Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 12cm f 3.5

[Jeffrey Thornburg]

I recently aquired a Zeiss Tessar lens (took a chance I guess) and have been scouring the net for information on this lens. It appears to be barrell mounted, with f stops from 3.5 to f45. The apparent focal length at 1.1 is 120mm. Was wondering if anyone might have some knowledge of this lens? Anything woule be helpful. It was aquired to be used on a 4x5 camera if possible. Thanks for reading. J.

[Nick_3536]

I doubt a 12cm tessar is going to cover 4x5. Maybe for 6x9 rollfilm?

[Dan Fromm]

If you provide the serial number, one of us might be able to tell you when it was made.

[Jeffrey Thornburg]

Never thought of the serial number. Looks like it is Nr. 2434034. It may well not be big enough coverage for the 4x5 but for the price I had hoped it would be worth the risk.

[Donald Qualls]

The 120 mm lens was normal for 116 cameras, with a 2 1/2 x 3 3/4 image frame. Coverage of a Tessar is such that such a lens might, barely, cover 9x12 cm, but most likely not 4x5.

However, the other question is, when you mention the focal length, you say something about 1:1 -- if it's 120 mm lens to film at 1:1, you have a 60 mm lens that would be suitable for 6x4.5 cm format, i.e. 16 on 120, and will produce an image circle close to 80 mm diameter -- which might be amusing on a 9x12 sheet, once or twice. The shutter rear flange is likely so small it would require a custom lens board to even mount on a large format camera, and you'd need a bag bellows even to shoot close-ups.

I hope I'm wrong -- if it's a 120 mm, it should produce only a little vignetting on 4x5 and might be worth mounting (especially if you sometimes shoot with a roll film adapter); the 13.5 cm f/4.5 Tessar on my Ideal plate camera will stand up to any modern "normal" lens except for lack of coating.

[Dan Fromm]

Probably late 1930s. 1939 or so seems likely. Focal length should be engraved on the lens. Are you sure it isn't?

Good luck,

Dan

[Donald Qualls]

Hmm...

A barrel mounted Tessar, especially if it has M39 mounting threads, might have been made for enlarging. It was common, 70-80 years ago, to use the same lenses for both capture and projection or enlarging. The good news is, you don't really give up much if anything compared to a Tessar mounted in a shutter for capture -- unlike using a modern process or enlarging lens on a camera or camera lens on an enlarger, where the difference in optimization for close focus vs. infinity will make a detectable difference in image quality, the Tessar seems to have little preference.