Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (6×6, 1956 design)

Carl Zeiss Jena · Pentacon Six · 1959

Also known as: Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 · Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2,8/80 · Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8/80 · Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f2.8 Pentacon Six · Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Biometar 80mm f2.8 · CZJ Biometar 2.8/80 · CZJ Biometar 80mm · Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f2.8 · Zeiss Biometar 80mm f2.8 · Biometar 80mm f/2.8 · Biometar 80mm f2.8 · Biometar 80mm 2.8 · Biometar 2,8/80 · Biometar 2,8/80mm · Biometar 2.8/80 · Biometar 2.8 80 · Biometar 80 Pentacon Six · Biometar 80mm Pentacon Six · Biometar 2,8/80 Pentacon Six · Biometar 80 Pentacon 6 · Biometar 80 P6 · Biometar 80mm P6 · Biometar 80 Praktisix · Biometar 2,8/80 Praktisix · Biometar 80 Kiev 60 · Biometar 80mm Kiev 60 · MC Biometar 80 · MC Biometar 80mm f2.8 · MC Biometar 2.8/80 · MC Biometar 2,8/80 · Biometar MC 80mm f2.8 · Zebra Biometar 80 · Biometar 2.8 80mm · MC Biometar 2.8 80mm · Biometar Jena DDR 2,8/80 · Biometar Jena 2,8/80 · Jena Bm 2.8/80 · Bm 1:2,8 f=80 · Bm 1:2.8 f=80 · Xenotar E 2.8/80 · Xenotar E 2,8/80 · Xenotar E 80mm · Биометар 80 · Биометар 2,8/80 · ビオメター 80mm F2.8 · カールツァイス イエナ ビオメター 80mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Bright alloy, leather focusing band Praktisix / Pentacon Six 1959–1964 — First batch of 7,000, the first finished 24 March 1959; the next batch not until January 1964 (Kröger)
Bumpy plastic focusing band, alloy or black scale rings Praktisix / Pentacon Six 1959–1965 — —
Mostly black, leather focusing band (from 1965) Praktisix / Pentacon Six 1965 — —
Zebra Pentacon Six 1967–1974 — —
All-black MC, bright front edge Pentacon Six 1976 — —
All-black MC, black front edge, metres only Pentacon Six — Four- and five-digit numbers, as on most Jena lenses made after the restart of mid-1980
37001–42000, finished 29 September 1989, the last batch in Pentacon Six style (Thiele, via pentaconsix.com) 		—
1979-calculation batch (42001–48000) Pentacon Six 1989–1989 42001–48000, finished 29 March 1989 6,000 (Thiele's Fabrikationsbuch, via pentaconsix.com)
Export marking 'Bm … aus JENA' Praktisix / Pentacon Six (Praktisix II, Hanimex Praktica 66 and US-export Pentacon Six TL) — — —
Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar in Exakta 66 livery Exakta 66 (Pentacon Six breech-lock) 1990–1990 Five digits in the 48 thousands (perhaps from 48001, pentaconsix.com) —
'Xenotar E' (Schneider-Kreuznach name ring) Exakta 66 (Pentacon Six breech-lock) 1990 48 thousands, as the Exakta 66 Biometar —
'Exakta' 80mm f/2.8 (Schneider-made, longer barrel) Exakta 66 (Pentacon Six breech-lock) 1991 Schneider numbers in the 14 millions; TRA's example reads as about January 1991 —
