Planar 55mm f/1.4 (Contarex)
Carl Zeiss · Contarex · 1961 · Planar: 7 elements in 5 groups
Also known as: Planar 55mm f/1.4 Contarex · Contarex Planar 55mm F1.4 · Carl Zeiss Planar 55mm f1.4 Contarex · Zeiss Contarex Planar 55mm f/1.4 · Contarex 55mm f/1.4 · Zeiss Contarex 55mm f1.4 · Planar 1.4/55mm · Planar 1.4/55 Contarex · Planar 1,4/55 · Contarex 55/1,4 Planar · Contarex 55/1.4 Planar · f.Contarex 55/1,4 Planar · Planar 1:1.4 f=55mm · Planar 55mm f1.4 für Contarex · プラナー 55mm F1.4 コンタレックス
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome (11.2407) | Contarex | — | 3186825 (Leitz, dated 1964) 3339832 (Wikimedia Commons photograph, on a Bullseye) 3340572 (Leitz, dated 1961) | — |
| Black | Contarex | — | 3337620 (Leitz, on a 1972 Super) 3446645 (Christie's 1997, on Bullseye Y8228) 3969099 (Christie's 1997, in a Contarex SE outfit) 4499365 (Christie's 1997, on second-model Super R52230) | — |
- Construction: 7 elements in 5 groups and a 43° angle of view from Pacific Rim Camera; English Wikipedia's Contarex lens table and Flashback Camera give the same 7/5. Closest focus 0.45 m from Flashback Camera's listings and Kamerastore. Weight: about 382 g in one Flashback listing and in Kamerastore's specification, 370 g measured on another Flashback copy. Kamerastore also gives nine diaphragm blades and 57 × 68 mm; no second source repeats either, so they are not carried in the table.
- Dates: 1961–1970 and 8,275 made are Pacific Rim's figures, repeated by Flashback Camera, which adds that only the Planar 50mm f/2 and Distagon 35mm f/4 were made in larger numbers; Pacific Rim's own counts put the Sonnar 135mm f/4 (15,365) ahead of it and give the Distagon 35mm f/4 only 6,633, a figure Pacific Rim also prints for the Distagon 25mm f/2.8. One Flashback listing instead says the lens was sold from 1959 to 1972. The lens is absent from the Zeiss Ikon US price list of 1 May 1961, whose lens section runs only to the Biogon 21, Distagon 35, Planar 50, Tessar 50 and Sonnars 85, 135 and 250. German Wikipedia cites an advertisement in Die Yacht, Heft 21/1960, for Contarex outfits from 1224 DM with the Tessar 2.8/50 to 1660 DM with the Planar 1.4/55, which it gives as 1961 prices; if the advertisement is of 1960, the lens was offered in Germany before it reached the American list. Christie's 1997 lot 288 has a Planar f/1.4 55mm no. 3185969 on Contarex Special U24980, close to the chrome no. 3186825 that Leitz dates to 1964. It was still on the US list of 1 October 1971 and the dealer schedule of 15 February 1971, after Pacific Rim's 1970 end of production.
- Price: $239 is the US list price of the lens alone on the Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer Contarex list of 1 March 1968, catalogue number 11.2407; the list does not say whether excise is included. The same list sells the Super with it for $684 and the Professional with it for $554, exactly $239 over each body. On 1 October 1971 the US list price was $324, and the confidential dealer schedule of 15 February 1971 gives $324 list against $216 net to a dealer buying one or two. The DM figures in note ² are outfit prices with a body, taken from German Wikipedia.
- No Blitz (flash-automation) version of this lens appears in the 1968 or 1971 US lists, which name only the B-Planar 50/2 and B-Distagon 35/4 as flash-automation lenses. A Flashback Camera listing says the production lot after its 1968 black lens 'introduced the Blitz engraving'; no lens or other source bears that out for the 55/1.4.
