Jena Apo-T 140 mm f/9 (Apo-Tessar)

[simple.joy]

Some time ago this lens was part of a couple of lenses I've bought... it's labeled Jena Apo-T 1:9 f=140 so it's probably a safe bet that this is indeed one of the newer Apo-Tessar lenses made in Jena after the split. I don't have the Zeiss numbers book, so I'm not sure when it was made exactly, but it seems to have been manufactured somewhere between 1955 and 1958. While I was able to find some information on the Apo-Tessars - which have been used as repro-lenses for a long time - I wasn't able to find anything on this particular variant with the Apo-T labeling. It seems likely that it's a similar situation (just reversed) like it was with the Opton S-Pl and similar shortened names the western part of Zeiss wasn't allowed to use. I've never encountered the same thing with a Tessar though...

Has anyone here ever seen such a lens and do you know which (repro) device(s) it was used in?

This is how the lens looks:



It has the same inscriptions on both sides, but only a mounting thread on one. As you can see it's a mightily slow lens with lots of aperture blades. Not very versatile, but still pretty good overall in terms of quality, as expected from an Apo-Tessar:











EDIT: I just remembered Arne Cröll's excellent write up on Carl Zeiss Jena... He indeed seems to mention and show the lens in there. So I'm going to read up as soon as possible. If you're interested as well, you can find it here: https://www.arnecroell.com/czj.pdf

Truly excellent information there as usual!

[BrianSVP]

The court case between CZO and CZJ which led to the "aus Jena" and "Jena" brandings ended in 1968, with CZJ agreeing to pay to license the Zeiss name in 1971, so your manufacture date is probably sometime in those years rather than in the 1950s, although I've run into presumably pre-1968 manufactured examples of their SLR lenses that have had a Jena/Aus Jena name ring that was simply screwed in on top of an existing CZJ name ring, so a later rebrand of an earlier-manufactured lens is certainly within the realm of possibility.

[jamaeolus]