  1. Specifications: pentaconsix.com's data table gives automatic diaphragm, 54°, 1.0 m, M58 × 0.75 filter, 51 mm long and 260 g, and says it is drawn from published sources. JAPB's data sheet for a 1980s MC lens gives 52.3°, 8 straight blades, f/2.8–22, 1 m, 58 mm filter, 76.1 mm across, 35.7 mm from flange to front and 275 g. The element count comes from camera-wiki's Exakta 66 table and JAPB (5 in 4); pentaconsix.com's table gives no count.
  2. Prices are East German retail prices from the lists compiled by Marco Kröger: 245 Mark for the Praktisix ASB Biometar from 1960, unchanged to 1990; a Praktisix outfit with the Biometar 860 Mark after 1960; a Pentacon Six TL with the Biometar 995 Mark in 1974, against 750 Mark for the body. No Western list price was found.
  3. Optics: Kröger says that apart from multicoating nothing changed optically in thirty years; pentaconsix.com, from Thiele, records a second calculation of 31 October 1979 used for one batch (see the calc-1979 row). pentaconsix.com also writes that the Biometar had the same optical design as the 80mm Planar Oberkochen was making at about the same time, and reports Rick Denney's view that it matches the original five-element Xenotar of 1952; Kröger instead traces the Xenotar to the 1948 Biometar.
  4. Not on this page: the 1948 Biometar 80 for 35mm reflexes (M42, Exakta, Praktina) and the Rolleiflex 2.8, a different calculation with a smaller front element, 49 mm filter and 0.8 m closest focus; the Biometar 120mm f/2.8; and the Bronica Zenzanon MC 80mm f/2.8 by Carl Zeiss Jena. For the last, Kröger cites Thiele for Jena batches of 3,000 (1974), 5,000 (1977) and 560 (1979) branded Biometar or Zenzanon for Bronica.
  5. The Praktisix was launched in 1956–57 with the Tessar 2,8/80 and Meyer's Primotar E 3,5/80. The Biometar replaced the Tessar from spring 1959; the Primotar stayed on for a few years as the cheaper choice.
  6. Bodies: the lens fits the Praktisix, Praktisix II and IIA, Pentacon Six and Six TL, Exakta 66, and Arsenal's Kiev-6S, Kiev-60 and Kiev-88CM, which share the breech-lock mount (Kievaholic lists the Biometar 80 among the Jena lenses for the Kiev-60 and 88CM). It does not fit the Salyut or the ordinary Kiev-88. The Exakta 66 metering prism reads aperture only from the Exakta 66 versions, whose aperture ring was reversed for it.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Large Pentacon Six breech-lock mount, 58 mm filter (67 mm on the Exakta 66 versions), 1 m closest focus, f/2.8–22
  • The 35mm Biometar 80 of 1948 is a different lens: Exakta bayonet or 42mm thread, 49 mm filter, 0.8 m, and never marked MC. An MC Biometar 80 is always this lens
  • Finishes date it: bright alloy with leather band (1959–64), bumpy plastic band, mostly black with leather (from 1965), zebra (about 1967–74), all-black MC with bright front edge (from 1976), all-black with black edge and metres only (dated examples 1989)
  • Western sellers also list it as Jena Bm (US export) and as Xenotar E (Exakta 66)

