Last call! A tribute to the Memminger Brewery (1886-2024)

If I were ever asked to organize a Beers and Cameras event I would probably have chosen the brewery of the historic city of Memmingen, Bavaria, to host the event. This Privatbrauerei (Private brewery as opposed to a Ltd.) can trace its roots back to 1886 when brewer Josef Herz bought the brewery and gaststätte zum Schwarzer Ochsen in Memmingen and expanded it. 

A glass of Memminger Lager Schwarz. Canon EOS 90D with a Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8 at f/1.8.

In 1911 Herz owned the third largest brewery in Memmingen (out of 21) and fused his brewery with the breweries of zum Schwarzen Adler and Weisses Ross to create the Bürgerliches Brauhaus. In 1920 the two biggest breweries in Memmingen joined forming the Bürger- und Engelbräu brewery. This was shortened to B & E and this remained the brand name until 1998. From 1998 onwards this became Memminger. In the 2000s I was introduced to the brand and although all their beers were good I quickly developed a taste for their excellent Memminger Lager Schwarz dark beer. In fact, their Memminger Lager Schwarz is still my benchmark when sampling dunkelbiere from other German breweries. 

The brewery struggled heavily in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, having trouble to regain their former market share and went into bankruptcy in the summer of 2023. In January of 2024, the brewery and grounds on the Dr.-Karl-Lenz-Strasse 68 were sold, ending 138 years of beer brewing by the company.

Having learned of the bankruptcy in September 2023 I shot the following as a tribute to the Memminger Brauerei.

All photos shot with my Canon EOS 1000N fitted with a Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 on Agfaphoto APX 100 film.

Fellow photographer Pedro Stubert lamenting the loss of the brewery.

All photos shot with my Canon EOS 90D fitted with a Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston 50mm f/1.8.

Lens review: The Porst Color Reflex MC Auto 50mm f/1.4 G

This review is about the Porst Color Reflex MC Auto 50mm f/1.4 F lens. I must admit that I hadn't heard of this specific lens before I was doing research on its bigger brother, the Porst Color Reflex MC Auto 55mm f/1.2 F lens. As it happens, an eBay seller had both the 55mm f/1.2 (early f/22 version) and 50mm f/1.4 for sale. The f/22 version of the 55mm/1.2 went for € 139. I was however intrigued by the 50mm/1.4 so I bid on it and was able to purchase it for a mere € 56.

Like its bigger brother this lens was made in Japan for the German Photo Porst chain of camera stores. I have since managed to find that the Porst lenses in K mount were actually produced by Cosina, thereby confirming my hunch. It is no surprise that both lenses have the same kind of style, the later f/16 version of the 55mm/1.2 and this 50mm/1.4 look very much alike. 

The 50mm/1.4 has a nice solid feel to it. You can tell that these were lenses that were made to last. 

Specifications:

Focal length:                        50mm

Minimal focus distance:        0.5 meters

Aperture:                             f/1.4 - f/22

Aperture blades:                  8

Lens elements:                    7

Diameter:                            49mm

Mount:                                Pentax K

Manufacturer:                     Cosina

Built:                                  1970s-1980s

Use

This lens is equipped with the Pentax K mount. As with the 55mm/1.2 its focus ring turns to the left towards infinity. Again this may seem a bit unnatural at first for Pentax users as the Pentax lenses turn to the right.

Focusing is smooth and in general, the lens has a nice feel to it. I've used this lens with Pentax film cameras and with a digital Canon EOS camera via an adapter. Due to the design of the K mount these lenses will not fit APS-H and full frame EOS cameras, the mirror will hit the back of the lens. K mount lenses will only work on EOS cameras with an APS-C sensor (much like the EF-S mount). 

Images

The images you see below were shot with a Canon EOS 90D set at ISO 200. These images were converted from RAW to JPEG, slightly cropped (to just show the chessboard) and resized. No other actions were taken in Photoshop.

f/1.4

f/2.8

f/4

f/8

f/16

As you can see at f/1.4 subject isolation is great! Wide open it also shows chromatic aberration (CA) which disapears when the lens is stopped down. At f/4 it is almost gone and at f/8 there is no sign of it. Wide open there is also some vignetting, although this does not show on these slightly cropped images. As with the f/1.2 version I found it hard to focus with this lens on the EOS 90D which shows, the f/2.8 and f/4 shots are slightly out of focus. When using these lenses solely on AF cameras I do recommend getting a split-image focusing screen for better accuracy.

