Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 (Contarex)

Carl Zeiss · Contarex · 1964

Also known as: Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 Contarex · Mirotar 5.6/1000 Contarex · Mirotar 5,6/1000mm Contarex · Mirotar 1:5,6/1000 Contarex · Mirotar 5,6/1000 · Contarex Mirotar 1000mm · Contarex Mirotar 5.6/1000 · Zeiss Contarex Mirotar 1000mm f5.6 · Carl Zeiss Mirotar 5.6/1000mm · Carl Zeiss Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 · Zeiss Mirotar 1000mm f5.6 · Mirotar 1000mm F5.6 · Mirotar 1000/5.6 · コンタレックスミロター 1000mm F5.6 · Contarex Mirotar 1000 · Contarex 1000mm f/5.6 · Contarex 1000mm mirror

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Mirotar 5.6/1000 for Contarex, cat. no. 11.2422	Contarex	1964–1970	2594977 (Christie's, 1997, undated) 3543935 (Leitz: 1964, 'second lens produced') 3543936 (Leitz: 1964, 'lens no. 3') 3543938 (Leitz: 1964, 'very first batch') 4954789 (Leitz: 1970, 'small batch of 5 units')	23 (Pacific Rim; Leitz Auction 8; Hartmut Theile's Deutsche Photooptik von A–Z, as quoted by Don Zeitz) or about 28 (Leitz Auctions 19, 33, 35 and 48); the first batch of 1964 about 8 lenses and a batch of 5 in 1970 (Leitz)

Production: 23 on Pacific Rim's page, in Leitz Auction 8's description and in Hartmut Theile's Deutsche Photooptik von A–Z ('23 lenses were made, all for Contarex', as quoted by Don Zeitz on Japan Camera Hunter); 'only 28' in Leitz Auction 19 and 'around 28' in Leitz Auctions 33, 35 and 48. None of the four says where its figure comes from, and Leitz uses both. Pacific Rim calls it the lowest production of any Contarex lens that went into serial production.
Dates: Photokina 1963 introduced seven new Contarex lenses, among them a 1000mm mirror lens (German Wikipedia). Pacific Rim and Leitz give production as 1964 to 1970, and English Wikipedia's Contarex lens table, citing Pacific Rim, dates it 1964. The lens was still in Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer's US lists of 15 February 1971 and 1 October 1971, as a special-order item with the price on request, so the end of production is not the end of sale.
Weight: 16.6 kg in Leitz Auction 8's description; Don Zeitz gives 15 kg for no. 4954789 as he restored it. English Wikipedia's Contax lens table gives 16.5 kg for the C/Y lens. No Zeiss data sheet for the Contarex lens is on record, so length, diameter, closest focus, construction and coating are not given here. Angle of view 2.5° (Pacific Rim; Leitz Auction 8).
Aperture and filters: the 1968 list states that the 18mm to 250mm lenses have automatic preset diaphragms, which leaves out both Mirotars, and no source describes a diaphragm or an aperture scale on this lens. The filter fitting is 'SC 49mm' (screw mount) in the October 1971 list and S49 on Pacific Rim's page. Leitz describes 'a set of 4 filters in mounts' with no. 4954789 and a 'special yellow filter' with no. 3543936; Christie's lists a filter set. The neutral-density turret marked f/5.6, 8 and 11 is recorded for the C/Y lens of 1978 and has not been described on a Contarex example.
Prices realised at Leitz Photographica Auction (formerly WestLicht Photographica Auction), all including buyer's premium (24% within the EU under the margin scheme, 20% for export): €16,200 for no. 3543935 (Auction 8, B/A; estimate €20,000–25,000); €72,000 for no. 3543936 (Auction 19, A-, with fitted wooden box and yellow filter; estimate €24,000–28,000); €14,400 for no. 4954789 on its Canon mount (Auction 35, 2019, A-; estimate €24,000–26,000), after it failed to sell against €30,000–35,000 in Auction 33 (2018). No. 3543938 was unsold in Auction 48 against €8,000–9,000 (start €4,000; that lot was offered under full VAT taxation). Christie's 1997 lot was a whole Contarex collection, which realised £67,500 against an estimate of £70,000–80,000, with no figure for any one lens; the lot page does not say whether the figure includes buyer's premium.
Dealer asking prices, not sales, as reported by Don Zeitz: Roberts Imaging of Indianapolis listed a Nikon-modified Contarex Mirotar at $30,000 in February 2016, and Mint and Rare in Vienna listed no. 4954789 and a Canon 800mm lens at prices 'in the range of $20,000' before he bought them at negotiated prices.

