Why do lens names end with 'ar'?

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4748 Location: Cheshire, England

When in the trade years ago I was asked by a customer why lenses' (with some exceptions) names end in "or", "ar" and "on"
examples Rokkor, Nikkor, Topcor, Soligor etc. Tessar, Westar, Takumar, Meritar, Pantar, Color Skopar, Elmar etc. Biogon, Super Angulon, Summicron, Kiron, Rikenon and so on and so forth.

I had no idea. We (the staff) discussed it later and came to the conclusion that names ending with 'ar' were copies of Tessars and Elmars and so on. We told the customer that and he was satisfied.

That was absolute crap of course but at least one of my colleagues believed it to be true.

So who's the fool? Me believing it was crap or Colin for believing it to be true.

Or does anyone know the true facts?

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

Cooltouch will have a more accurate answer, but I'd always taken the 'er' 'ar' suffix as 'belonging to, part of, or derivative of' a certain family or group, thereby gaining some kudos of design. Since there's no hard and fast rule about it, it leaves the door open for less than scrupulous makers to dream up something that sounds like it might be something else. Over time, it just became another marketing ploy and if Arfur Daly ever imported lenses you can be sure he'd have branded them 'Londoflex' or 'Peckinar' or something like that.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

It's really simple, Zeiss, Goerz, Voigtlander and several other top German makers introduced lenses with names like Unar, Tessar, Planar, Dagor, Protar, Heliar, Dynar etc, this was at the turn of the 19/20th centuries. Everyone else copied them.

There may be some German language vaguery that was responsible for this, but I expect it was just something one maker started and the rest copied.

It's like cars, many makers offered a GT or GTi or GTa or whatever, they simply copied each other.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Oldhand · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 4:30 am Post subject:

"The word Tessar is an acronym derived from the Greek word
tessares meaning four.
It expresses that this lens is
comprised of four lens elements."

So I guess it all started with Greek.

"The Planar lens delivered
superior image definition with an
unusually wide aperture for that time. In
particular, the field curvature was very
low. In other words, the image was very
"plane" or flat �which is precisely what the name "Planar" was supposed to suggest."

So perhaps Planar simply followed the trend set by Tessar in naming convention, and other lenses and lens manufacturers followed similar paths.

See:
http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B8B6F/EmbedTitelIntern/CLN_39_en_Tessar/$File/CLN39_en_tessar.pdf
http://blogs.zeiss.com/photo/en/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/en_CLB_40_Nasse_Lens_Names_Planar.pdf

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Yes, that makes a good deal of sense. I wasn't aware of the Greek origin of 'Tessar'. And 'Planar', even in English, is an adjective which means a plane-like surface.

Considering the widespread impact these two lens formulae have had on the world of photography, I'm not surprised the suffixes were imitated and varied upon. Like substitutin -on for -ar at some point, for example. With Schneider, a long time competitor to Zeiss, Xenar can lead easily to Xenon.

I found an article at Wikipedia called the History of photographic lens design. This article gives a person perspective, which might otherwise be lacking. Early lenses were named according to their construction or their purpose. E.g., regarding the Petzval Portrait Lens, Wikipedia states "The Voigtl�nder-Petzval was the first camera and lens specifically designed to take photographs, instead of being a modified artist's camera obscura. The Petzval Portrait was the dominant portrait lens for nearly a century." And then there are many others whose name was reflective of the lens design, e.g., the Dallmeyer Rapid Rectilinear of 1866, or the Steinheil Aplanat, also of 1866.

And then along comes Zeiss, with a breakthrough in lens design. It was an anastigmat, but my bet is that Zeiss insisted on using a name that they could trademark or copyright. It was the Protar of 1890. Wikipedia writes, "[the] Protar was the first successful anastigmat (highly corrected [for the era] for all aberrations, including properly for astigmatism) lens. It was scalable from f/4.5 portrait to f/18 super wide angle. The Protar was originally called the Anastigmat, but that descriptive term quickly became generic and the lens was given a fanciful name in 1900."

I believe the Protar was the one that started it all. When you scan through the rest of the article, almost all later lenses have been given "fanciful" names. In imitation, I'm sure, of Zeiss's highly popular designs.

EDIT: I realized upon rereading this note that, in the next to last sentence, I left out the word "later" before lenses (hence corrected), as in "almost all later lenses," not "almost all lenses" - which doesn't make any sense.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I think you got it.
The 'ar' began with either Zeiss or Voigtlander. Protar and Heliar trademarks seem to have both come out in 1900. Zeiss was actually selling Protar formula lenses for 8-9 years before coming up with the name, possibly prompted by Voigtlander when they came out with their super-lens. So one copied the other almost certainly, but I'm not sure which came first.

Tessar may have just followed with the 'ar' as something of a custom at that point, as by 1902 Voigtlander was using 'ar', a lot.

Before the Tessar the trade names for lens designs were only rather generic or descriptive, with the exception of the Petzval which was actually patented, and at least sometimes mentioned as a type.

These were not trademarkable names (Petzvals patent protection and trademark were expired).

bernhardas · Expire: 2017-05-23

edited

Bille · Joined: 03 Jan 2013 Posts: 381

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photographic_lens_design

kansalliskala · Expire: 2016-12-30

8 replies and no-one mentioned pirates. Smile

biggest mystery in my mind are the russian names:
most of them planets and stars .. Helios, Jupiter, Tair, Vega
then 'Industar'

Oldhand · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 9:18 am Post subject:

scsambrook · Expire: 2011-11-18

Mmm . . . in the early 20th century there were quite a few lenses whose names didn't end in -ar, -on and -or, but most of these have been largely forgotten. Ross had some wonderful advertising-friendly names such as 'Homocentric', 'Combinable', 'Convertible Anastigmat' and 'Telecentric' . . . maybe we should ask ourselves whether more memorable names would have ensured greater success for them Wink

My wife says maybe she'd call a pet Elmar or Sonnar but she just can't imagine saying 'C'mon, Telecentric, time for walkies!'

