Tessar 250/4.5 ???

**Shtativ** · 26-Jul-2005, 07:24

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 250/4.5 barrel lens

Somebody heard about this lens? What at it quality of the image and what optimum diaphragm?

**Ernest Purdum** · 26-Jul-2005, 10:14

The problem is that these lenses have been made for over 100 years, by many deifferent makers, with considerable variations in quality. In generalities, they are large aperture as view camera lenses go, therefore rather large and heavy. The aperture makes them desirable for people pictures, particularly squirmy children. They have a rather narrow field of view, somewhere around 55 degrees would probably be typical. A 250 should have enough coverage to be useful on 5" X 7". They can be very sharp. Many people like something a little softer for portraits. The optimum aperture would probably be about f11, but the lens should still provide excellent results down to f22 or so.

If you can provide more details about the specific lens you are interested in, someone can probably provide more information.

**Shtativ** · 27-Jul-2005, 04:57

It`s the
Tessar 4.5/250 Carl Zeiss Jena #422396

Apertures: 4.5 - 50

And what reasonable price for purchase of this lens?

**Arne Croell** · 27-Jul-2005, 06:04

This lens was made sometime around 1920-1921, before the redesign of the Tessar f/4.5 series (1929), so this is probably the original design of the 4.5 series by Wandersleb. For the later redesigned models, built until 1995, the optimum aperture was f/22 according to the manufacturer, but it is well useable at much wider apertures. I would assume this is no different for this lens. A coated 1980's model in barrel would sell some where in the $80-150 price range, so this one should be below that, unless it has some collectors value.