Bright alloy, leather focusing band:

  • Mostly bright alloy barrel with a black leather band on the focusing ring, the same style as the Tessar 80 it replaced; Kröger says the two are practically indistinguishable from outside, so read the name ring
  • Name ring Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2,8/80 and the number; feet in red and metres in white on the distance scale
  • Serials of the 1958–61 and 1961–64 Jena blocks (5 and 6 millions)

Bumpy plastic focusing band, alloy or black scale rings:

  • A black plastic band with raised bumps on the focusing ring in place of leather
  • Two states: first on the alloy barrel (late lenses of the 1959 run), then from 1964 with black distance and depth-of-field rings, white metres and red feet, a plain alloy aperture ring with red figures, and a black front edge to the filter ring (an example finished 17 December 1964)
  • Check the band: pentaconsix.com says it cracks or works loose with rough handling

Mostly black, leather focusing band (from 1965):

  • Black aperture-index ring, black focusing ring with a leather band and an all-black filter ring; the aperture selection ring still plain metal with red figures

Zebra:

  • Mostly black, with bright metal stripes and a bright front edge on the focusing and aperture rings
  • Single-coated: pentaconsix.com says all the Jena zebra lenses were, and JAPB has never seen one marked or looking multicoated
  • Not the 35mm Exakta zebra Biometar: that one has a release plunger on the barrel, a 49 mm filter and a 0.8 m scale

All-black MC, bright front edge:

  • All-black barrel with a diamond or pyramid pattern on the focusing ring, but a bright polished front edge to it
  • MC on the name ring, in red paint at first and usually white from about 1980; some lenses of about 1976 are multicoated without the marking
  • Feet in red and metres in white still on the distance scale (example finished 19 July 1978)
  • Eight-digit numbers in the ten millions (10,xxx,xxx) on lenses made before the mid-1980 restart

All-black MC, black front edge, metres only:

  • Black front edge to the focusing ring; distances in metres only, no feet scale
  • On the matching 120mm Biometar of 1990, pentaconsix.com also notes larger, less spaced-out MC lettering, placed differently from the 1978 lens
  • A four- or five-digit serial number

1979-calculation batch (42001–48000):

  • Outwardly the late all-black MC lens; only the serial number between 42001 and 48000 marks it

Export marking 'Bm … aus JENA':

  • Name ring reads Bm 1:2.8 f=80 and aus JENA, with no Carl Zeiss and no Biometar
  • On the US-export Pentacon Six TL the Bm ring is screwed in on top of the original Biometar ring, and lens and body read MADE IN GERMANY (EAST)
  • A 35mm Exakta Biometar can carry the same Bm ring: the 6×6 lens has the large breech-lock mount and a 58 mm filter

Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar in Exakta 66 livery:

  • Schneider-style barrel with a rubber focusing ring whose front reads EXAKTA 66 MADE IN GERMANY; name ring Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar, MULTICOATING
  • 67 mm filter, 82 × 68 mm, 440 g, 1.0 m; aperture ring turning the opposite way to the Pentacon Six lens, to feed the Exakta 66 metering prism
  • From the rear it is a Jena lens: protruding rear element with a scalloped retaining ring, three silver pins (on the Pentacon Six lens one of the three is black), and a small silver stop-down lever at about 7 o'clock. The Xenotar MF has a recessed rear element, two black pins and a wide black bar
  • Matt-black diaphragm blades, where GDR-era Biometars have shiny ones; coating almost pink

'Xenotar E' (Schneider-Kreuznach name ring):

  • Name ring Schneider-Kreuznach Xenotar E 2,8/80, MULTICOATING S, but the rubber ring reads EXAKTA 66 MADE IN GERMANY
  • Identical to the Exakta 66 Biometar in size (82 × 68 mm), weight (440 g), 1.0 m closest focus, scale spacing, pins and even screw positions
  • Light amber-yellow multicoating, unlike the other three Exakta 66 80mm lenses
  • Not the Xenotar MF: no MF on the ring, a five-digit serial rather than a 14-million Schneider number, and a protruding rear element

'Exakta' 80mm f/2.8 (Schneider-made, longer barrel):

  • Name ring EXAKTA 1:2,8 80mm MULTICOATING, with no maker's name; rubber ring EXAKTA 66 MADE IN GERMANY
  • Front of the barrel extended to look like the Xenotar MF, leaving the front element deeply recessed: 83 × 74 mm, 450 g, 0.95 m
  • Rear as on the Biometar (protruding element, three silver pins, small silver lever); deep purple coating
  • A 14-million serial does not make it an MF: check for MF on the ring and the recessed rear

