Review of Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 (Exakta mount)

For the opportunity Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 Lens Review (Exakta mount) Many thanks to Andrei Mikhailovsky.

Review of Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 (Exakta mount)

Review of Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 (Exakta mount)

This review presents a Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 with a native Exakta mount and converted to fit a Nikon F mount. The aperture control ring and part of the focusing ring of the lens are colored in black and white stripes, such lenses are often called 'zebras'.

Enlightenment of the front and rear lens Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

Enlightenment of the front and rear lens Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

I already had a similar lens in the review, namely Carl Zeiss Jena DDR MC Sonnar 3,5 / 135 - black, with multi-layer coating and M42 mounting thread. The version without MS is older. The bezels of the 'zebra' and 'black' cases are very different, but all the other characteristics are almost identical. I also met a variant of Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 zebra for M42 thread. If anyone has any useful information about 135mm Sonnar variants, add it in the comments.

Lens view Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

Lens view Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 is interesting for its optical design, which forms pleasant images. The lens is an excellent portrait lens, it can pleasantly blur the distant plan. Of course, the best use for such a lens is full frame, or 35mm film. On cropped cameras, the lens can be a bit 'narrow', although even on crop the Sonnar 3,5 / 135 remains a remarkable 'glass'.

Lens view Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

Lens view Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 is made soundly. The focus ring rotates approximately 300 degrees, the focusing stroke is smooth. MDF 1 meter, has a depth of field scale and focusing distance. The aperture is only 6 blades, you can set the value from F / 3.5 to F / 22. There is a diaphragm repeater on the lens. All other lens elements can be seen in the photographs in the review.

Aperture view of the lens Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

Aperture view of the lens Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135

Sample Photos

Photos without processing. My version of the lens is redone so that it can focus on infinity. How to use old lenses on modern Nikon cameras will find here, and on Canon here.

View of the Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 lens on a modern camera

View of the Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 lens on a modern camera

Catalog of modern Carl Zeiss lenses can look at this link.

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Conclusions

Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 is a good old fix. Small aperture f / 3.5 is compensated by image quality.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

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Comments: 29, on the topic: Overview of Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 3,5 / 135 (Exakta mount)

  • Nina

    The cool sparrow in the last photo ...

  • ZLoy_sok

    I would like a little more detail about how it was redone to preserve infinity on Nikon. Thank you

    • Arkady Shapoval

      This is a question for the owner.

    • anonym

      working interval for nikon - read

  • Denis

    Arkady, so many Carl Zeiss lens reviews! What is your opinion, for example, is the Carl Zeiss Planar T * 1,4 / 50 ZF.2 lens out of the parameters of the Nikkor 50mm f / 1,4? The price is twice that of the first. The phrases (not yours) are misleading that Nikkor top lenses “set the quality standard ...” and they write the same about Carl Zeiss lenses. Thanks!

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Planar did not use, I can not say anything, Dmitry will help you with this - http://evtifeev.com/2245-50-2.html/9

      • Denis

        Good afternoon Arkady. Recently a 135 3.5 lens with the inscription aus jena ddr 135 3,5 serial noier 9658486 fell into the hands. Not an inscription sonnar or carl zeiss. I read that similar lenses were produced for the US market. Lens zebra. Did I understand everything correctly? And one more thing. When installed on a Samsung 2000 through an adapter, an overrun for infinity was discovered. Is it possible to fix without disassembling the glass?

        • Sergei

          Denis, running beyond infinity is not a question for the lens, but for the adapter. Chinese adapters are not accurate. If the thickness is slightly greater, then there will be no infinity. If a little thinner, then there will be a flight. As a rule, the Chinese are reinsured and make the second option (thinner, with a flight over infinity). Having such an adapter, you just need to remember about it. By zooming in, you set the best focusing and then shoot everything you need at infinity ... Of course, it's easier to unscrew the lens all the way (to infinity) and shoot. But this is a question of the accuracy of the adapter. Disassembling and calibrating a lens for a Chinese adapter seems to me the worst option.

