{"id":38890,"date":"2023-06-11T20:42:22","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T19:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillipreeve.net\/blog\/?p=38890"},"modified":"2026-01-14T08:30:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:30:04","slug":"carl-zeiss-jena-tessar-50mm-f-2-8-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phillipreeve.net\/blog\/carl-zeiss-jena-tessar-50mm-f-2-8-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm F\/2.8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\r\n

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The Tessar is a very old design (1902), actually one of the oldest optical designs of all consumer lenses. It was produced before WWII for the first Contax rangefinder cameras and early Exakta cameras and post-war both in East and West Germany for several other camera brands.<\/p>\r\n

Fun Fact 1: In 1932, when Leica II by Leitz of Wetzlar was the king of 35mm cameras, Zeiss Ikon of Dresden decided to produce a competitor that would be superior in every way. Thus the first Contax camera was born; the “Contax I”, which was designed to outperform the Leica in every aspect including the optics; thus the first Tessar 50\/2.8 for 35mm format was born (a redesigned Tessar to cover 24x36mm negative), from Zeiss Jena.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Fun Fact 2:<\/strong> This lens was famous during its era and was called “Adlerauge” in German, which means “Eagle’s eye” because it was considered super sharp. Let’s see about that further down!<\/p>\r\n

Sample Images<\/h2>\r\n
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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | 2.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | f\/8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Most of the sample images in this review and many more can be found in higher resolution here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

Specifications<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Focal Length<\/strong>: 50mm
Field of View<\/strong>: 47\u00b0 (diagonally)
Aperture Range<\/strong>: 2.8 – 22
Number of Aperture Blades:<\/strong> 5 (rounded)
Min Focus Distance:<\/strong> 0.35 m
Filter Size:<\/strong> 49mm
Lens Mount:<\/strong> Contax RF \/ M42 \/ BM \/ EXA \/ EXAKTA \/ Altix-N \/ PENTAX \/ PRAKTINA
Weight:<\/strong> 170 g
Length:<\/strong> 37mm
Elements\/Group:<\/strong> 4\/3 (Tessar)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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Fun fact 3:<\/strong> The name Tessar comes from the Greek T\u00e9ssera, which means four, referring to the four elements design of the lens.<\/p>\r\n

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Nikon Z6 | Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8\/50 | f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Variations and handling<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

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This Tessar lens is compact with seemingly good build quality, though this one is super light. Judging from the weight of it you can suspect that it has not the same build quality as other Zeiss lenses in general. After WWII starting from 1950 they were produced for many camera brands with many mounts in various shapes and colors. 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. 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 precise and impressively long travel (<\/span>270\u00b0)<\/span> but is a bit tiny due to the compact lens size.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Optical Features<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Sharpness (Infinity)<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

Let’s look at different parts of the following image (Center, mid-frame and corner as marked in the picture)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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Nikon Z6 | CZJ Tessar 2.8\/50 | 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

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LR Settings used for the Sharpness Chart Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Center sharpness at f\/2.8 is just fine although a little soft. The mid-frame sharpness isn’t great but isn’t a disaster either. At f\/4 the center sharpness is good and becomes crisp and gets very good at f\/5.6. At f\/8, the center sharpness increases approximately to its maximum, which is just a little better than at f\/5.6. The mid-frame sharpness begins to approach an okay level at f\/4 but not quite sharp, at f\/5.6 good and f\/8 it is very good.<\/span>
<\/span>Corners are good at f\/11, but only at f\/16 the corner sharpness is where you wish it was already at f\/2.8. Almost all lenses from its era had this problem. Although some modern lenses struggle with corner sharpness as well, they are still light years apart.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is a real world example in not so optimal weather for sharpness tests.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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Nikon Z6 | CZJ Tessar 2.8\/50 | 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Sharpness (Portrait)<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

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 photograph taken at about 1.5m, normal portrait photographing distance. We only look at photographs taken at f\/2.8 as with a 50mm lens any smaller aperture does not give any real background separation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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