Serial-range notes

the whole number
Carl Zeiss Jena numbered every lens from one running sequence, so a Biometar is dated against camera-wiki's postwar Jena blocks: 5,000,000–6,000,000 for 1958–61, 6,000,000–7,000,000 for 1961–64, 7,000,000–8,000,000 for 1964–67, 8,000,000–9,000,000 for 1967–70 and 9,000,000–10,000,000 for 1970–75. The blocks are three to five years wide. Hartmut Thiele's Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II gives batch-by-batch dates.
10,885,988–10,895,987
Two consecutive blocks of 5,000 Biometar 80s: the higher one, 10,890,988–10,895,987, was finished on 2 September 1980, the lower one not until 28 February 1981 (pentaconsix.com). A serial dates a lens well, but batches were not always finished in number order.
after 10,982,372
Jena reached 10,982,372 in mid-1980 and restarted the count, apparently at 10001, so most lenses made from mid-1980 to 1991 have four- or five-digit numbers and are the newest (pentaconsix.com). A few 1980s lenses have even lower numbers.
37001–48000
The last GDR batches, per Thiele via pentaconsix.com: 42001–48000 finished 29 March 1989 to the 1979 calculation, then 37001–42000 finished 29 September 1989 to the 1956 calculation, the last in Pentacon Six style. Numbers just above 48000 are the Exakta 66 Biometar and Xenotar E of 1990.

Specifications

Formula
Biometar: five elements in four groups (camera-wiki, JAPB), Zöllner's five-element simplification of the Biotar double-Gauss with a thin, strongly curved negative meniscus at the rear; recomputed in 1956 for 6×6 with a larger front element and high-index Schott glasses (SSK 10, SK 16, SF 10, from the 1957 patent as read by Kröger)
Designed by
Harry Zöllner — head of the photo-optics department at Carl Zeiss Jena, whose department completed the calculation on 5 June 1956; named inventor on the 1957 patent (Kröger)
Construction
5 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
76.1 × 51 mm
Weight
260 g
Filter
58 mm (0.75 mm pitch) (Bright alloy, leather focusing band, Bumpy plastic focusing band, alloy or black scale rings, Mostly black, leather focusing band (from 1965), Zebra, All-black MC, bright front edge, All-black MC, black front edge, metres only, 1979-calculation batch (42001–48000), Export marking 'Bm … aus JENA') · 67 mm (Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar in Exakta 66 livery, 'Xenotar E' (Schneider-Kreuznach name ring), 'Exakta' 80mm f/2.8 (Schneider-made, longer barrel))
Years manufactured
1959
Country
East Germany (VEB Carl Zeiss Jena); the last 'Exakta' version made by Schneider-Kreuznach
Coating
Single coating until the mid-1970s; multicoated and marked MC from about 1976, in red letters at first and usually white from about 1980 (pentaconsix.com); the Exakta 66 versions read MULTICOATING or MULTICOATING S
Original price
245 Mark (East German retail list price for the Praktisix ASB lens from 1960, unchanged to 1990); a Praktisix outfit with the Biometar 860 Mark after 1960 and a Pentacon Six TL with it 995 Mark in 1974 — DDR price lists compiled by Marco Kröger. No Western list price found.

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Biometar: five elements in four groups (camera-wiki, JAPB), Zöllner's five-element simplification of the Biotar double-Gauss with a thin, strongly curved negative meniscus at the rear; recomputed in 1956 for 6×6 with a larger front element and high-index Schott glasses (SSK 10, SK 16, SF 10, from the 1957 patent as read by Kröger)

History

The Biometar 80mm f/2.8 of 1956 is the standard lens of the East German Praktisix and Pentacon Six. It shares its name with an older lens but not its design. Harry Zöllner’s department at Carl Zeiss Jena had designed the first Biometar in 1948 for the Rolleiflex. For the Praktisix of 1956 it computed a completely new one, finished on 5 June 1956. Free of the Rolleiflex’s need for a slim lens, the new design has a much larger front element to light the corners of the 6×6 frame, and it uses glasses of unusually high refractive index for the time, among them SSK 10, which Schott in Jena had developed only a few years earlier. Marco Kröger explains why it was needed. The camera was launched with a Tessar 2,8/80, and Kröger says that lens left enough spherical aberration to shift focus on stopping down. On the Praktisix, whose automatic diaphragm meant every picture was focused wide open, that showed on almost every frame. Zöllner filed patents in both German states in January 1957 and later in the United States. The East German patent was granted, but in West Germany only the published application survives. Kröger thinks Schneider, which had applied in 1952 for a patent on the same type, blocked it.

