For the opportunity lens overview Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 many thanks to Oleg Shutyak.
Review Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80
There is a newer black version CZJ Biometar 2.8 / 80 with multi-enlightenment and designation Carl Zeiss Jena DDR MC Biometar 2.8 / 80. In this review, an old version of Biometar 2.8 / 80 with single-layer enlightenment is presented.
Due to the striped black and white design of the focus rings and aperture rings, this version of the Biometar is most commonly referred to as a 'zebra'. Also, I want to remind you that there is an even longer-focus Biometar - Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Biometar 2.8 /120.
Lens view Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80
The Biometar 2.8 / 80 scheme was slightly recalculated in the Soviet Union and a very good Soviet lens was obtained Vega-12B 2.8 / 90. By the way Vega-12B It seemed to me a more interesting lens than this Biometar 2.8 / 80.
View of the Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 lens with Nikon adapter
TTX Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 (Made in DDR)
Focal length: 80 mm
Aperture: F / 2,8-F / 22.0 with intermediate values 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16
Number of aperture blades: 8 pieces
Optical design: 5 lenses in 4 groups (Biometar type design)
Bayonet \ thread: Pentacon Six, P6, Bayonet B
Front Filter Diameter: 58mm
Weight: about 260g
MDF: approx 1m
Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 - lens from medium format camera with a Pentacon Six mount, which is identical to the Soviet 'B' mount. Lenses with this mount are easy to use on modern digital cameras.
View of the lens Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 with an adapter on a modern Nikon camera
I used Biometar 2.8 / 80 on Nikon SLR cameras using the Pentacon-Nikon adapter (aka KP-6 \ N), for more details, see Soviet lenses. There is also a Pentacon-Canon EOS crossover on Canon, for more details see old lenses at canon.
Sample photo on Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80
In general, I really like medium format lenses, they have their own unique charm. On a full frame camera EGF will be 80mm, and on Nikon DX crop 120mm, and on Canon 1.6x EGF will equal 128mm. With such a focal length, it is quite convenient to shoot portraits, plus the lens gives an interesting bokeh pattern and has shallow depth of field.
Example photo on Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80. Portrait
The lens has a very nice focus ring that rotates all over. 360 degrees, while the front lens does not rotate, and the trunk of the lens is extended by one centimeter. Minimum focusing distance is slightly less than one meter. When focusing on the camera Nikon D700 it was difficult for me to fall into sharpness, the green dot, which indicates precise focusing, didn’t want to catch fire, I was faced with the fact that not only my Biometar is difficult to focus on the green dot.
Example photo on Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80. Bokeh
The aperture of the lens is built of 8 petals and gives a fairly flat hole. There is an aperture control mode switch on the lens. Aperture values are only fixed from F / 2.8 to F / 22.0.
Sample photo on Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80
Sample Photos
All photos in the gallery below are shot on a Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 lens and camera Nikon D700, JPEG L Fine, Picture Control VI. Photos without processing, only reduced size and imprinted data from EXIF.
Personal experience
A good portrait lens is a real boon for the photographer. Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 is a slightly specific lens that requires fine focusing. I like drawing biometars lately. Lens all metal, sorry, these autofocus lenses do not do in our time. Compared with Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Biometar 2.8 /120 The 80mm option is much lighter. Considering that the lens is damn old, and at the same time gives out wonderful images, I can’t find any complaints about the lens.
Example photo on Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80. Sharpness.
Catalog of modern Carl Zeiss lenses can look at this link.
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Conclusions
The Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 80 is a good medium format lens. I recommend the newer version Carl Zeiss Jena DDR MC Biometar 2.8 / 80.
Material prepared Arkady Shapoval.
Arkady, thanks for the review, everything is fair. I use the version of MS. It’s hard to focus with an open aperture even through the Sony electronic viewfinder. I want to note that the resolution in the center of the frame is higher and therefore the combination of the average format of this lens and the crop factor of 1,5 gives a pretty good result.
I never understood why to put a non-format ... SF-glasses are designed for SF, on a narrow frame we get a loose, sluggish, bespontovoy picture. Jedem das seine, each format has its own glasses.
In the Soviet Union there was still a very interesting lens industrial 29 2.8 / 80
There is a review on it, though not very objective - due to testing on a camera with a large pixel, it was concluded that the lens was sharp on a small format. In reality, the resolution is only enough for these 12 megapixels of old full-frame small-format DSLRs ...
Industar-29 is much more good in appearance than good optically. Therefore, I put the old Zeiss Tessar 80 / 2.8 from 1939 in the body of such a lens with bad lenses - the result turned out to be not only worse, but, perhaps, much better than the original lens.
Radion, what does the lens do not allow the matrix? With examples, if possible.