How to tell them apart (expand)

The longest lens of the Contarex system, whose lenses 'range from 18mm to 1000mm' in the 1968 list; a 1000mm f/5.6 mirror lens when most 1000mm mirror lenses were f/11 and Nippon Kogaku's was f/6.3 (Pacific Rim)
Recorded Contarex serials run from 2594977 to 4954789. The Contax/Yashica Mirotar 5.6/1000 sold at Leitz is no. 6081383 of 1978, with an ND turret and Contax/Yashica and Hasselblad F adapters; it is on its own page, as are the Hasselblad and Rollei SL66 Mirotar 1000s
A lens on a Nikon, Canon or other mount may be a converted Contarex lens; check for remains of the four-part Contarex mounting ring and for glue, as on no. 4954789. A Mirotar 1000 on a Hasselblad or C/Y adapter is more likely the later lens, which Leitz sold with both adapters

Mirotar 5.6/1000 for Contarex, cat. no. 11.2422:

Black, the only finish listed (Pacific Rim); 16.6 kg, with a carrying handle (Leitz Auction 8 for the weight; Leitz Auction 48 describes the plastic on the handle broken)
Contarex bayonet on a mounting ring made in four parts, the same parts the manual-diaphragm Contarex lenses use (Don Zeitz, who rebuilt the ring of no. 4954789 from a Sonnar 250mm f/4 donor)
Supplied in a fitted wooden box: 'with case' in the 1968 list, 'maker's fitted wood box' at Christie's, 'large wooden carrying case with keys' and 'orig. fitted wooden box' at Leitz, with a bayonet front cap and a set of filters in mounts

Mirotar 5.6/1000 for Contarex, cat. no. 11.2422: The only version. Zeiss Ikon listed it as item 11.2422, 'mirror-reflex (catadioptric) lens with case', at $3,990 in March 1968, and as a special-order item with the price on request in the US dealer schedule of February 1971 and the US list of October 1971. Pacific Rim gives 1964–1970, 23 made, black, 2.5° and an S49 filter; Leitz has sold or offered four lenses, three of them from 1964 and one from 1970. At least one lens has been converted to another mount: no. 4954789 came to auction on a Canon mount and was returned to Contarex by its later owner (see the serial notes).

Serial-range notes

3543935–3543938: Three lenses Leitz dates to 1964, numbered within three of each other: 3543935, described as the 'second lens produced', 3543936 as 'lens no. 3', and 3543938 as from 'the very first batch produced in 1964, of which only about 8 lenses were initially assembled'. Read together they suggest the opening batch of the run sits in the 35439xx block. Leitz does not say where its lens numbers within the run come from.
2594977: Listed with caps and filter set in its fitted wood box among the lenses of the Contarex collection Christie's South Kensington sold on 9 October 1997. The number is nearly a million below the lens Leitz calls the second made, and the two are hard to reconcile: the Christie's number may be misprinted, or Leitz's 'second lens produced' may be wrong. Neither source addresses the other.
4954789: Dated 1970 by Leitz, 'from a small batch of 5 units made in 1970'. Leitz offered it twice, in Auction 33 (2018, unsold) and Auction 35 (2019, sold), as 'professionally adapted to FL mount (probably modification made to order by Zeiss, incl. original Contarex mounting ring)'. Don Zeitz, who bought it afterwards, writes that this was not so: a Canon T-mount had been glued to the back, off-centre, after the Contarex mount parts were removed, and only two of the four parts of the Contarex mounting ring remained. He restored the Contarex mount with parts from a Contarex Sonnar 250mm f/4.

Specifications

Formula: Catadioptric: 'mirror-reflex (catadioptric) lens' in Zeiss Ikon's 1968 list; no element count is published (Pacific Rim gives N/A)
Aperture range: f/5.6
Weight: 16600 g
Filter: 49 mm, SC 49mm (screw mount) in the October 1971 US list, S49 at Pacific Rim; examples have come with a set of filters in mounts
Years manufactured: 1964–1970
Country: West Germany (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen)
Original price: $3,990 US list price, lens with case, in Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer's 'The Contarex Camera System' list of 1 March 1968. By 1971 Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer's US dealer schedule and list no longer print a price: 'on special order only, price on request'. No DM price is on record in a period document. (today $35,970)

