Review: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50/2.8

Introduction

Tessar being a very old design (1902), actually one of the oldest optical designs of all consumer lenses, was produced before WWII for among other cameras the first Contax rangefinder cameras and early Exakta cameras and post-war both in East and West Germany for several camera brands. Millions of Tessar lenses have been created by Zeiss and other manufacturers in many variants during the years, and are still produced as excellent intermediate aperture lenses.

Fun fact: This lens was famous during its era and was called “Adlerauge” in German, which means “Eagle eye” and that was because the lens was considered super sharp. Let’s see about that further down!

 

Sample Images

Specifications

Focal Length: 50mm
Field of View: 47° (diagonally)
Aperture Range: 2.8 – 22
Number of Aperture Blades: 5 (rounded)
Min Focus: 0.35 m
Filter Size: 49mm
Lens Mount: Contax RF / BM / EXA / EXAKTA / Altix-N / PENTAX / PRAKTINA / M42
Weight: 170 g
Length: 37mm
Elements/Group: 4/3 (Tessar)

Fun fact: The name Tessar comes from the greek Téssera, which means Four, the lens is built of four elements.

 

Variations and handling

This Tessar lens is as all other Zeiss lenses compact with very good build quality, though this one is super light, of the weight of it you can suspect that it has not the same build quality as other Zeiss lenses in general. Postwar they were produced for many camera brands with many mounts in various shapes and colors from 1950. They were built in metal silver, silver/black checkered grip (zebra version) and all black version. They also have come equipped with different number of aperture blades, e.g. 12 and even 14 aperture blades. The final versions were completely black and had an M42 camera mount with only 5 aperture blades. The apertures can be set in half a stop and the focusing ring has good grip and resistance with long and precise travel but is a little bit tiny due to the lens size.

Optical Features

Vignetting

At f/2.8 there is about 1.3 stops of corner darkening and it improves to 2/3 stops at f/4, to a about half a stop at f/5.6 and 1/3 of a stop at f/8.

Sharpness (Infinity)

Let’s look at different parts of the following image (Center, mid-frame and corner as marked in picture)

Center sharpness at f/2.8 is just fine although a little soft. The midframe sharpness isn’t great but isn’t a disaster either. At f/4 the center sharpness is good and becomes crisp and very good at f/5.6. At f/8, the center sharpness increases approximately to its maximum, which is a just little better than at 5.6. The midframe sharpness begins to approach an okay level at f/4 but not quite sharp, at f5.6 good and 8 it is very good.
Corners are good at 11, Only at f/16 the corner sharpness is where you wish it was already at f/2.8. Almost all old lenses had this problem. Although modern lenses struggle with the same problem, it’s not at the same level, it’s light years apart.

This is real world example in not an optimal weather for sharpness tests.

 

Sharpness (Close-up)

 

Let’s look at Astrid’s right eye up close

F/2.8 is completely usable with good details. At f/4 sharpness is excellent. Strangely enough it looks like f/5.6 and f/8 are less sharp than f/4, could be the diffraction effect. See a real life example in the following

 

Sharpness (Portrait)

For portraits we look only at the sharpness in the center, inner and outer center circle area as the edge or corner sharpness is not of interest, also we look at a photographs taken at about 1.5m, normal portrait photographing distance. We only look at photograph taken at f/2.8 as with a 50mm lens any smaller aperture does not give any real background separation.

Focus on Greta’s right eye. Wide open, the center and inner circle area are good with good contrast, the outer center area is not as good and lose a lot of contrast but still usable with some post sharpening and contrast adjustment.

Chromatic Aberrations

Almost no CA in the center but it exists in the corners at f/2.8 and f/4, which reduces a lot after that. Impressive CA control.

Lens Distortion

There is a very mild barrel distortion but it is so small that it cannot affect the result in any application and therefore can be considered as negligible.

Focus Breathing

This Tessar suffers from heavy focus breathing, as you can see in the following, which is a disadvantage for video filming.

Bokeh

Bokeh’s quality and beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I think this lens produces really good smooth bokeh wide open without artefacts at closer distances. The bokeh balls are round and beautiful almost to the corners, which of course is because of this lens’s widest aperture that is only 2.8 at its widest and its compactness. Stopped down the bokeh is quite busy. With f/2.8 as its widest aperture you normally do not get as much blur as faster lenses for separation of the background for portraits although the general look of bokeh is nice with smooth transitions, just avoid busy backgrounds when you take portraits, as it make the bokeh busy!

Alternatives

Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50/1.8 (8 blades, radioactive glass, very sharp)

Meyer-Optik Görlitz Oreston 50/1.8

Pentacon 50/1.8

Zenitar M 50/1.7

 

Conclusion

Well, what do you expect? Or what should you expect? Yes, this is a Zeiss lens but it is one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) Zeiss lenses you can buy. For taking pictures under special conditions, the personality of this lens can add charm to the result. Sharpness is very good for its time, especially at closer distances. Stopped down in the center area sharpness is excellent even with today’s standards, but it can not be considered as “Eagle’s Eye” super sharp further away from center circle area or across the frame today. There are far sharper modern lenses. It delivers rich colors and good contrast (most of the time). Many use it to take portraits and closeups, where edge/corner sharpness is not important. In my opinion it is not one of the better lenses of portraits but you can get very good results in close-up photography. You can also get excellent results with extension tubes or bellows in macro photography as it can produce super sharp images in the center with a beautiful background bokeh. It is also used as a video lens on digital cameras for its look despite the focus breathing. But although sharp for its time and still sharp-ish today it is not comparable with today’s clinical across the frame sharp lenses. The bokeh at medium distance and long distance is busy, and it has (as almost all old lenses) huge problems with flare and stray lights. For $50 you get a lot of lens and quality with good results in controlled conditions but it is not a dream all rounder.

More Sample Images