Data sheet: Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135 mm f/4 (Contax/Kiev)

Pekka Buttler, 01/2025

Specifications

The table below summarizes the lens’ key specifications (measurements are based on the pictured sample):

Brand:	Carl Zeiss Jena	Lens name	Sonnar 1:4 f=13,5 cm
Focal length(s) 1	135 mm	Angle-of-view 2	18 °
Maximum Aperture	f/4	In Production	1932-1953 (all variants)
Lens mount (this lens)	Contax/Kiev	Other lens mounts	––
Length 3	91,3 mm (@ ∞) 107,0 mm (@ MFD)	Diameter 4	55,4 mm (mount) 45,7 mm (lens)
Filter ring diameter	40,5 mm	Weight	530 grams
Lens element count	4	Lens group count	3
Aperture blades (S/R/C) 5	13 S	Focus throw	180 °
Minimum focusing distance	151 cm (measured)	Maximum magnification	1:8,9 (measured)
Has manual aperture ring	YES	Has Manual focus ring	YES
Aperture mechanism type	Manual	Aperture click stops 6	N/A

Further notes:
• This is a pre-WWII Carl Zeiss Jena lens. Its serial number dates it to approx. 1937–38.
• The lens is very heavy for its size and feels very dense. The main construction material is brass, that has been given a chrome plating.
• The 135 mm f/4 Sonnar for the Contax rangefinder was manufactured 1932–1949 by Carl Zeiss Jena and 1950–1953 by Zeiss-Opton (West German Zeiss). The only easy way to visually distinguish between a Zeiss-Opton and a Post-1936 Carl Zeiss Jena version is the lens’ name ring⁷.
• During the 1932-1945 era Carl Zeiss Jena experimented with several cosmetic and ergonomic approaches. See ‘versions and variants’ for details.
• This 135 mm f/4 Sonnar offers a MFD of 151 centimetres (measured) – a sub-average figure for a modern 135 mm lens but not bad considering its age and rangefinder origins.
• This sample hails from before lens coatings were invented. While some later samples (especially from 1945 onward) were coated, these coatings are first generation coatings, and their efficacy might disappoint a photographer used to modern multicoating.

Versions and variants

The 135 mm f/3.5 Sonnar is part of a proud and significant lineage of lenses ranging from 1932 to the early 90s. While you’re more than welcome to study this genealogy in detail in this JAPB article, we can summarize the high points:

Sonnar 135 mm f/4 for Contax/Kiev (1932–1953) (this lens)
First manufactured by Carl Zeiss Jena (1932–1949) and later by Zeiss-Opton (1950–1953)
Please see the article on the genealogy of the lens for further details, but:
– Earliest samples (1932-33) silver-coloured with a big lettering on focus ring.
– Next generation (1933-36) in a black-and-silver pattern. Lettering still big.
– Third generation (1936-45) chrome-plated, now with smaller lettering. (pictured sample)
– Final East German generation (1945-49) silver, but no longer brass and chrome. Brushed aluminium?
– Zeiss Opton (1950-53) as postwar eastern lenses.

Sonnar 135 mm f/4 for Exakta, M42, Praktina (1956–1969)
Two generations of SLR lenses from East Germany. The first generation were preset lenses (silver/metallic), the later generation were auto aperture lenses. The later generation comes in three cosmetic variants:
– black barrel with faux leather rubber focus ring;
– black barrel with diamonds on rubber focus ring,
– black barrel with zebra-striped aperture and focus rings (metal focus ring).

Sonnar 135 mm f/3.5 for M42 (≈1967–1990) [data sheet]

New, slightly faster version of the auto aperture M42 lens. Only offered for M42 mount. Initially the new, faster 135 mm Sonnar uses the same Zebra design and is outwardly barely distinguishable from the earlier, slower Sonnar.

The design is updated in 1975 with changing to an all-black design sporting a broader, rubberised focus ring patterned with small pyramids. This design remains all the way till the last samples manufactured for the M42 mount. This later version is also available as M42 electric variant.

Sonnar 135 mm f/3.5 for Praktica B (≈1978–1980) [data sheet]
After Pentacon launched the Praktica B mount a version of the 135 mm f/3.5 Sonnar was made for the Praktica B line. Optically indistinguishable from the M42 variant while cosmetically and ergonomically different.

