500-800 M mount converted £700-900 |
Availability (Mythical/Rare/Uncommon/Common) | Uncommon |
Sample Images
All of these images are low jpegs, taken on an M11 and uploaded straight from camera. Click to expand and see labels
Optical Performance
Sharpness
Aspect | Notes |
Wide Open – Centre | Good sharpness with slightly softened details at maximum aperture |
Wide Open – Edges / Corners | Soft falloff towards corners |
Stopped Down Performance | Improves 1–2 stops down |
Sweet Spot Aperture | f8 |
Close Focus Sharpness | Clean subject isolation, gentle detail rendering |
Rendering
Aspect | Notes |
Contrast | Moderate, lowers with backlighting |
Microcontrast | Muted, both favour smooth tonal transitions |
Colour Rendition | Warm character with pleasing separation |
Saturation | Moderate, natural |
Bokeh
Aspect | Notes |
Background Smoothness | Smooth, creamy blur |
Foreground Bokeh | Soft and unobtrusive |
Bokeh Ball Shape | Mostly round |
Cat’s Eye Effect | Mild toward frame edges |
Onion Rings / Outlining | None |
Focus Transition | Gradual and elegant |
Aberrations & Corrections
Aspect | Notes |
Distortion | Very little barrel distortion |
Vignetting (Wide Open) | Mild, aesthetically pleasing |
Vignetting (Stopped Down) | Reduces quickly when stopped down |
Lateral CA | Well controlled |
Longitudinal CA | Minimal |
Flare & Ghosting
Aspect | Notes |
Shooting Into Light | Generally very good control but you can get a strong flare with a strong light in the corner of the frame |
Contrast Loss | Present but pleasing |
Ghosting Artifacts | Nothing significant |
Hood Effectiveness | Coatings already effective, a hood would help when shooting strong lights |
Summary & Comparison to Similar Lenses
While centre sharpness is very good, it's not on par with modern designs that offer (in my opinion) too much high-contrast crispness. Instead, it delivers gently softened detail that works gloriously with strong backlighting, producing an organic, cinematic, yet deliberately restrained feel. This is classically reminiscent of fast vintage primes from the 1950s–1970s, particularly those designed before computer-optimized correction became the norm. The Xenons moderate contrast, smooth highlight handling, and flare response are reminiscent of lenses such as:
Zeiss Biotar / Pancolar designs, which have strong subject separation but softer microcontrast wide open.
Some Canon FD and Nikon Nikkor pre-AI fast primes, which often have less wide-open sharpness but similar colour rendition.
The Leica Summicron v1, where flare is similar.
Compared to these lenses, the rendering here feels more controlled and better corrected, chromatic aberration is minimal, distortion is also very minimal. A design that bridges classic rendering with more modern optical discipline. But not too modern.
For me the bokeh is a standout character of these Xenons. The smooth background blur, lack of busy texture, minimal outlining, and gentle cat’s-eye effect that becomes more prominent towards the edges is typical behaviour of fast double-Gauss designs shot wide open. There is no (in my opinion) horrible onion-ring artifacts or harsh spherical aberration. This combined with the slightly warm colour bias makes shooting wide open a real joy. A rendering style that really has a cinematic feel, yes, I'm aware how cliché that sounds!
If your drawn to lenses like the Biotar, early Summicrons, or classic Nikkors, but want slightly better correction, the Cine-Xenons could be for you.
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