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4748 Location: Cheshire, England

Thanks for your answers here, I had an inkling that other manufacturers were following Zeiss's naming convention and thanks for the interesting ancient German and Greek! I had an idea that the Planar was fairly self descriptive.

My Halina Prefect has a Hakings Anastigmat lens, wouldnt Halinar sound much better. Or Hakar.

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

as suffixes
'-ar' comes from Latin 'aris' and means 'belonging to, connected to, as e.g. in 'nuclear'
'-on' is a bit obscure, one could say it's the neuter from Greek 'os' and means 'basic genetic element' e.g. operon, exon, intron or inert gas e.g. argon
'-or' again comes from Latin and means 'one who' or 'that which'

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.

Same reason why so many female names and with an "a" Smile

It's a fashion.

Btw., you can take almost any German women names and put an "r" or "ar" on the end and it sounds like a lens name Very Happy

Annar
Kristinar
Celinar
Sarar
Sophiar
Linar
Lisar
Janar
Emmar
Miar
....

Many inventors name their inventions by their girlfriends, wifes, dogs, parrots or whatever.... for example Leitz Hektor was named after the inventors dog "Hektor"... or the famous medication "Ritalin" was named after inventors wife "Rita". If the ritalin inventor was a lens maker his lens would be named "Ritar" and the high-ebd version maybe "Ritaron" Very Happy

Aanything · Expire: 2014-05-30

The ones ending in -gon (biogon, distagon, flektogon) presumably derive from the ancient greek γωνια (gonia) that means "angle", and that is abundantly found in geometry (penta-gon, octa-gon, ortho-gon-al etc.)

danfromm · Joined: 04 Sep 2011 Posts: 576

Hmm. This discussion is classic Internet. Pooled ignorance and reliance on tertiary (or worse) sources.

For fun and a little refutation of some of the ideas presented in this discussion, see Fabre http://www.suaudeau.eu/memo/Fabre/Fabre.html

Cooltouch, your comment that "the French have not been heavy contributors to lens design" is somewhat time-bound. Remember where photography was invented.

Y'r comment about suffixes in French seems odd; Berthiot and Hermagis lenses' names often end in -or and Boyer lenses were named after gemstones.

It is true that the major centers of optical design between the wars were probably Jena (CZ), Leicester (TTH) and Rochester (EKCo) and that production of lenses for civilian use in Europe and the UK started to dry up and blow away around 1960. The survivors produced new designs but not, for the most part, with adaptation to tiny-chip digital cameras in mind.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I do look in Fabre. Fascinating stuff but not quite to the point here.
He isn't heavy on the history of lens marketing.

Nothing there that I can see indicates that lens names were significant for marketing prior to 1900.
Prior to 1900 lenses were on the whole named descriptively and these were used across manufacturers.
Whatever was unique was tied in with the manufacturers name and their generic trademarks, or very occasionally with the designer.

The contemporary sources that are relevant are the venues for advertising and publicity.

Like camera magazines, of which there were quite a few in the 1900's.

http://books.google.com/books?id=HcI5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA188&dq=camera+magazine&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QiavUrjGCIj9oATpzYEI&ved=0CGsQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=camera%20magazine&f=false

danfromm · Joined: 04 Sep 2011 Posts: 576

Luis, there are many lens names in the optics sections. Did you look in them?

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

In Fabre ?
Sure.
But they were not trademarkable brands or if so were not at all catchy.
Look at the 1897 edition.

There is one thing there I didn't know, and that Zeiss was calling the Planar a Planar at that time, so thats probably the daddy of the 'ar' business, not the Protar.

The Protar is there but called just an Anastigmat
The Goerz Dagor is referred to as Double Anastigmat - on the German lens ring it probably read as Doppelanastigmat.
There are probably others that were renamed later.

"Orthostigmat", "Euryscope" etc. doesn't trip off the tongue.

danfromm · Joined: 04 Sep 2011 Posts: 576

Luis, a few names weren't patented and were used by more than one manufacturer. Aplanat, Rapid Rectilinear, Anastigmat, Double Anastigmat and a few others. Most of the names Fabre were used by only one manufacturer. Goerz, Steinheil and Zeiss licensed other makers to use their designs, and that's why we see their trade names used by more than one maker.

Here are some names, by the year Fabre first mentioned them:

1889
Pantoscope
Euryscope

1892
Lynkeioscope
Anastigmats (Zeiss)
P�rigraphe

1897
M�galogon
Bistigmat
Orthostigmat
Collinear
Stigmatic
Planigraph
Planar
Eurygraphe
Antispectroscopic

1902
Unar
Aristostigmat
Apoquartz
Globe Lens
Hypergon

1906
Linear
Heliar
Unofocal
Lumar
Tetranar
Lux-orthar
Summar
Euryplan
Heligonal
Celor
Homocentric
Kalloptat
Tumar
Combinar
Octonar
Plastigmat
Tessar
Syntor
Solar
Hemi-anastigmat
Periplan
Pantar
Orthoscope
Bis-telar
Multifex
Adon
Tele-Peconar

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

ramiller500 · Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:42 pm Post subject:

My Canon SLR lenses all have the ending "-on".

Bille · Joined: 03 Jan 2013 Posts: 381