          • juris

            if the flight, then we make a washer from a sheet of paper

            • Denis

              He did.

          • Denis

            There is a joke. Overrun beyond infinity is observed only with this lens. All others have normal focus.

          • Denis

            Thanks for the answer. I solved the problem by cutting out a couple of paper wallets and put them on ahh pads. Magnificent glass.

  • Sergei

    I have the same only M42, on the kenon the drawing is wonderful on the open one, I have not tried it on the nikon yet - there is no adapter.

  • Miroslav

    I have one)

  • Aloha

    Please tell me which is better to take this or Jupiter 37A? they cost us almost the same, is there any difference in quality?

  • En

    I join the question of the difference with Jupiter 37A.
    The photographs presented are excellent. Yes, that's just made on FF.
    How will it behave on crop? Is there anything to read on the topic of using high-resolution lenses on crop?

  • R'RёS,R ° F "RёR№

    On the crop it is excellent, I have the same thing, but on the M42! Jupiter was, but this sky is earth! Jupiter, at least mine, loses to Zeiss in terms of sharpness and color rendition, and the light of the side and oncoming Yu MC is afraid more than this, which is not MC at all. There is nothing to say about the quality of the mechanics. For Zeiss, everything is clear and smooth, the distance scale is convenient, that at a short distance, that at a large distance, almost the same movements are required, for Yu, this is much more complicated. Yu's blur is dirty, darker and more contrasting than Zeiss. Sometimes interrupts the picture in the sharpness zone. In Zeiss, the current was not noticed. The background, although it turns out motley bright, is quite pleasant. The decisive factor is the price! She is the SAME.

    • FEDOR

      I also have a CZJ zebra with m42 thread, QUESTION: on Nikon, through which transition. Do you take off if you take off with Nikon? I have my D50 removed from KP-42 / N but there is no infinity, this is not good. THANKS!

    • FEDOR

      Which lens hood is best for him (CZJ Zebra)?

  • Saintleg

    I join Vitaliy- the lens is excellent. D5100 camera, I really like sharpness, but shooting at 3,5 is very difficult due to the small depth of field, and a model with cars plays, runs from the folder))) by the way, attaching the M42 via a Chinese adapter for 2u.e. there is no infinity, the maximum focusing distance is 10 meters (today I was wondering for street portraits)

  • Bunn

    I have a 135mm F4 Zonnar, also ekzaktovsky, only older than the "zebra", with a leather grip at the focus ring. Compared with Jupiter-11 (not blackened, M39, with a ring of diaphragm presets and another, freely moving, for the diaphragm itself). Almost identical picture, except that the Jupiter slightly yellows due to the coating (the Zeiss simply does not have it). But the German is assembled like a Mercedes, of course, like an expensive microscope everything moves, unlike Jupiter, from which everything dangles.
    In German Ibei I took only $ 50, it’s a couple of dollars more expensive than Jupiter.

    Here is for comparison. Jupiter above (filmed at sunset, therefore very yellow), below the zonar, from the same point only the very next day.
    http://i66.fastpic.ru/big/2015/0409/e0/958dcf4209f729dce8188735215f4ae0.png

    • Bunn

      * This is on the crop canon.

  • anonym

    There is such a lens, not bad, I will not say that it is much better than the U37, just a little different. And yes, it is much less afraid of light exposure than Jupiter. Infinity would be for him ...

  • anonym

    Gentlemen, I wrote a comment above and still made infinity on this lens. It is done elementary and not traumatic, you do not need to saw anything. Remove the back cover on 3 screws, then the m42 itself, also 3 screws, we do not touch the stands for fixing the cover. Now we look - there are two helicoid guides, rotate the focus and you will recognize them. Each of the guides is fastened with 2 screws, on the same one a bracket with a spring is attached to the diaphragm control system. We don't touch anything there. Next to the attachment point of one of the guides there is a black screw, we look closely, it is black, like the case, it is fixed with black paint on top. It blocks the movement of the helicoid into the depth of the lens barrel. We unscrew it completely and save the case if we want to return everything back for use on Canon, for example. Assembling the lens. Voila. The helicoid is now screwed in deeper, on the lens scale - the flight over infinity, which is what was required. I have infinity on one adapter, on the other I almost miss it, apparently it's thicker. In this case, you can grind off the adapter, or look for another.