History of Carl Zeiss Jena

There are few names in camera optics more illustrious than that of Carl Zeiss. The company was founded in the German town of Jena in 1846 by Carl Zeiß (hence: ‘Carl Zeiss Jena‘). During 1846–1945 there are few major developments in lens optics that the company was not involved in. Names that are even today well-known in optics – such as Planar (1896), Tessar (1902), Sonnar (1929), and Biotar (1939) (as well as many names that only optics-buffs know) – were the product of Zeiss’ first century of technological innovation.

After the Second World War Germany was divided into a Soviet zone (subsequently: East Germany) and the west-allied zones (subsequently: West Germany). While the Zeiss works resided in Jena (optics and glasses) and Dresden (cameras), which were in the Soviet sector, a contingent of Zeiss managers decided to move west and ended up setiting up shop in the small town of Oberkochen in the American sector under the name of Opton Optische Werke Oberkochen GmbH. As the relations between the former allied deteriorated and the split into East and West Germany became all the more real, the Oberkochen works changed their name first to Zeiss-Opton and later to Carl Zeiss.

What ensued was a lengthy international trademark dispute with both Zeiss’ (Jena and Oberkochen) laying claim to the name ‘Carl Zeiss’. The resulting stalemate – emblematic of the Cold War in its entirety – resulted in that Carl Zeiss Opton was allowed to use the name Carl Zeiss in the West, but had to use the Opton brand in the East bloc, whereas Carl Zeiss Jena was the only real Carl Zeiss as far as the east bloc was concerned, but could – mostly – not use the Carl Zeiss -name for exports to the West ⁸. The fact remains however, that – starting in 1946 from a shared base – Jena and Oberkochen developed as two independent companies for more than 40 years. After German reunification also Zeiss East and Zeiss West were united again, and have since again been at the undoubtable forefront of lens development.

This lens harkens to the time of the cold-war and the East/West split. During the entire Cold War period, VEB Carl Zeiss Jena was seen by the country’s leadership both as a paragon of the East German technology industry and a showcase of the socialist/communist system as well as a major source of exports (and hence, western currencies). Within the centrally directed economy’s hierarchy, Carl Zeiss Jena therefore had a more prestigious role than other East German optics manufacturers (prominently Meyer-Optik Görlitz and, later, Pentacon), meaning that Carl Zeiss Jena received privileged access to tools and materiel (including the first computer in East Germany) and that its products were always considered the premium alternative.

Footnotes

1. Focal length is (unless stated otherwise) given in absolute terms, and not in Full-frame equivalent. For an understanding of whether the lens is wide/tele, see ‘Angle-of-view’. ↩︎
2. Picture angle is given in degrees (based on manufacturers’ specs) and concerns the diagonal picture angle. Rule of thumb:
   > 90 ° ==> Ultra-wide-angle
   70–90 ° ==> Wide-angle
   50–70 ° ==> Moderate wide-angle
   40–50 ° ==> ‘Standard’ or ‘normal’ lens
   20–40 ° ==> Short tele lens
   10-20 ° ==> Tele lens
   5-10 ° ==> Long tele lens
   < 5 ° ==> Ultra-tele lens ↩︎
3. Length is given from the mount flange to the front of lens at infinity. ↩︎
4. Diameter excludes protrusions such as rabbit ears or stop-down levers. ↩︎
5. S=straight; R=rounded; C=(almost)circular at all apertures. ↩︎
6. Numbers equal aperture values on aperture ring; • intermediate click; – no intermediate click. ↩︎
7. However, as it is technically very easy to swap the name rings of lenses, name rings alone can be misleading. ↩︎
8. Online one can find many lengthy and heated disputes stating that only Jena/Oberkochen is the true Carl Zeiss. While many of these discussions are riddled with misconceptions and a poor grasp of facts and timings, they largely also tend to be tainted by ideologies. Those discussions that focus on claims of one or the other Zeiss not really having rights to using designs developed at pre-war Zeiss are especially ludicrous because after the war practically the entire patent catalogue of pre-war German patents was given freely to everyone (the allied saw this as a form of reparations), hence also kickstarting the Japanese optics industry’s ascendancy (the Japanese optics companies were the most avid users of German optics patents). ↩︎