Zeiss Jena Tessar and Hanza enlarging lenses

[Nick_3536]

http://home.sprynet.com/~stspring/Zeiss%20Ikon.html

1941?

[Dan Fromm]

Janez, are you sure the Tessar, which is lovely, isn't a taking lens? I ask because according to the Vade Mecum 210/6.3 Tessar taking lenses were made in the early forties. The lens you showed was probably made then.

If it is a taking lens, it ought to be quite desireable. Should cover 70 degrees stopped down and be sharper generally than the equivalent f/4.5 or f/3.5 Tessar.

Cheers,

Dan

[janez pelko]

I really don't know. Lens has the same screw mount as enlarging lenses for smaller format and also design is very similair. It can not be mounted on shutter, at least the one which is mounted between front and rear elements.

[Arne Croell]

Taking lenses in barrel where quite common, and after the war Zeiss Jena continued to make many more barrel LF lenses than shuttered ones. They were used with behind the lens shutters, like the ones in the GDR "Mentor" camera lines. I am sure that your lens is a taking one. However, Zeiss sold the same Tessars for enlarging (that is at least true for the f/4.5 versions), so it really doesn't mean you can't use it.

[Arne Croell]

Janez, the Tessar with the serial no. 2734096 was part of a batch of 2300 21cm/6.3 lenses in standard barrel mount ("N 42") finished in 1943 (serial nos. 2732901-2735200). The design by Ernst Wandersleb dates from August 1, 1911. A redesign was introduced in 1947.

[janez pelko]

Thank you all fot your effort and replies. I really appreciate your knowledge and nice attitude. Best wishes, Janez

[Dan Fromm]

Janez, did you ever get the Tessar and use it for enlarging? If so, how well did it work for you?

I ask because I've recently acquired two 150/6.3 Tessars, both supposedly enlarging lenses. The newer one (1936), engraved Vergroesserung at one end, is for sure made to Wandersleb's 1911 design mentioned by Arne; the other isn't, per Arne, in Thiele's list so we can't be sure exactly what it is. Their front elements have very similar curves, but I haven't had them measured yet. The older one, probably made in 1912, shoots better than well enough at ~ 5 m.

Cheers,

Dan

[ronald lamarsh]

For what it is worth: you can get some pretty good deal out there on some very modern lenses. I got a 135mm schneider componon-S for $65 from a guy on APUG. the glass is mint, all I had to do is come up with a retaining ring.

[Jim Noel]

The Hansa was a lens made for the producer of the Hansa enlarger in the years following WW II. I have no idea who the manufacturer was, but I had one of the enlargers for a short time and almost immediately replaced the lens as too soft to make any prints larger than about 4x.
Jim