    • FEDOR

      And what is the transition. M42 thread is removed and put KP-A / N or wound on the thread KP-m42 / N or what?

  • anonym

    Ps. Anticipating the questions, as I guessed, I completely disassembled the lens (I don’t advise you to do this, it’s not Helios, it’s not so simple), but the casket just opens. But without disassembling this could not be understood

  • Denis

    Good afternoon Arkady. Recently a 135 3.5 lens with the inscription aus jena ddr 135 3,5 serial noier 9658486 fell into the hands. Not an inscription sonnar or carl zeiss. I read that similar lenses were produced for the US market. Lens zebra. Did I understand everything correctly? And one more thing. When installed on a Samsung 2000 through an adapter, an overrun for infinity was discovered. Is it possible to fix without disassembling the glass?

  • Julia

    I have such a lens, please tell me where on the network can I see the year of manufacture by the lens numbers of Carl Zeiss?

  • Lensmaster

    Regarding the comparison with Jupiter, it should be noted that at the output it cannot be responsibly said that the East / German is just better. Both have been used with normal lens hoods in various lighting conditions since the 90s. Both on film and digital. Similar results. The difference is in convenience and mechanics. Well, in the assembly, more precisely in the components and details.
    Jupiter's pusher, strung on a helicoid, eventually turns into a rather controversial mass, falling off in handfuls along with dirt, sand, etc., accumulated over the years. A big plus is that it can be easily disassembled and assembled, cleaned and lubricated with silicone.
    Zeiss has a slightly different picture. And getting to the diaphragm is more difficult. And, as in my particular case, on the exhibit bought for a penny for restoration, the front nameplate, combined with the thread, was so attached that my chemistry did not take it. No way. Generally. And it was solemnly necessary to unwind the face from the muzzle to clean the frontal lenses that had swam into the web. I had to carefully destroy it piece by piece. Cut and take out in pieces. And in place of it, then order a plastic home-made product on the printer. A penny, but the sediment remained. And although it is more beautiful than the old half-rotten muzzle, the lens has lost its presentation. From the tail, by the way, understands with a bang. The mechanics of the rules, like Jupiter.
    The main thing is that already at half-stop when clamped, one and the other, clean and smeared, have excellent sharpness. For portraits, it is. On a fully open one, it is difficult to get into the eyes, either on a crop or on a fullka. But you can. I have always closed. In addition to just Nikon 8008, here you could see inside and out, in detail, in my case on 801s. I still haven't seen a better optical viewfinder, and I probably won't. There I shot on film in the open, on the 37th. Zeiss always covered in portraits.
    Radozhiva has Jupiter first in the poll for the best Soviet portrait lens. The way it is. Undoubtedly. And I would not say that he is worse than Zeiss.
    Multiple petals, and as a result cinematic circles, design, reliability, ease of operation, initially stepless aperture, amazing sharpness, shanks ... and so on and so forth and so on.
    Zeiss is good, sharp, cute. But it is more complicated mechanically, and not everyone, objectively, will cope with its cleaning.
    It's about the photo.
    Under the video, on the crop, both are already useless, on the fullk, nailed to the floor in close-ups, they are very pulling. Sharpness and blurring behind the eyes, especially Jupiter, especially with a normal filter and with a hood.
    I have seen bad 135s in my life, at 3.5 or so, these same two, with rare exceptions, considering their age, are good. And with proper care for them, they will live as much, or more. This applies to both mc versions and regular ones. Something like that.

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