In the field

I fitted the Porst Color Reflex MC Auto 50mm f/1.4 G to my Pentax LX, loaded it with Fomapan 100, teamed up with fellow photographer Joeri van Veen and headed out for some shots. 

Photo: Joeri van Veen

In the field the lens is easy to operate, the fact that it focuses the 'other' way round did not hinder me in any way. And as for the results, judge for yourself:

The harsh winter light posed no problems for this lens. Only when shooting directly into the sun the back light bleached out the subject somewhat as can be seen below.

All in all I found this lens to be a solid performer, both wide open and stopped down. When using it with the Pentax LX I found focusing no issue at all, whilst using it with a digital camera without a split-image focusing screen was sometimes challenging wide open. For the price this lens is a fine performer for as far as I am concerned, this is a keeper.

Lens review: The Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 50mm f/2.8

This review is about the Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 50mm f/2.8 lens with an M42 mount and 10 aperture blades. 

Schneider made several versions of this lens, mine is produced circa 1958 and recognizable by the "Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 1:2,8/50" text on the front, supplemented by "Edixa-Reflex" on the focusing ring. Another identifying feature is the aperture ring, to set the aperture you have to pull the ring backwards before changing the aperture setting. The design of the lens is a classical Tessar design with four elements in three groups, called Xenar by Schneider.

Specifications (10 aperture blade version):

Focal length:                        50mm

Minimal focus distance:        0.5 meters

Aperture:                             f/2.8 - f/22

Aperture blades:                  10

Lens elements:                    4 elements in 3 groups

Diameter:                            49mm

Mount:                                M42

Manufacturer:                     Schneider-Kreuznach

Built:                                  late 1950s

Use

This lens is equipped with the M42 mount, making it compatible with a wide range of M42 cameras and with adapters to pretty much every other camera system I use. It takes some getting used to the fact that you have got to pull back the aperture dial before you can change your settings but this also prevents the ring from accidentally moving. Focusing is smooth, the focus ring moves to the right towards infinity. My copy has been modified for digital cameras, meaning that the aperture pin has been pressed down and locked in that position. Thanks to this I need to use stop-down metering when using this lens on an M42 camera.

Images

The images you see below were shot with a Canon EOS 90D set at ISO 200. These images were converted from RAW to JPEG, slightly cropped and resized. No other actions were taken in Photoshop.

f/2.8

f/4

f/5.6

f/8

f/11

f/16

f/22

At f/2.8 there is still plenty of separation. Also at f/2.8 there is very little chromatic aberration visible on this shot. The image is a bit milky at f/2.8. Stopped down to f/4 that milky effect is gone. Chromatic aberration is much reduced when stopping down until it is gone at f/11. In the field the chromatic aberration was more prominent wide open though.

In the field

The images below were all shot using a Canon EOS 90D digital camera fitted with an M42 to EOS adapter. They were converted to JPEG and resized. As the 90D has an APS-C type cropped sensor the outer edges of the lens will not show on the photographs it produces. At this point I haven't used this lens of a full frame or film camera so I cannot comment on the amount of vignetting and loss of sharpness at the extreme edges of a photograph. With the 90D one focuses with the lens wide open before stopping down to the desired f-stop. This is where it gets somewhat irritating as you cannot use the aperture dial without first pulling it back. I found this to be a drawback of this lens. However, this is my only gripe. The lens focuses smoothly and I love the colors it produces. It simply loves reds! Wide open it produces a soft bubble bokeh, circular in the center of the image and more of an ellipse at the edges. When shooting against the light you'll get sort of a glow around bright objects such as flowers. However the lens is quite recessed so it doesn't flare easy. As with most other vintage lenses it suffers from chromatic aberration wide open, when stopped down that pretty much disappears completely. 

wide open, look at that bokeh

wide open

Check that glow!

wide open

stopped down

stopped down

wide open

wide open

chromatic aberration wide open

All in all this is a fun lens from one of the 'other' German lens manufacturers that renders beautiful colors, is capably of nice bokeh wide open and has excellent sharpness stopped down. As I said, my version has the 'pull-back' aperture ring that I found challenging in the field but other than that this is a well-performing lens. Don't let the fact that this a 'slow' lens at f/2.8 stop you from trying it. 