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History

The Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 was the longest lens Carl Zeiss made for the Contarex and the one made in the smallest numbers. It was among the seven lenses added to the system at Photokina 1963, and Pacific Rim and Leitz Auction date production from 1964 to 1970. Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer’s US list of 1 March 1968 describes it as a “mirror-reflex (catadioptric) lens with case” at $3,990. That was nearly nine times the $445 the same list asked for a Contarex Super body. Pacific Rim notes that a Porsche 912 cost $3,925 the same year. In 1971 the US dealer price schedule of February and the US list of October carry it, with the 500mm Mirotar, “on special order only — price on request”. Its speed made it remarkable: Pacific Rim points out that most 1000mm mirror lenses were f/11 and Nippon Kogaku’s was f/6.3. It is heavy: Leitz gives 16.6 kg for one example and Don Zeitz 15 kg for another, and the lens has a carrying handle and has come to auction in a fitted wooden box.

Nobody agrees on how many were made, but every count is small. Pacific Rim, one Leitz Auction description and Hartmut Theile’s Deutsche Photooptik von A–Z give 23; Theile adds that all were for Contarex. Four later Leitz descriptions give 28 or “around 28”, and Leitz adds that the first batch of 1964 was about eight lenses and that five were made in 1970. Pacific Rim calls it the lowest production of any Contarex lens built in series. The serial numbers on record are just as uneven. Leitz has sold 3543935, 3543936 and 3543938, all of 1964, which it calls the second lens made, lens no. 3 and part of the first batch. Christie’s sold 2594977, nearly a million lower, in the large Contarex collection it auctioned in 1997. The two are hard to reconcile, since Leitz calls a higher number the second lens made, and neither source addresses the other. The fifth recorded lens is 4954789, from the 1970 batch.

There is only one version: black, Zeiss product code 11.2422, with filters that screw in at 49 mm (the 1971 list’s “SC 49mm”). Lenses have come to auction with a set of filters in mounts or a yellow filter. No source describes a diaphragm on the Contarex lens. The 1968 list gives automatic preset diaphragms only to the 18mm to 250mm lenses, and the neutral-density turret marked f/5.6, 8 and 11 has been described on the later Contax/Yashica lens, not on a Contarex example. The Mirotar 5.6/1000 name outlived the Contarex. Zeiss also made one for the Rollei SL66, which sl66.rolleigraphy.eu lists from October 1966, while the Contarex lens was still in production, and later ones to special order for Hasselblad and, between 1976 and 1978 according to Leitz, for Contax/Yashica; each has its own page here. English Wikipedia’s Contax table calls the C/Y lens a mirror lens “developed in the Contarex era”. The same table’s 16.5 kg for the C/Y lens is close to Leitz’s 16.6 kg for this one. The one C/Y lens Leitz has sold, no. 6081383 of 1978, came with both Contax/Yashica and Hasselblad F adapters, so a later lens may turn up on either mount. No source compares the optics of the Contarex and later lenses directly, so they are treated here as related lenses rather than as one.

Before buying, check the rear mount carefully. Lens 4954789 shows why. Leitz offered it in 2018 and 2019 as “professionally adapted to FL mount (probably modification made to order by Zeiss)”, and it sold in 2019 for €14,400 including buyer’s premium. Don Zeitz bought it later and found a Canon T-mount glued to the back, off-centre, where the Contarex mount had been. Only two of the four parts of the Contarex mounting ring remained. He rebuilt the ring with parts from a Contarex Sonnar 250mm f/4, because the manual-diaphragm Contarex lenses use the same mounting parts. A Mirotar 1000 on a Nikon or Canon mount may be a converted Contarex lens like this one, and nothing shows that Zeiss did any of these conversions. Completeness matters as much as the mount: the fitted box, the bayonet front cap, the handle and the filter set belong with the lens.

Auction prices vary widely. All the Leitz figures below include buyer’s premium. No. 3543935 made €16,200 against a €20,000–25,000 estimate. No. 3543936, near mint with its box and yellow filter, made €72,000 against €24,000–28,000. No. 3543938, with a broken handle, did not sell against €8,000–9,000. Zeitz also reports dealer asking prices, which are not sales: $30,000 for a Nikon-modified lens at Roberts Imaging in 2016 and prices “in the range of $20,000” at Mint and Rare in Vienna for no. 4954789 and a Canon 800mm lens listed at the same time. Before he bought his, the only example Zeitz had seen was on display at the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, donated by the Zeiss Ikon collector Mead Kibbey. The 500mm f/4.5 Mirotar, the other Contarex mirror lens, has its own page.

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