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Material after Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1: 2,8 f = 80 mm T specially for Radozhiva prepared Rodion Eshmakov (subscribe to Instagram!)

Tessar lenses reached f / 2.8 aperture back in the 30s (see here и here). Along with this achievement, they lost their former name - "eagle eye" - as they suffered from pronounced aberrations at the full aperture. The rather poor palette of optical glass did not allow achieving the best characteristics.

During the war, the industry received a serious impetus to development, new types of glass appeared (in particular, with the use of lanthanum and thorium). In the post-war period, when the demand for photographic equipment increased, the rather simple and technological scheme of Tessar attracted the attention of designers. In East Germany in the late 40s, G. Zollner recalculated old Carl Zeiss Tessar lenses for new types of glass, significantly improving their performance. This is how the mass small-format Tessar 50 / 2.8 (1947) and the rather rare medium-format Tessar 80 / 2.8 (1950) appeared.

The reason why the new Tessar 80 / 2.8 did not get widespread is not at all the poor image quality: the Biometar 80 / 2.8, which quickly replaced it, is hardly much better, but it is more complicated and more expensive to manufacture. The fact is that for Tessar lenses, which have a rather significant value of residual spherical aberration, the so-called. “Focus shift” - change the position of the focal plane during aperture. The same effect is noticeable when using small-format lenses such as Tessar 50 / 2.8 or Industar-61 on modern digital cameras, but in the film era it was noticeable on medium format cameras. Biometar lenses have relatively well corrected spherical aberration, but rather strong field distortions, which are especially characteristic of planar lenses with a long back focal segment.

The Tessar 80 / 2.8 (1950 version) was produced in small numbers for the Exakta 6x6 chambers and, in a redesigned housing, for the Praktisix and Pentacon Six chambers, the Certo Six valve chambers. Lenses for Exakta cameras are distinguished by a threaded mount, which is not widely used - it is difficult to find adapters for other systems, but there are factory versions of these lenses for small-format cameras with M42 thread. Lenses for Certo Six cameras have an integrated central shutter and are rigidly integrated. The Tessar 80 / 2.8 for the Pentacon Six has a jumping aperture mechanism and fewer blades compared to the Exakta and Certo versions.

Sources: time, two.

This article is dedicated to the 80 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8 / 1952 lens adapted for small format (version for Exakta 6x6 cameras).

Technical specifications

Optical design - 4 lenses in 3 groups, "Tessar";
Focal length - 80 mm;
Frame format (calculated) - 60x60 mm;
Aperture ratio - 1: 2.8;
Aperture limits - F / 2.8 - F / 16;
Aperture device - 16 blades, with presetting mechanism;
The minimum focusing distance is 1 m;
Mounting for filters - thread М49х0.75 mm;
Mounting to the camera - thread М60х1.

Design and adaptation features

The Tessar 80 / 2.8 is housed in a shiny aluminum case with a design characteristic of early 50s East German optics. It is interesting that the early Soviet lens bodies were developed "in the image and likeness" of East German ones, up to copying individual units: for example, the Helios-44 series 000xxxx lenses for Zenit cameras have the same aperture presetting method as this Tessar 80 / 2.8.

It is difficult to find an adapter for using the lens on modern cameras, so a new M60-M42 shank was made to order. Important: in order not to lose the contrast of the image, the inner surface of the shank must be high-quality blackened.

The adapter seriously increases the size of the lens due to the need to compensate for the significant difference in working distances between small and medium format cameras.
The lens helicoid provides a minimum focusing distance of 1 meter. Although this is not so bad for such a focal length, you can forget about "near-macro" without additional devices. The Soviet Jupiter-9 85/2 in the version for SLR cameras had an MDF of 0.8 m.However, the MDF of the rangefinder Jupiter-9 is 1.15 m.

The focusing ring seemed narrow to me and not very comfortable in shape.

The good thing is that the front lens of the Tessar 80 / 2.8 is sunk into the housing, which creates a hood effect. This design feature made it possible to accommodate the aperture presetting mechanism, the presence of which was important for using the lens on SLR cameras. Presetting the aperture value is carried out by pressing and moving to the desired mark of the ring closest to the camera. When the diaphragm is closed, both rings of the diaphragm setting mechanism move simultaneously.

