Biometar 120mm f/2.8

Variants & identification

1. Elements and groups: the Wolfen museum record gives five elements and leaves the group count blank; Kamerastore gives five elements in four groups and allphotolenses five in three. Kröger describes the Biometars as simplified Biotar derivatives without counting the 120's groups, and pentaconsix.com's data table gives no count. The group count is left out here.
2. Weight and size: pentaconsix.com gives 87 mm long and 550 g; Matt's Classic Cameras lists his zebra lens at 482 g; the Wolfen museum gives its zebra lens as 95 mm long, 80 mm across and 480 g; Kamerastore lists 80 × 85 mm and 779 g, a figure no other source approaches. pentaconsix.com gives the angle of view as 41°.
3. Dates: Kröger gives the calculation as summer 1956 and series production from February 1958 to April 1990, about 48,500 lenses; pentaconsix.com gives the calculation as 30 July 1956. Kamerastore's product text says 1956 to 1988, and allphotolenses also gives 1956–1988; neither cites a source.
4. A mostly black style with a leather focusing band, which pentaconsix.com dates from 1965 on the Biometar 80, is documented on the 120 only on Exakta lenses; none of these sources shows a Pentacon Six example in that finish.
5. Prices are DDR retail prices from the lists compiled by Marco Kröger: 365 Mark after 1960 (Kröger's text) and in the 1974 list, 378 Mark for the MC version in 1987. No Western list price is recorded in these sources.
6. Kiev bodies: Kievaholic says the Kiev-60 and the Kiev-88CM, with their Pentacon Six-type mount, take most Carl Zeiss Jena lenses (the Sonnar 180 only with a modified locking ring), and lists the Biometar 120 among the Jena lenses open to Kiev users; the ordinary Kiev-88 and the Salyut have a different mount and do not take it.

• Praktisix, bright alloy rings and leather band (from 1958): The first form of the lens. Kröger says series production began in 1958, after the Praktisix had come onto the market, so that the lens was probably already available when Jena showed it as new at the Leipzig spring fair of 1959. Like Jena's other Praktisix lenses it stops down automatically: the camera's half of the diaphragm mechanism couples directly to the lens, whose diaphragm closing ring runs on balls. Kröger gives no finish dates for the 120; the bright finish is shown on his early example, and pentaconsix.com describes the same alloy-and-leather style on the first Biometar 80s of 1959.
• Black scale rings, bumpy plastic grip (by 1964): Known for this lens from Jena's own literature: pentaconsix.com reproduces a page of a 1964 Praktisix II brochure in which the 50mm Flektogon, the 120mm Biometar and the 180mm Sonnar all have black scale rings and the bumpy plastic grip, while the 80mm Biometar and 65mm Flektogon are still bright with leather bands. pentaconsix.com calls the bumpy band unreliable, apt to crack or work loose, and says Jena went back to a leather band in 1965 in a mostly black style; on the 120 that style is documented on the Exakta lens (below), not yet on a Pentacon Six example.
• Zebra: pentaconsix.com dates the zebra finish across Jena's Pentacon Six range to about 1967–74 and says each style change was applied to every lens of the range, gradually as parts were used up. Matt's Classic Cameras describes his own zebra 120 as the older single-coated version and lists it at 482 g. Kamerastore's product text says early versions had the zebra design on focusing and aperture rings. Sellers name the zebra finish in listing titles. The Industrie- und Filmmuseum Wolfen catalogues its zebra lens no. 9129775 as made in 1964–67 and used on the Praktina; its photograph and its own record of a 60 mm bayonet show the Praktisix / Pentacon Six mount, and camera-wiki's table of Jena serial blocks puts the number in 1970–75, which fits the zebra period better than the museum's date.
• All-black MC Biometar: pentaconsix.com dates multicoating across Jena's lenses from 1976, and the all-black style itself from the end of the zebra period, about 1974, so all-black lenses of 1974–76 may be single-coated; it shows an all-black Biometar 80 finished in July 1978. The 1990 lens it shows is one of the last Carl Zeiss Jena made before the changes of that year. Kröger's count ends production in April 1990. Jena restarted its serial numbers in mid-1980 after 10,982,372, so a four- or five-digit number marks a lens of 1980–91, the newest of the line. The DDR price list of 1987 gives the MC version at 378 Mark. A title that says "Red MC" means one of the earlier MC lenses.
• Export marking 'Jena Bm': pentaconsix.com shows a 1964 Praktisix II brochure for the United States, where West German Zeiss was suing to stop Jena using the Zeiss name and lens names such as Biometar and Sonnar; the maker is given there only as Jena and the lenses as Bm and S. On mflenses in 2011 a buyer asked about a lens marked BM 120mm f/2.8 bought with a Sonnar, and Attila, who runs the forum, identified it as a Pentacon Six lens and both as export versions. Kröger says Jena shortened the Biometar name to "Jena Bm" from the 1950s to stay safe in its trademark disputes with Zeiss Oberkochen. The Bm marking is a market name, not a different lens.
• Exakta, automatic diaphragm (35mm): Kröger lists a Biometar 2,8/120 ASB for the Exakta Varex among Jena's fully automatic lenses of 1959–60, and shows one on an Exakta Varex IIa. On the Exakta the whole automatic mechanism sits in the lens, which after stopping down only has to trip the camera's release, so he calls it much less demanding to build than the Praktina and Praktisix lenses. On 35mm it works as a long portrait lens. Kröger says more than 90% of the 48,500 made were for the Praktisix and Pentacon Six, so this and the Praktina lens share the remainder between them. Examples: no. 6244651, an export lens offered on FINN in Norway in 2026 as being in Exakta mount; a zebra lens numbered 7132124 photographed by Raimond Spekking in 2018, including with its rear section removed; and a black lens photographed by Alfred from Germany in 2011.
• Praktina IIA, automatic diaphragm (35mm): Kröger calls the Praktina IIA version the novelty of the 1959 fair: the Praktina and Praktisix share the same diaphragm mechanism, so the lens only had to be lengthened at the rear. His page on the Biometar 80 says the Praktina IIA itself fell victim to the reorganisation that formed VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke around 1959–60, which suggests a short run for the Praktina lens. The Wolfen museum's lens catalogued as a Praktina lens is a zebra Praktisix / Pentacon Six lens (see the zebra variant).

