Any info on this lens?

[gearsNcogs]

Tessar 2.8/50 Carl Zeiss Jena DDR. i've never heard of it before, but that's not terribly surprising. right now it's really cheap on ebay (although there's still two days left, so who knows). can someone shed some light on this lens?

[scsambrook]

Well, the Tessar lens is one of the great classics ... Just google "Zeiss Tessar history" and see what comes up on your screen . . . should keep you entertained for a while reading about its background.

I suppose every MF-Person should have one ! In some ways it's a modest lens, no ultra wide aperture here, no wiping out of backgrounds, no spectacularly beautiful "bokeh" - just crisp, bright images. Provided the sample is in good condition, of course.

And the big bonus is that they usually sell quite cheaply.

"Don't Delay, Buy Today"

[Sevo]

Well, it is a Tessar 2.8/50 - probably the most common lens of the fifties to seventies if we count all makers and derivatives. By the sixties, it mostly appered on fixed-lensers (and by now, in a miniature version on cell phones). It is not that common as a Exakta/M42 SLR lens after the fifties, as price wars over normals eventually closed the gap between the entry level Domiplan triplets and the faster Biotar/Planar types so that the Tessar pricing got too close to the latter.

Tessars have become somewhat hyped (with some makers releasing new high-priced boutique Tessar types around ten years ago) and are relatively expensive right now, for what originally was a entry level kit lens.

[gearsNcogs]

well, i guess i'll just check and see how it plays out over the next 2 days. hopefully it stays nice and cheap.