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Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:3,5f=5cm T....Little gem from 1952
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 3:57 pm    Post subject: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:3,5f=5cm T....Little gem from 1952 Reply with quote

I got it this morning, it should be the "father" of the Industar pancake:







Old lenses are beautiful! Very Happy
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got one of these old Tessars too from Bill - it's now mounted on an Exakta Varex VX.

Count the aperture blades - there's a lot.... Cool Laughing


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What a beauty! Congrats!


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This lens alone inspires me to take photographs. I can't wait to have it here.

Like beautiful women can inspire great poetry, beautiful lenses can inspire (hopefully) great photographs Smile
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 4:53 pm    Post subject: Oh congrat Reply with quote

Nice one ! Very Happy
With that box, it's like a ring asking to your camera : "will you mary me" ?


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm polygamous Razz (with lenses!) Laughing
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

...And I thought that the Industar 50 was an original (I knew it has a Tessar formula but I thought that the small, pancake construction is original) russian lens.
I wonder which lens copied the russians when they made the Tair 11A. Could be original ?


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

montecarlo wrote:
...And I thought that the Industar 50 was an original (I knew it has a Tessar formula but I thought that the small, pancake construction is original) russian lens.
I wonder which lens copied the russians when they made the Tair 11A. Could be original ?


I always knew that the Industar was a copy of a pre-war Zeiss Tessar.
My Tessar copy is of 1952 but the design is most probably pre-war. Zeiss Jena started very early the production of Tessar 2.8/50 in the various formats, so I guess my lens is one of the last 3.5/50 Tessars produced.

About the Tair-11A, I remember I read also something about it, but I can't remember precisely now, I think however the lens should be triplet-related (either a Cooke scheme or a 4-elements Tessar scheme).

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Last edited by Orio on Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:32 pm; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very pretty lens!


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Richard_D wrote:
Very pretty lens!


Yes! And I haven't seen many of these around, most of what you can find of old Tessars is aluminium version of 2.8/50 which is a later design.

I really didn't NEED this lens, I bought it because beautiful and relatively rare and because I thought it will be nice for my site and especially for Attila's site, to have references form this historically important lens.

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

WOW! How delicious. Certainly it did find a good home, look forward to some photos. After looking recently at the Contax tessar photos. It will be interesting to see what this ancestor does. Smile


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

F16SUNSHINE wrote:
WOW! How delicious. Certainly it did find a good home, look forward to some photos. After looking recently at the Contax tessar photos. It will be interesting to see what this ancestor does. Smile


Yes, I am interested too! I recently bought the Contax Tessar pancake for a good price, and the Tele-Tessar 200 for a VERY good price, and I have had serviced my father's Super Ikonta which sports a 2.8/80 Tessar, so apparently I am definitely "in the key of Tessar" lately! Laughing

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aren't those old pieces of camera equipment (lenses, bodies, even meters) wonderful examples of the micro-engineering craft that has largely been replaced with "same old" technology driven mass production? It's great that the right hands can recycle them to some of the previous greatness.


Terrific Orio


patrickh


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 6:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio wrote:
My Tessar copy is of 1952 but the design is most probably pre-war. Zeiss Jena started very early the production of Tessar 2.8/50 in the various formats, so I guess my lens is one of the last 3.5/50 Tessars produced.


There was another possibly later non-pancake alu Tessar 3.5/50 broadly similar in appearance to the Trioplan 2.9/50 and the alu Tessar 2.8/50 - I have one on an Exakta VX.


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 6:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Old lenses are beautiful! Very Happy


Aren't they just! Belonging to a different generation, when longevity was taken for granted and they weren't designed to fall apart within a few years.
That really reminds me of my Color-Skopar ; I wonder what its optical lineage is.


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

montecarlo wrote:
I wonder which lens copied the russians when they made the Tair 11A. Could be original ?


OT: The Tair-11A is a 5 element lens, but I don't know how many groups.
Probably similar to this design: http://www.praktica-users.com/lens/mlenses/morp2.8_135.html


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

patrickh wrote:
Aren't those old pieces of camera equipment (lenses, bodies, even meters) wonderful examples of the micro-engineering craft that has largely been replaced with "same old" technology driven mass production?


Absolutely, yes. These lens objects still talk to me of man. Of handwork, efforts. Of poetry, if you like. Contemporary lenses, what do they talk me about? Computerized assembly lines. Each copy looking absolutely identical to the one before on the ribbon.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Farside wrote:
Quote:
Old lenses are beautiful! Very Happy


Aren't they just! Belonging to a different generation, when longevity was taken for granted and they weren't designed to fall apart within a few years.
That really reminds me of my Color-Skopar ;


Yes, this is part of a global ongoing process that sees every component of everyday life looking uglier than before.
- cars of today look uglier than cars of the past
- same goes for bycicles
- same goes for watches
- even kitchen stoves and heathers look uglier.

Quote:
I wonder what its optical lineage is.


Of Tessar? Some say it derives from the Cooke Triplet, others say it does not. In any case, it was designed in 1902 by Zeiss engineer Paul Rudolph.
So it is 105 years old (my copy of the lens is 55 years old).

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I respect more a people if save this kind of old lenses even if they are not good performer than somebody who is hunting done just best performers. Well done Orio! Let we see how this little one performer.


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LucisPictor wrote:

OT: The Tair-11A is a 5 element lens, but I don't know how many groups.
Probably similar to this design: http://www.praktica-users.com/lens/mlenses/morp2.8_135.html


You think that the Tair-11A can be a copy of the Meyer Goerlitz 135?
It's possible, chronologically. But no later than a couple of days ago, I was able to tell one from the other (and from two other lenses as well) in a blind test. Cool So perhaps it wasn't a strict copy, maybe more like "inspired by".


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, this design was later also used in the Pentacon 2.8/135.
Of course, "inspired by" might be right. Wink


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A wonderful find! Beautiful patina, beautiful inscribed lettering and numbering. The box is a fantastic bonus; I assume it is an original box?

The REALLY nice thing here is that you only need to LOOK at the metalwork, and see that it shows the "hand of man". Robust, non-clinical, and though a small piece of equipment, almost a jewel-like persona.

Nice catch, indeed. Shocked


PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laurence wrote:
A wonderful find! Beautiful patina, beautiful inscribed lettering and numbering. The box is a fantastic bonus; I assume it is an original box?


Well, that's what I assume, but I will see when it's in my hands.

Quote:
The REALLY nice thing here is that you only need to LOOK at the metalwork, and see that it shows the "hand of man". Robust, non-clinical, and though a small piece of equipment, almost a jewel-like persona.
Nice catch, indeed. Shocked


Yes Very Happy
And for 39 Euros, it wasn't that painful financially, either. Acceptable price to save an old lens.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Attila wrote:
Well done Orio! Let we see how this little one performer.


I expect it to be better than the 2.8/50 Tessar, which (at least in the zebra and black barrel version, probably not in the alu version), was a mass-marketed standard lens.
The Tessar 3.5 was, also, but in a time and age when photography wasn't still a mass market phenomenon, and anyway really affordable to few people. In the 60s and 70s, instead, photography was mass market, and so Tessars of that time were certainly not produced with strict quality control.

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have 10 yrs older Tessar small Tessar lens.

http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/german/zeiss/tessar/tessar_50mm_f2_8_exa_small/