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Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f4.5 M42
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 5:33 pm    Post subject: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f4.5 M42 Reply with quote

I had this lens up for sale but the bidding isn't really going anywhere so I have started using it myself and now I think I'm keeping it! Laughing

Though, I don't really understand what the attraction of this lens was when it was produced. F4.5 for a 40mm seems pretty slow?

10 aparture blades, perfectly round at all f-stops

0.4m MFD







Wide open:





Wide open and with the smallest extension tube I could find:






PostPosted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of the valuable Jena lenses from long time ago, now you know why Smile great lens, great pics!!


PostPosted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If it was Exakta I'd be interested, I really like this era of lens build.


PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have one in Exakta mount, I use it on my Exa every now and then. It gives a slight vignette on full frame which adds to the vintage quality of its rendering. Although honestly it's far from my favorite lens.


PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:41 am    Post subject: Re: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f4.5 M42 Reply with quote

Nice pictures!

!Karen wrote:
Though, I don't really understand what the attraction of this lens was when it was produced. F4.5 for a 40mm seems pretty slow?

This lens was launched before the Angénieux retrofocus lens for still cameras was introduced in France. At that time 40mm was about the widest focal length available for a DSLR (there was also a Meyer Helioplan 40mm F/4.5). Before the invention of retrofocus lenses, real wide lenses were only available for rangefinders except for few lenses (like the Nikkor-O 21mm F/4) that were protruding so deeply into the mirror chamber that the user had to lock the mirror in the upward position and to use an external viewfinder to compose the picture.

Production of the Zeiss 40/4.5 continued after retrofocus lenses became the norm for DSLR wides, as it was cheaper than a real wide-angle.

But even 40mm was somewhat too wide for an SLR lens, and Zeiss couldn't achieve to make a faster lens because its image quality would have been too poor. Today, the 40/4.5 Tessar is mainly a collector's item because there are so many other 40mm lenses that are better, faster and easier to find.

Cheers!

Abbazz


PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks so much for that information!


PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 11:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice photos. Smile

This is a very little and capable lens.
Also it is a rare and sometimes can be sold for high prices for collectors...
Nowadays, I guess the demanding for it is stretching (neither focal or max aperture are very appealing and not "crazy" bokeh or rendering)...
Putting a auction on flebay could be risky, so my advise in order to sell this very good lens IMHO isfind the right buyer. Wink
I have a "red t" one in M42 but hardly will get what paid for it 2 years ago...


PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 11:17 am    Post subject: Re: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f4.5 M42 Reply with quote

Abbazz wrote:
Nice pictures!

!Karen wrote:
Though, I don't really understand what the attraction of this lens was when it was produced. F4.5 for a 40mm seems pretty slow?

This lens was launched before the Angénieux retrofocus lens for still cameras was introduced in France. At that time 40mm was about the widest focal length available for a DSLR (there was also a Meyer Helioplan 40mm F/4.5). Before the invention of retrofocus lenses, real wide lenses were only available for rangefinders except for few lenses (like the Nikkor-O 21mm F/4) that were protruding so deeply into the mirror chamber that the user had to lock the mirror in the upward position and to use an external viewfinder to compose the picture.

Production of the Zeiss 40/4.5 continued after retrofocus lenses became the norm for DSLR wides, as it was cheaper than a real wide-angle.

But even 40mm was somewhat too wide for an SLR lens, and Zeiss couldn't achieve to make a faster lens because its image quality would have been too poor. Today, the 40/4.5 Tessar is mainly a collector's item because there are so many other 40mm lenses that are better, faster and easier to find.

Cheers!

Abbazz


No, 40mm wasn't the limit, there was at least for Exakta the Hugo Meyer Weitwinkel Doppel Anastigmat 1:6,8 f=3,8cm and the SOM Berthiot Olor 1:5,7 F=38


PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:54 pm    Post subject: Re: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f4.5 M42 Reply with quote

exaklaus wrote:
Abbazz wrote:
Nice pictures!

!Karen wrote:
Though, I don't really understand what the attraction of this lens was when it was produced. F4.5 for a 40mm seems pretty slow?

This lens was launched before the Angénieux retrofocus lens for still cameras was introduced in France. At that time 40mm was about the widest focal length available for a DSLR (there was also a Meyer Helioplan 40mm F/4.5). Before the invention of retrofocus lenses, real wide lenses were only available for rangefinders except for few lenses (like the Nikkor-O 21mm F/4) that were protruding so deeply into the mirror chamber that the user had to lock the mirror in the upward position and to use an external viewfinder to compose the picture.

Production of the Zeiss 40/4.5 continued after retrofocus lenses became the norm for DSLR wides, as it was cheaper than a real wide-angle.

But even 40mm was somewhat too wide for an SLR lens, and Zeiss couldn't achieve to make a faster lens because its image quality would have been too poor. Today, the 40/4.5 Tessar is mainly a collector's item because there are so many other 40mm lenses that are better, faster and easier to find.

Cheers!

Abbazz


No, 40mm wasn't the limit, there was at least for Exakta the Hugo Meyer Weitwinkel Doppel Anastigmat 1:6,8 f=3,8cm and the SOM Berthiot Olor 1:5,7 F=38


I don't even want to imagine trying to focus a 6.8/38 lens on a plain ground glass. For practical intents and purposes 40mm was the limit. The reason the 40s weren't faster was not because it would have caused a drop in quality, but it would have made the glass intrude too far into the camera body. Steinheil did manage to squeeze f/3.5 out of a 40mm triplet though. Faster 40s had to wait for advances in lens technology.