Mirotar 500mm f/4.5 (Contarex)

Carl Zeiss · Contarex · 1963

our own finding

Also known as: Mirotar 4.5/500 Contarex · Mirotar 4,5/500 Contarex · Mirotar 500mm Contarex · Contarex Mirotar 500mm · Contarex Mirotar 500mm f/4.5 · Zeiss Contarex Mirotar 500 · Carl Zeiss Mirotar 500mm f/4.5 Contarex · Mirotar 500mm F4.5 · Mirotar 4.5/500 · Mirotar 4,5/500 · Mirotar 1:4,5 f=500mm · Mirotar 4.5 500mm · コンタレックスミロター 500mm F4.5 · Contarex Mirotar 500 · Contarex 500mm f/4.5 · Contarex 500mm mirror

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Mirotar f/4.5 500mm, cat. no. 11.2420	Contarex	1963–1971	3513232 (Leitz: 1963; printed in the lot text as 35132320, the photograph shows Nr 3513232) 3513278 (Christie's, undated) 3513327 (Christie's, undated) 3513369 (Leitz: 1963) 3513382 (Leitz: 1963)	About 200 (Pacific Rim: 200; Leitz lot descriptions: 'approx. 200 units' and '200 units only')

Production: 200 in Pacific Rim's table; 'total production approx. 200 units' in Leitz Auctions 11 and 19, '200 units only' in Auction 29. Neither source says where the figure comes from. An owner of the later Contax/Yashica version on mflenses speaks of '200-odd copies' without separating the two mounts, and the catalogue's C/Y page reads that as about 200 in both mounts together. The two readings are not reconciled here.
Dates: Leitz dates all three of its lenses to 1963. Pacific Rim's table cell for the years is garbled ('1964-197063'), and English Wikipedia's Contarex lens list gives '1964?', citing Pacific Rim and the 1968 list. German Wikipedia says the Contarex lens range grew by seven at Photokina 1963. The lens is in the US list of 1 March 1968 at $1,312 and still on offer, by special order, in the US catalogue of 1 October 1971; years.last is that last appearance in a list, not a known end of production.
Filters: the 1971 catalogue gives 'SC 49mm' (SC = screw mount) for both Mirotars, Pacific Rim gives S49. Leitz's photographs show the filters as round elements in slide-in holders. How many filters were standard is not recorded: two Leitz lots came with seven, one with a UV filter only, and one of Christie's lenses with a 'filter holder'.
Aperture: the 1968 list says the Contarex lenses from 18 to 250 mm have automatic preset diaphragms and does not describe one for the Mirotars. The Contax/Yashica version of 1975 has no diaphragm at all, but no source cited here says the same of the Contarex lens, so min_aperture is left empty.
Angle of view 5° is Pacific Rim's. Pacific Rim gives the element count as 'N/A'. The 5-element, 5-group construction, 4.5 kg weight, 151 × 225 mm size and 3.5 m closest focus published for the C/Y version are not carried over to this page, because no source gives them for the Contarex lens.
Prices realised at Leitz Auction, all including buyer's premium (24% within the EU under the margin scheme, 20% for export): €4,560 for no. 3513232 (Auction 11, A-, both caps, seven filters, large metal case; estimate €4,000–4,500); €5,040 for no. 3513382 (Auction 19, A-, both caps, seven filters, matching case; estimate €4,000–5,000); €3,840 for no. 3513369 (Auction 29, A-, rear cap, UV filter, leather case; estimate €4,000–5,000). Christie's 1997 lot was a whole Contarex collection, with a price realised (Christie's figure) of £67,500 against an estimate of £70,000–80,000, and no figure for any single lens.

How to tell them apart (expand)

A Mirotar 4,5/500 with a chrome Contarex bayonet at the back of its bellows. A Mirotar 4,5/500 with bellows and a Contax/Yashica bayonet is the C/Y version, released in 1975 according to Japanese Wikipedia. The compact Contax Mirotar 500mm f/8 has an 82 mm filter thread and a focusing ring, and is a different lens
Not the Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6, the other Contarex mirror lens, which is far larger (16.6 kg, according to Leitz)

Mirotar f/4.5 500mm, cat. no. 11.2420:

Front ring engraved 'Mirotar 1:4,5 f=500mm', 'Carl Zeiss', 'Nr' and the serial, and 'Lens made in Germany' (Leitz photographs of 3513232, 3513369 and 3513382; the decimal mark reads as a comma on 3513382 but looks more like a point on 3513232 at the photographs' resolution)
A squat cylindrical barrel covered in black leatherette, with a carrying handle on two chrome brackets along the top and a black foot underneath (Leitz photographs)
No focusing ring: at the back a black bellows runs from the barrel to a chrome Contarex bayonet held in a standard that rides on twin chrome rods under the lens, with knurled knobs at the sides (Leitz photographs)
Filters in round slide-in holders marked 'Germany' with their filter factors; complete lots have come with a set of seven (Leitz Auctions 11 and 19)

Mirotar f/4.5 500mm, cat. no. 11.2420: The only Contarex version. Pacific Rim lists it in black only, and every example photographed is the same leatherette barrel with bellows at the back. Known numbers all fall between 3513232 and 3513382. Lots have come with caps, slide-in filters and a case: both caps, seven filters and a large metal case for 3513232; a rear cap, a UV filter and a leather case for 3513369; and caps, a filter holder and a 'maker's fitted case' for one of Christie's two.