Lens review: The Porst Color Reflex MC Auto 55mm f/1.2 F

This review is about the Porst Color Reflex MC Auto 55mm f/1.2 F lens. This lens was made in Japan for the German Photo Porst chain of camera stores. Two versions of this lens were made, an early version with f/22 as the smallest f-stop and a later version with f/16 as the smallest f-stop. 

This lens review is about the later f/16 lens. The two versions look pretty much the same, but apart from the f/22 f-stop there are a few differences. The f/22 closest focal distance is 0.5 meters, with the f/16 this is 0.6 meter. Cosmetically there are a few differences too, For instance, the f/22 version has the lens serial number on the front, whilst the f/16 variant has the serial number on the aperture ring. The f/16 version also has the Pentax style raised alignment dot, something the f/22 version does not have. The upper barrel of both lenses is slightly different too, although they both share the 55mm filter thread. These lenses look very much like contemporary Cosina lenses so they could have been made by Cosina. I however haven't found any confirmation of this.

I bought this lens about 5 years ago as sort of a backup for my Pentax 50mm f/1.2 lens. The price of the Porst that time was € 156, pretty cheap for an f/1.2 lens. I paid quite a bit more, € 429, for my Pentax version. As it was intended as a backup lens it never saw much use until recently, when I decided to give this lens some much-needed attention.

Specifications (f/16 model lens):

Focal length:                        55mm

Minimal focus distance:        0.6 meters

Aperture:                             f/1.2- f/16

Aperture blades:                  8

Lens elements:                    6

Diameter:                            55mm

Mount:                                Pentax K

Built:                                  1970s-1980s

Use

This is one of the bigger standard lenses in the 50mm - 55mm range. Its focus ring turns to the left towards infinity. This may seem a bit unnatural at first for Pentax users as the Pentax lenses turn to the right. Focusing is smooth and in general, the lens has a nice feel to it. I've used this lens with Pentax film cameras and with digital Canon EOS cameras via an adapter. Due to the design of the K mount these lenses do not fit APS-H and full frame EOS cameras much like the EF-S series of lenses. K mount lenses will only work on EOS cameras with an APS-C sensor (crop factor 1.6). 

Images

The images you see below were shot with a Pentax MZ-S loaded with Fomapan Profi Line Classic 100 black and white film and a Canon EOS 90D set at ISO 200.

f/1.2

f/2.8

f/5.6

f/11

As you can see at f/1.2 subject isolation is excellent! Wide open it also shows chromatic aberration (CA) which dissapears when the lens is stopped down. At f/2.8 it is almost gone and at f/5.6 there is no sign of it. The further you stop down, more pieces get in focus until at f/11 all pieces are in full focus. At f/1.2 there is also a bit of vignetting, although the APS-C sensor crops out some of it. 

full photo, f/1.2

crop of the center of the first photo 

In these shots you can clearly see the paper thin focus area when the lens is wide open. Again wide open it shows CA which is clearly visible at the edges of the coins in the second cropped image. In this shot the vignetting at f/1.2 is quite strong.

f/11

There appears to be some very slight barrel distortion, although the chess board itself is a bit crooked in that sense so it might not be the best subject to judge distortion with.

In the field

lens stopped down

Lens stopped down

Lens wide open

Lens wide open

Conclusions

Overall I really like this lens. It produces dreamy images when shot wide open and when stopped down this lens performs excellent with crisp sharp images. Of couse, this is a 1970s-1980s lens so focusing and setting the aperture have to be done manually. Focusing is tricky wide open due to its very narrow depth of field, I find that I prefer using it with classic cameras that have a split-screen focusing screen. The fact that is suffers from vignetting and CA wide open is unfortunate but can be fixed in post quite easy. When stopped down these are no longer issues. And then there is the price. This is a really  affordable f/1.2 lens. All in all, I find this to be a fine standard lens and I find myself wishing that I had started working with this lens sooner. I'm interested what you think and what your experiences with this lens are. Drop me a line in the comment section below.