Pekka Buttler, 02/2025
Specifications
The table below summarizes the lens’ key specifications (measurements based on pictured version of the lens):
| Brand: | ENNA München (Enna Werk München) | Lens name | Tele-Ennalyt 1:3.5 f=13,5cm |
| Focal length(s)2 | 135 mm | Angle-of-view3 | 18,2 ° |
| Maximum Aperture | f/3.5 | In Production | 1955– |
| Lens mount (this lens) | M42 Edixa | Other lens mounts | M42, Exakta, Enna Sockel, SLK, LTM |
| Length4 | 71,8 mm | Diameter5 | 54,2 mm |
| Filter ring diameter | 52 mm | Weight | 262 grams |
| Lens element count | 5 | Lens group count | 5 |
| Aperture blades (S/R/C)6 | 12 S | Focus throw | 310 ° |
| Minimum focusing distance (measured) | 161 cms | Maximum magnification (measured) | 1:8,83 |
| Has manual aperture ring | YES | Has Manual focus ring | YES |
| Aperture mechanism type | manual with click stops | Aperture click stops | 3.5-4-5.6-8-11-16-22. |
Further notes:
• Detailed information on this lens is sparse. For instance, while it being a 5 elements in 5 groups design, trustworthy schematics of that design are difficult to come by.
• This lens was originally introduced in 1955 and it remained in the Enna product lineup far into the 1970s. While early Exakta, LTM and M42 samples offered only manual aperture, Enna Sockel lenses offered Semi-automatic aperture from the start, and updated this later to full automatic. Likewise, later all-black lenses also offer M42 auto aperture.
• While being an M42 lens, this lens’ implementation feels very much like a LTM rangefinder lens (which Enna also offered) as the entire front-part of the lens rotates on focusing. In classic rangefinder style the aperture scale is duplicated on the ‘downside’ of the lens.
Versions and variations
ENNA München’s family of 135 mm tele lenses can broadly be divided into an f/2.8 offering and a f/3.5 offering.
The Enna 135/3.5 was offered for a very wide range of mounts, including rangefinder mounts, M42 and Exakta mounts, and the SLK mount.
Throughout its long lifespan (1955–late 1970s), the Enna 135/3.5 was offered in a wide range of cosmetic variants including all-silver lenses, zebra lenses and all-black lenses.
History of ENNA München
ENNA München (also: Enna Werk München) is one of the 1950s and 60s most prominent and innovative German optics companies. ENNA is especially well-known for being the West-German pioneer in developing retrofocus wide-angle lenses (such as the Lithagon here).
You can read more details in the ENNA München company profile.
Adapting the ENNA München Tele-Ennalyt 135 mm f/3.5
Obviously, a crucial question is which mount your copy of the Tele-Ennalyt has. Once you have determined that, see below:
Adapting Enna Sockel Lenses
The Enna Sockel is not strictly speaking a lens mount, but is instead an intermediate mount. This means that if you have managed to procure an Enna Sockel mount lens without the Enna Sockel adapter, your best bet is to head to your preferred online classified’s or marketplace and procure an Enna Sockel to whatever lens mount you already have an adapter for (Personally I think the Sockel-to-M42 adapter is most tempting, but it also usually the most expensive).
Adapting Exakta mount lenses
Exakta mount lenses cannot be used natively on any current SLR or dSLRs. To use it in its native environment, you will need an Exakta-mount film body. Exakta bodies were manufactured in large numbers, but many of them are no longer in a good shape. That said, procuring a workable sample should not be impossible or especially expensive.
Thanks to being a fully manual lens (manual aperture, manual focus), the lens can be adapted to all mirrorless cameras using a suitable adapter. Moreover, the Exakta lenses are so uncomplicated that a simple ‘dumb adapter’ will do the job perfectly. Furthermore, due to the popularity of the Exakta mount, special adapters (helicoid adapters, tilt/shift adapters) are readily available. Alternatively, one can choose to daisy-chain adapters (e.g. Exakta->Canon EF; Canon EF –> mirrorless) which also opens up a wide range of speed boosters .
Using Exakta lenses on dSLRs can also be an easy option, depending on which dSLR.
• Canon EF has the shortest flange focal distance among full-frame dSLR’s and Canon’s wide range of dSLRs are able to mount Exakta lenses perfectly using a simple adapter ring.
• Nikon F, Pentax K and Minolta / Sony A dSLRs need an adapter that uses corrective optics for Exakta lenses (the difference in flange focal distances is not enough to enable reaching infinity focus without corrective optics).
Adapting LTM mount lenses
This chapter will discuss adapting the Leica Thread mount version of the ENNA 135/3.5.
To use this lens natively, you will need a Leica thread mount film body. This means either a Leica body from before the 1954 introduction of the Leica M-mount, a Soviet Leica (Zorki or FED) or one of the more modern Japanese LTM rangefinders. You can also use this lens on any Leica M mount body using the LTM-Leica M adapter ring.
Thanks to being a fully manual lens (manual aperture, manual focus), the lens can be adapted to all mirrorless cameras using a suitable adapter. Moreover, LTM lenses are so uncomplicated that a simple ‘dumb adapter’ will do the job perfectly. However, due to LTM mount’s relatively short flange focal distance, special adapters (helicoid adapters, tilt/shift adapters, speed boosters) are not an option.
Due to the short flange focal distance used by LTM cameras, there is no meaningful way to adapt this lens to any SLR or dSLR.
Adapting M42 mount lenses
If you want to natively mount an M42 lens you need to find a functioning M42 mount film camera. Luckily that should be relatively easy as M42 bodies were produced in their millions and most of them lack features that are especially likely to have deteriorated to the point of making the entire camera inoperable. If your sample of the ENNA München Lithagon offers a switch to choose between auto- and manual aperture, I recommend using the lens on a body that is capable of stopping down the lens automatically and offers stop-down metering.
Adapting this lens to a mirrorless, full-frame digital camera is a breeze thanks to the lens having full manual controls (aperture ring, focus ring). You simply need a dumb adapter from M42 to your mirrorless system.
Due to the medium flange focal distance used by the M42 mount (45,46 mm), whether you can adapt this lens to dSLR/SLR mounts depends on which dSLR mount: Canon EF, Four Thirds, Minolta/Sony A and Pentax K can mount m42 lenses using a simple adapter ring. Nikon F on the other hand is not as problem-free, and – to retain anything near infinity focus – the adapter will necessitate corrective optics. In all cases, your camera will work only in stop-down metering.
Adapting SLK mount lenses
Sorry. Not quite there yet.
Footnotes
- The Wirgin Edixa line of cameras used a slightly different implementation of the M42 thread mount leading to that lenses meant for the Edixa camera do not quite line up “right side up” on other M42 mount cameras and vice versa. Most often this results merely in a nuisance, but depending on the combination of lens and camera it might also result in that stop-down pins do not line up correctly. See more in the “Edixa M42” subsection of the JAPB article on the M42 lens mount. ↩︎
- 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’. ↩︎
- 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 ↩︎ - Length is given from the mount flange to the front of lens at infinity. ↩︎
- Diameter excludes protrusions such as rabbit ears or stop-down levers. ↩︎
- S=straight; R=rounded; C=(almost)circular at all apertures. ↩︎