- Kamerastore has listed a 'Carl Zeiss 55mm f1.4 Opton Pl' for Contarex, with text about the Opton name used when Oberkochen could not sell under the Carl Zeiss name. No photograph, serial or second source shows an Opton-engraved Contarex lens, so it is not entered as a variant.
How to tell them apart
- No aperture ring: as on the other automatic-preset Contarex lenses the aperture is set from the body, and the barrel carries only the focusing ring and the depth-of-field scale. On any other camera it needs an adapter that supplies the aperture control
- The system's only f/1.4 standard lens and its only 55 mm: the other standard lenses are the Planar 50mm f/2 (chrome, and black as the B-Planar) and the Tessar 50mm f/2.8; the only other f/1.4 is the late Planar 85mm. Pacific Rim notes that Nikon, Canon and Minolta were already selling f/1.2 standard lenses
- Takes the Contarex 56 mm bayonet filters and the 20.0712 lens shade it shares with the 50, 85, 115 and 135 mm lenses; the Monocular 8×30 B needs its own adapter ring 20.1642 on this lens rather than the 20.1639 ring for the 50mm Planar and Tessar (1968 list)
- Not the Contax/Yashica Planar 55mm f/1.2 or Planar 50mm f/1.4, which have their own aperture ring and a different bayonet, and not Zeiss's modern Otus 55mm f/1.4
Chrome (11.2407):
- Chrome barrel and knurled chrome focusing ring; the serial is engraved on the front ring after 'Nr' (Wikimedia Commons photograph of no. 3339832)
- Seen on the first-generation Bullseye body in the Wikimedia Commons photograph by ElHeineken, with a metre distance scale
Black:
- Black finish with white and red engravings (Flashback Camera item 024562, a lens made in 1968)
- Found on both generations of body: Leitz's Super R52302 of 1972 carries black no. 3337620, and Christie's listed black no. 3446645 on Bullseye Y8228 and black no. 4499365 on Super R52230
- Chrome (11.2407): Leitz Photographica Auction 28 sold two chrome lenses in consecutive lots: 3186825 (dated 1964, A-, "mint with perfect lenses, caps") for €1,080 and 3340572 (dated 1961, A/B, with front cap, keeper and black metal hood) for €900, both results including buyer's premium and against an estimate of €1,000–1,200. Flashback Camera's chrome lens (item 023495) is described with distance markings in metres.
- Black: Pacific Rim lists the lens in black or chrome without dating the change, and gives no split of the 8,275. Flashback Camera dates its black lens (item 024562) to 1968. Leitz Auction 25 sold the second-model Super R52302 (dated 1972, B/A, meter inaccurate) with black Planar 1.4/55 no. 3337620 for €1,200 including premium, against an estimate of €2,000–2,400. That serial sits between the two chrome lenses Leitz sold, so the finish cannot be read from the number. Christie's South Kensington, 9 October 1997 (lot 288, a Contarex collection sold as one lot), listed three black 55/1.4s: 3446645 on a chrome Bullseye, 3969099 in an SE outfit and 4499365 on a second-model Super. A collection's lenses and bodies may have been paired by the collector, so the Bullseye pairing shows only that black lenses are found on first-generation bodies, not when black began. On Yahoo! Auctions Japan a black lens graded C by the selling store closed at its starting price of ¥126,717 including tax, on a single bid, on 4 October 2026.
Serial-range notes
- 3185969–4499365
- Serials on record: 3185969 (finish not stated, on Special U24980, Christie's), chrome 3186825 (Leitz), black 3337620 (Leitz), chrome 3339832 (Wikimedia Commons photograph), chrome 3340572 (Leitz), black 3446645, black 3969099, 4228401 (finish not stated, on first-model Super G35881) and black 4499365 (all Christie's, 1997). Carl Zeiss Oberkochen lens numbers were shared across lenses: the same Christie's lot has Contarex Planar 50/2 and Tessar 50/2.8 lenses numbered 3180487 and 3293473, inside this lens's range, so a number dates a copy only roughly. Leitz dates 3340572 to 1961 and 3186825 to 1964, the reverse of serial order; either the numbers were not issued in order or one of Leitz's dates is wrong, and nothing published settles which.
