Carl Zeiss Sonnar 2/85 Contax IIa (1953)

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Thanks to recent lens sales, I have been able to grab on the fly a shamefully bargain offer that appeared
of an Oberkochen Carl Zeiss Sonnar 2/85 for Contax IIa (obviously compatible also with older Contax II).
This copy has some barrel use traces but is optically immaculate.
Year of production is not 100% certain but by comparing various info on Hartmut Thiele's book I have
been able to date it with reliable approximation to 1953.

This lens makes a perfect pendant with my Carl Zeiss Jena T Sonnar 2/85 made for Contax II in 1947.

Like readers of Marco Cavina know, but many others don't know, the two lenses are not the same.

Ludwig Bertele, the mythical lens designer, inventor of the Sonnar and Biogon lens schemes
(which thing alone will tell everything there is to say for many of you), father of the legendary Olympia Sonnar 2.8/180
and Biogon 4.5/21 (two of the very best lenses ever made in their respective focal lenghts), designed the original
2/85 Sonnar in the early Thirties (he patented it on April 24th, 1933), and the original scheme, which consists in 6 lenses
assembled in 3 groups.
This scheme, which later that year he also used for the 2/50 Sonnar, was maintained identical in the post-war Jena version
of the 2/85 Sonnar, which is identical to the pre-war version except for the new T coating.

After the end of the war, when many of the Zeiss engineers were carried to West Germany (because Jena was in the Soviet
controlled area) without most of the technical equipment, both the Contax camera and the lenses had to be
rebuilt. Ludwig Bertele himself rebuilt the 2/85 Sonnar into the new Oberkochen's post-war version, and while doing that he
brought some modification to the optical scheme, which was augmented by one lens (7 instead of the 6 of the pre-war version),
and, most importantly, was modified by cementing the last three separate elements into a single group.
This solution wasn't really new, since Bertele already adopted in the 1.5/50 Sonnar (1932), but was new to the 85.
Finally, the new version used different and more sophisticated glass formulas, particularly in the lenses of the frontal triple group.

All these changes make of the post-war Oberkochen 2/85 Sonnar a quite different lens from the pre-war and post-war Jena 2/85 Sonnar.

The Soviet Jupiter-9, which was a clone of the 2/85 Sonnar, is in fact a clone of this second, post-war 2/85 Sonnar,
as it features the cemented rear triple group. This cuts short the rumour that the earliest copies of the Jupiter-9 might have
really been rebranded pre-war Zeiss lenses. They were obviously not, because the pre-war 2/85 had a different optical scheme.

Another interesting fact is that the post-war 2/85 Sonnar for the Contax IIa was ported over the Contarex system with the
optical scheme intact. The large retrofocal space in the original Contax lens allowed for the rangefinder lens to be adapted to the
Contarex SLR without modifications of the optical scheme.

Here's a very poor photo I took "on the fly" of my two lenses. On the left, the Jena 1947 version for the Contax II (same as
pre-war plus T, 6/3 optical scheme); on the right, the Oberkochen 1953 version for Contax IIa (7/3 optical scheme).

It's difficult to tell from my photo, but the Oberkochen version is slightly taller than the Jena's.
The frontal, aperture, and focus ring shapes are slightly different.
The depth of field graphic work on the barrel is almost identical, except for a red arrowhead which is present on the Jena lens and absent on Oberkochen's.

I have not made a comparison yet. That will be done on film for sure, and possibly on the M9 if I can find a way to focus the lenses correctly.
Here's a few samples taken with the Oberkochen lens on the Nex-3. Keep in mind that the Nex-3 is an APS-C camera so it only shows
the rendition of the central part of the lens:

#1 Nice dimensionality at f/4 - note how the space between the two cats becomes visually perceptible

#1/bis 100% crop of the above

#2 Nasty background. The rendition is a bit busy but much softer compared to that of the Jupiter-9 (same 7/3 optical scheme)

#3 A series of three at different f/stop. Wide open, bokeh is nicely drawn, highlights circles are not intrusive

#4 At f/2.8, bokeh is at it's creamiest - it's the nicest balance between control of circle edges and spherical aberration smoothing

#5 At f/4, bokeh becomes more contrasted due to the reduction of spherical aberration

#6 Wide open, test for in-focus sharpness

#6/bis 100% crop of the above - note how chromatic aberrations are nearly absent, this kind of control is typical of old style Zeiss lens design

#7 f/4 confirms to be best option for dimensional rendering

#8 Wide open, with distant background the rendition is truly creamy

#9 Wide open, another potential tricky situation but the highlight circles behave very mildly

#10 At f/2.8, portraits are really poetic, with nice macrocontrast and great colours

#11 At f/5.6, the ability of the lens to record subtle colour variation shades is stunning

#12 f/4, best dimensionality, excellent detail

#12 100% crop of the above (photo is a bit back-focused)

If you like this review, please rate it and, it you are a facebook user, please share it.

skida · Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 1:48 am Post subject:

The results are outstanding, and the subjects and framing perfectly demonstrate the qualities you wanted to illustrate. I am guessing this is a dull day - have you tried it in the sunshine yet?

fermy · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 1974

Thanks for the review, very informative and a good mix of history and lens performance analysis.

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7584 Location: Hong Kong

Very good review! I know why early copy of Jupiter 9 have different bokeh than my Jena T Sonnar 85 after reading this thread.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Excellent review Orio. I have a fairly early J9 and can confirm the 'sweet spot' is indeed f4. However, my J9 can't match this lens for sharpness and dimensionality. I have a very good copy of the J9, but still, it's not as good as this Zeiss.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

I corrected a typo: aperture in #10 was f/2.8 not f/2

DR.JUAN · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 661

The sonnar's portraits are alive.

The new "old" school shows the best side of the photography, the beauty images taken with it beauty lenses.

Thanks for sharing.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Oh, sorry, I thought you had one. Smile

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Such a great review , many thanks! Congrats for this great lens!!