Production began in March 1959 with a first lot of 7,000, and the Biometar replaced the Tessar from that spring. Kröger counts at least 208,800 made by the end of the GDR. After the Pentacon Six took over from the Praktisix in 1966, it was the system’s only standard lens. The East German retail price was 245 Mark from 1960 and never changed. It has five elements in four groups, focuses to 1 m, takes 58 mm filters and stops down to f/22. Kröger says nothing changed optically in thirty years except multicoating. pentaconsix.com, working from Hartmut Thiele’s production book, records a second calculation of October 1979 that was used for one batch of 6,000 lenses, numbered 42001–48000, in 1989. The two accounts disagree.

The barrel finish dates a lens, because Jena restyled its whole Pentacon Six range together, though gradually, as old parts ran out. The first lenses are bright alloy with a leather band, much like the Tessar. A bumpy plastic band followed, first on the alloy barrel and from 1964 with black scale rings. A mostly black lens with a leather band was in production from 1965. The zebra finish of black with bright stripes ran from about 1967 to 1974, and all zebra lenses are single-coated. From about 1976 the all-black lens with a diamond-pattern grip appeared, marked MC, at first with a bright front edge and a feet scale. The last ones, of the late 1980s, have a black edge and metres only, and like most Jena lenses made after the serial count restarted in mid-1980 they carry four- or five-digit numbers. Lenses sold in the United States while the Zeiss name was in court there are engraved “Bm” and “aus JENA” instead of “Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar”. On the American-market Pentacon Six TL that ring was simply screwed in over the original.

The confusing end of the story is the Exakta 66, the West German camera built on the Pentacon Six chassis. In 1990, as a cheaper alternative to the Schneider Xenotar MF, it was offered with a Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar in a Schneider-style barrel. The same lens was also sold with a “Xenotar E” ring, and later, in a longer barrel, with a ring reading only “Exakta”. pentaconsix.com and camera-wiki both treat all three as the five-element Biometar. The Xenotar E shares the Biometar’s serial numbers in the 48 thousands, and a 1992 Beroflex catalogue shows the “Exakta” lens’s elements to be the Biometar’s. TRA of pentaconsix.com surmises that the name was meant to get round resistance to an East German lens, and says it still misleads buyers, hence the high prices Xenotar E lenses fetch at auction. A real Xenotar MF has “MF” on its ring, a recessed rear element with two black pins and a 0.6 m closest focus.

When buying, check first which Biometar is on offer. A lens with a 49 mm filter, an Exakta bayonet or a 42mm thread is the 35mm lens of 1948. A Biometar in the front of a Rolleiflex 2.8B is the same 1948 design as a fixed taking lens, and both have pages of their own. A 6×6 Biometar fits every Praktisix and Pentacon Six, the Exakta 66 and Arsenal’s Kiev-6S, Kiev-60 and Kiev-88CM, but not the Salyut or an ordinary Kiev-88. On the early bumpy-band lenses, see that the band is neither cracked nor loose. Do not assume a lens and body started life together: pentaconsix.com shows a Praktisix II of 1964–66 offered with a Tessar last made in 1958, and the finish and serial of the lens date it on its own. Zach Horton calls it an outstanding standard lens, a little soft wide open and excellent from there. pentaconsix.com finds both early and late examples very sharp, with pleasant out-of-focus rendering.

Expand Collapse

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 taken with the Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (6×6, 1956 design)
An all-black MC Biometar 2,8/80 on a Pentacon Six TL — Klara Keler, via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (6×6, 1956 design)
Pentacon Six TL with its standard Biometar 2,8/80 — Ansgar Koreng, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (6×6, 1956 design)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $330 across 61 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half $250–$490). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

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

Related: Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (35mm SLR, 1948 design) · Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8B) · Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (Praktisix)

Sources (12)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.