Review Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

According provided by Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 lens huge thanks to Sergey Guzenko.

Review Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

Review Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

The Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 is a fairly well-known wide-angle lens appreciated by many photographers and videographers. I've seen it in three different flavors: with a white aperture ring and a black focus ring, with stripes (zebra like in this review) and an all-black body with black control rings. Also, there are lenses with M42 mounting thread and Exakta mount, the latter are often redesigned for M42.

Carl Zeiss has been producing wide-angle lenses under the 'Flektogon' brand since 1956. The Flektogon 4/20 was developed in 1961 and was the first super wide-angle lens from Carl Zeiss, previously only the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/25. In 1976 the lens was updated to a faster version - Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 2.8 / 20. Flektogons have been discontinued since the 90s and have been replaced by 'Distagon' lenses.

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 MDF Focused

The lens body is made of metal, the focus ring and aperture are also metal, with a black and white color like a zebra. The copy from the review is rather shabby, the focus ring and aperture have a slight backlash. Personally, I was surprised by the very small rear lens of the lens.

The lens from the review is most likely broken. On a full-format camera, the left edge of the image is absolutely not working, because in this review I can not judge the image quality of this lens.

If anyone has real experience using Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20, please leave your impressions in the comments.

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

The focus ring rotates very tightly 300 degrees, while the lens trunk is lengthened by half a centimeter. The front lens does not rotate when focusing. Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 has depth of field scale for F / 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 and focusing distance scale in meters and feet. An unusual feature of the lens can be considered a very small minimum focusing distance, which is only 16 cm. In combination with the ultra-wide viewing angle, such a small focusing distance will allow you to play with perspective and get interesting visual effects :). There is also a mark for correcting focusing when shooting in the infrared spectrum.

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

The aperture consists of 6 shiny, not blackened blades, closes to F / 22, you can use the values ​​of F / 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 and one intermediate value between them. The lens has automatic iris control on the respective cameras. This specimen came to me with the aperture control lug fixed, so the aperture control became completely manual.

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 on Canon EOS Digital 350D

The lens uses large diameter filters, at 77 mm, and, due to the combination of small length and such a large front lens, looks rather unusual on the camera.

This time, the review turned out without a pack with RAW files, because there is nothing special to show:

The optical design of Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 formed the basis of the Soviet MS Mir-20N 3.5 / 20 (and his over 9000 modifications).

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 on Nikon AF N8008S


I used Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4/20 on Canon cameras with an adapter M42-Canon EOS, and on Nikon cameras with an adapter M42-Nikon. Special thanks to Onishchuk Vadim who gave Radozhiva the M42-Canon EOS adapter with a chip :)

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

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

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Comments: 46, on the topic: Review of Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 4 / 20

  • Vladislav

    I have this wonderful lens. He is terribly afraid of any frontal flare, up to the re-reflection of the diaphragm from the sensor. Use with a deep blend or flags.
    The sharpness is amazing at 4, at 8-11 crystal.

  • Eugene

    Hello, Arkady, tell me please, is 600d better than such a fleetogon and a similar plan (the manual is not a problem) or 24mm 2,8 canon (pancake)? I select a budget moderate shirik. thanks

  • Sergei

    The MTF curves of the successor to this lens, Flektogon 20mm / 2,8 at 5,6 aperture, have been published.
    The center is very good, but resolution begins to decrease markedly across the field. The angles are already frankly weak.
    Although for his time he looked quite worthy.

  • Andrei

    Please tell me, does the mirror not touch the full frame?

  • Eugene

    Good afternoon everyone! I have a Nikon d 650 with which I want to use this lens. I know that they have different mounts and for full use I need an adapter. However, there is a chance that the adapter will rest against the objective lens. Can anyone have tried using jena flektogon on a full frame nikon with a lens adapter? If so, how much does the “beauty” of the lens go?

    • Rodion

      It's a very bad idea to use an old 20/4 with a lens adapter. The optical quality will be unsatisfactory.

  • Jury

    the minimum focusing distance (from the front lens) with the cropped Sonya a6000 is no more than 5-6 cm.

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