Specifications

Formula

Biometar: five elements, one of Jena's simplified derivatives of the Biotar double-Gauss (Kröger); a normally built lens with a long back focus, not a telephoto

Designed by

Harry Zöllner — head of Jena's photographic lens department; completed the design in summer 1956 (Kröger); pentaconsix.com gives the calculation date as 30 July 1956

Construction

5 elements

Aperture range

f/2.8–f/22

Diaphragm blades

8

Min. focus

1.3 m

Filter

67 mm (0.75 mm pitch)

Years manufactured

1958–1990

Country

East Germany (VEB Carl Zeiss Jena)

Coating

Single coating until the mid-1970s; multicoated and marked MC from about 1976, the letters in red paint at first and in white from about 1980 (pentaconsix.com)

Original price

365 Mark (DDR retail, after 1960 and in the 1974 list); 378 Mark for the MC version (1987) — DDR price lists compiled by Marco Kröger.

What reviewers say

• Zach Horton, The Pentacon 6 Lens Hit List (blog) — Placed in his second tier, Really Excellent: as good as the 80mm Biometar, with the extra length useful for portraits, and much smaller and lighter than any 150 or 180, which makes it a good all-round compromise.
• TRA (pentaconsix.com), 120–140mm lenses (blog) — The MC lens gives a very satisfactory image across the frame at f/2.8, with a slight lack of resolving power in the finest details; by f/11 it is as sharp and contrasty as the best 80mm lenses tested, if not sharper, though he notes it magnifies the view 50% more.
• Matt's Classic Cameras (blog) — A superior middle-length portrait lens for P6 bodies, less sought-after and cheaper than the 180 Sonnar; on his zebra copy the aperture ring turns too easily while focusing, and the 1.3 m close focus feels far.

History

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Biometar 120mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

• Carl Zeiss Jena Q1 Biometar 120mm f/2.8 MF Telephoto Lens Pentacon Six, Defect — $122.42 · eBay
• Biometar 2,8/120 Carl Zeiss Jena • zebra • 120mm Tele • 60mm Gewinde ✅(9072) — €115.00 · eBay · likely zebra
• Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8/120mm Exa Exakta #6244772 jk113 — €129.00 · eBay
• Carl Zeiss Jena MC Biometar 120mm f2.8 - Pentacon SIX Teleobjektiv DDR — €140.00 · eBay · likely MC
• seltenes Biometar 2,8/120 120mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Jena Exa Exakta — €144.00 · eBay
• Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 120mm f/2,8 P6 + BOX ✅ Medium Format Lens, Pentacon Six — €149.00 · eBay
• Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2,8/120 120mm f/2,8 Objektiv P6 manuell — €150.00 · eBay NEW
• Zebra Lens Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8 / 120 For Pentacon Six Exakta — £141.07 · eBay · likely zebra
• Rare Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8/120 120 mm 2.8 Portrait lens Only (A3) — $195.00 · eBay
• Zeiss Biometar 120mm f/2.8 MC, medium-format lens P6 Pentacon mount, with case — £156.70 · eBay
• Pentacon six Biometar 120 mm f 2.8 lens, zebra — £157.50 · eBay · likely zebra
• Zebra Objektiv Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2,8 / 120 für Pentacon Six Exakta — €195.00 · eBay · likely zebra
• Carl Zeiss Jena MC Biometar 120mm f2.8 - Pentacon SIX | Pre-Owned → used-photo — €199.00 · eBay · likely MC
• Zeiss Jena Biometar Zebra 2.8/120mm f/2.8 120mm for Pentacon SIX — $220.00 · eBay · likely zebra
• Zeiss Carl Jena Biometar 1:2,8/120mm — €200.00 · eBay
• Zeiss 120mm f2.8 Biometar - Pentacon Six mount — DKK 1,500.00 · One Of Many Cameras
• Zeiss 120mm f2.8 Biometar - Pentacon Six mount — DKK 1,500.00 · One Of Many Cameras
• Zeiss 120mm f2.8 Biometar - Pentacon Six mount — DKK 1,500.00 · One Of Many Cameras
• Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 120mm 1:2.8 Zebra Objektiv manuell Lens (Pentacon Six) — €209.99 · eBay · likely zebra
• Carl Zeiss BIOMETAR 120/2.8, Pentacon Six mount P6, Caps+Case #6379832 — €210.00 · eBay

Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.