Serial-range notes

3513232–3513382: Five numbers have been published, from three Leitz lots and two lenses in the Contarex collection Christie's sold in 1997. All five fall within a run of 151 numbers, and Leitz dates its three lenses to 1963. Zeiss numbered its lenses in blocks from one running sequence, so a number dates a lens only against Zeiss's block list, which none of the sources here gives for this lens. The years are Leitz's.
35132320: As printed in the text of Leitz Auction 11. Zeiss numbers of the period have seven digits, and the lot's own photograph of the front ring reads Nr 3513232. Leitz has printed other Contarex lens numbers with the same extra 0 at the end, such as 47372140 for a Tele-Tessar 400mm (Auction 9) and 33367300 for a black Sonnar 85mm (Auction 9).

Specifications

Formula: Catadioptric (mirror) telephoto: 'mirror-reflex (catadioptric) lens' in Zeiss Ikon's 1968 US list
Aperture range: f/4.5
Filter: 49 mm, Filters in slide-in holders at the rear of the barrel; filter mount 'SC 49mm' in the 1971 US catalogue, S49 in Pacific Rim
Years manufactured: 1963–1971
Country: West Germany (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen)
Original price: $1,312 US list price for the lens with its case, in Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer's 'The Contarex Camera System' price list of 1 March 1968; before any sales tax. By the dealer schedule of 15 February 1971 and the catalogue of 1 October 1971 it was 'on special order only', price on request. No German DM price is on record. (today $11,830)

What reviewers say

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History

The Mirotar 500mm f/4.5 is the smaller of the two mirror lenses Carl Zeiss made for the Contarex. Pacific Rim notes that most 500 mm mirror lenses were f/8 and that Nippon Kogaku’s was f/5, so at f/4.5 the Mirotar was faster than either. Zeiss Ikon’s US list of March 1968 describes it as a “mirror-reflex (catadioptric) lens with case” at $1,312. That was nearly twice the $684 asked for a Contarex Super with the Planar 55mm f/1.4, and more than any other Contarex lens except the Mirotar 1000mm at $3,990. By February 1971 both Mirotars were “on special order only”, with the price on request, and they are listed that way again in the catalogue of October 1971. Pacific Rim and Leitz both give the production as about 200. Pacific Rim says the lens is very hard to find, because of its size and, it suspects, even more because of its price.

There is one version. It is a short, fat cylinder covered in black leatherette, with a carrying handle on two chrome brackets along the top and a foot underneath. The front ring is engraved “Mirotar 1:4,5 f=500mm” (on one lens in Leitz’s photographs the decimal mark looks more like a point), “Carl Zeiss” and the serial number. There is no focusing ring. Behind the barrel a black bellows runs to the Contarex bayonet, which is held in a standard that slides on twin chrome rods under the lens and is moved by knurled knobs. An owner of the later Contax/Yashica version describes focusing that lens the same way, “by cranking the camera body using bellows at the rear”. Filters go in round slide-in holders. The 1971 catalogue gives their size as “SC 49mm”, and Pacific Rim as S49. Two complete lots at Leitz have come with seven filters, and one with a UV filter only. The 1968 list says the Contarex lenses from 18 to 250 mm have automatic preset diaphragms, and does not mention one on the Mirotars. Neither the list nor Pacific Rim gives the weight, size, closest focus or optical construction of the Contarex lens. Pacific Rim gives the angle of view as 5°.

Five serial numbers have been published, and they all lie between 3513232 and 3513382. Leitz dates its three lenses to 1963. Pacific Rim’s dates are garbled but appear to start in 1964. English Wikipedia’s Contarex lens list gives “1964?”, and an owner of the C/Y version writes that the lens was introduced “in about 1964”. Leitz prints the first of its numbers as 35132320, one digit too many, but the lot photograph shows Nr 3513232. The 1963 date fits German Wikipedia’s account that seven lenses joined the Contarex range at Photokina 1963, among them the 1000 mm mirror lens.

When the Contarex ended, Zeiss offered the lens again in Contax/Yashica mount, as a special-order item from Zeiss in Germany (English Wikipedia); Japanese Wikipedia gives its release as 1975. That lens has its own page. English Wikipedia’s Contax lens table calls it a “mirror lens developed in the Contarex era”. The production figure is disputed. Pacific Rim and Leitz give 200 for the Contarex lens alone, while the C/Y owner’s “200-odd copies” has been read as a total for both mounts. No Zeiss record on file settles it. The Mirotar 1000mm f/5.6 is the Contarex’s other mirror lens, a 16.6 kg lens (according to Leitz) made in far smaller numbers: Leitz gives 23 in one lot description and 28 in another.

At Leitz the 500mm Mirotar has sold for €3,840 to €5,040 including buyer’s premium. The highest price was for a lens with both caps, seven filters and its case, and the lowest for one with only a rear cap, a UV filter and a leather case. The bayonet fits every interchangeable-lens Contarex from the Bullseye to the Super Electronic, and the lens needs a Contarex adapter on any other camera. A buyer should check that the bellows is free of pinholes and that the standard moves smoothly on its rods. It is also worth checking that the slide-in filter holders, the front cap and the case are present, since they were made for this lens and are not easy to replace.

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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.

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