Today, the preset mechanism has lost its relevance due to the strong influence of focus shift on digital cameras and the proliferation of electronic viewfinders. But the luxurious XNUMX-blade diaphragm is still pleasing to the eye and provides smooth bokeh discs at all apertures.

The aperture blades of this lens have a dark matte finish, unlike Carl Zeiss Tessar 105 / 3.5 T... Good blackening of the petals provides better image contrast at small apertures.

Lenses Tessar 80 / 2.8 T, like many lenses of that time, have a single-layer blue antireflection coating, which provides maximum light transmission in the green region of the spectrum.

This type of coating proved to be so common that lenses from the 50s and 60s are often referred to as "blue optics."

It's funny that for some reason in the USSR there was no specific type of antireflection coatings until the end of the 60s: Soviet optics differs in a wide variety of parameters of the applied coatings, therefore, when choosing it, it is important to take into account this feature as well as determining the color rendition, contrast and behavior of the lens in backlight.

Tactilely and externally, Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 80 / 2.8 is a very pleasant lens, without flaws. When dealing with such things, aesthetic pleasure can be obtained even before the shooting process. However, the lens is needed not for this, but for taking photographs - here the real value of the lens is determined by its optical properties.

Optical properties. Comparison of Tessar 80 / 2.8 (1952) and Tessar 75 / 2.8 (1938)

The “late” Tessar 80 / 2.8, in comparison with its 1930s progenitor, is characterized by high image quality in the center of the frame with open aperture. Spherical aberration has been corrected enough so as not to be a hindrance when shooting - the lens has both high contour sharpness (unlike the early Tessar 80 / 2.8 and 75 / 2.8) and good reproduction of fine details. Below are paired photos on Tessar 80 / 2.8 (1952) and Tessar 75 / 2.8 (1938) at open aperture, as well as crop images.

With aperture (by a stop or two), the sharpness in the center of the frame increases, but it is difficult to notice any significant superiority over the old pre-war Tessar. Below are paired photos on Tessar 80 / 2.8 (1952) and Tessar 75 / 2.8 (1938) at apertures F / 2.8-F / 5.6, as well as crop images.

Field distortion, however, is quite strong at f / 2.8 - really good edge and corner sharpness can only be achieved at f / 5.6-f / 8. However, aberrations are much better corrected than the pre-war lens.

The overall contrast of the image produced by the coated Tessar 80 / 2.8 T is usually higher than that of the pre-war Tessar 75 / 2.8, especially when working in backlit conditions. However, the color rendering of the pre-war lens is often more correct, albeit muted: the contribution of the antireflection coating to the transmission spectrum affects. Tessar 80 / 2.8 T is visibly yellow. Below is a paired photo of a Tessar 75 / 2.8 (1938) and a Tessar 80 / 2.8 (1952).

You can also pay attention to the different nature of the bokeh of pre-war and post-war lenses. The Tessar 80 / 2.8 T does not tend to bubble and swirls the background noticeably. In general, its type of background blur is more relaxed than that of the pre-war high-aperture Tessars.

Since the Tessar 80 / 2.8 is designed for use with medium format cameras, it works great with the shift adapter on a 36x24 mm frame, allowing you to take photographs in 36x48 and 72x24 mm format. So, when shooting handheld using a shift adapter on a Sony A7s camera with a 12 megapixel sensor, I was able to get images with a resolution of 16-22 megapixels (after cropping to 2,33: 1, 4: 5 or 4: 5.5). Most of the photos in this article were taken using the shift adapter. They differ from the usual ones by the absence in the signature. EXIF and, of course, the aspect ratio.

Below are sample photos on Sony A7s.

Conclusions

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 80 / 2.8 T - high quality portrait lens; excellent implementation of the Tessar optical design, combining high sharpness and beautiful distinctive pattern. The design and appearance also left a positive impression. Tessar 80 / 2.8 T is more convenient to use than pre-war uncoated lenses, rather capricious to lighting conditions, and far behind in optical quality leaves the Soviet analogue of the same years of production - Industar-29. However, this lens is quite rare and expensive, and there are simply no more affordable analogues in terms of the scheme and the nature of the image.

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