Specifications
- Formula
- Planar: 7 elements in 5 groups
- Construction
- 7 elements / 5 groups
- Aperture range
- f/1.4
- Min. focus
- 0.45 m
- Weight
- 382 g
- Filter
- Contarex 56 mm bayonet (B56)
- Years manufactured
- 1961–1970
- Country
- West Germany
- Original price
- $239, the US list price of the lens alone on Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer's Contarex list of 1 March 1968 ($324 on the list of 1 October 1971). In Germany, German Wikipedia gives 1660 DM for a Contarex with the Planar 1.4/55, citing an advertisement in Die Yacht, Heft 21/1960, though it calls this a 1961 price. (today $2,150)
What reviewers say
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Optical formula — Planar: 7 elements in 5 groups
ⓘ What these charts mean
MTF (modulation transfer function) shows how much contrast the lens keeps at a given fineness of detail, from the center of the frame to the corner — the coarse curves track punch, the fine ones resolving power, and a gap between solid and dashed lines means astigmatism. Relative illumination (falloff) shows how much darker the corners are than the center at each aperture. Manufacturers only began publishing these for modern lenses; no 1950s maker issued them, which is why older families here cite period magazine bench tests instead.
History
The Planar 55mm f/1.4 was the fast standard lens of the Contarex, Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart’s professional 35mm reflex, and the only f/1.4 in the system until the Planar 85mm f/1.4 at its very end. Carl Zeiss Oberkochen made it under catalogue number 11.2407 as a Planar of 7 elements in 5 groups covering 43°, focusing to about 45 cm. Pacific Rim Camera gives 1961 to 1970 and 8,275 made; Flashback Camera repeats both figures and reckons it the third-largest run of any Contarex lens after the Planar 50mm f/2 and the Distagon 35mm f/4. That order does not fit Pacific Rim’s own counts, which give 37,768 for the Planar 50mm f/2 and 15,365 for the Sonnar 135mm f/4 but only 6,633 for the Distagon 35mm f/4 (the same figure it gives for the Distagon 25mm f/2.8); on those figures the Planar 55 is third after the Planar 50 and the Sonnar 135/4. Like the other automatic-preset Contarex lenses it has no aperture ring: the body sets the aperture, so off a Contarex it needs an adapter that supplies the aperture control.
It came into a system already on sale. The Zeiss Ikon US price list of 1 May 1961 has no 55mm lens at all, only the 21, 35, two 50s, 85, 135 and 250. German Wikipedia, citing a Contarex advertisement in the magazine Die Yacht (Heft 21/1960), gives outfits from 1224 DM with the Tessar to 1660 DM with the Planar 1.4/55, though it calls these 1961 prices; one Flashback listing has the lens on sale from 1959, while its others say 1961. By the US list of 1 March 1968 it was the dearest of the three lenses the second-generation bodies were sold with: the Super at $684 and the Professional at $554 with the 55/1.4, against $239 for the lens alone and $189 for the black B-Planar 50/2. Pacific Rim notes that it cost $50 more than the 50/2 and did not sell nearly as well, at a time when Nikon, Canon and Minolta already offered f/1.2. It was still listed at $324 in October 1971, after the end of production Pacific Rim gives, and the February 1971 dealer schedule shows $216 net to a dealer buying one or two.
There are two versions, chrome and black, with the same optics. A chrome lens appears on the first-generation Bullseye in the Commons photograph; Flashback dates a black lens to 1968, Leitz sold a black lens on a 1972 Super, and a Contarex collection sold at Christie’s in 1997 had black lenses on a Bullseye, in an SE outfit and on a second-model Super. No source splits the 8,275 between the finishes or dates the change. The serials do not separate them: black 3337620 falls between chrome 3186825 and chrome 3339832, and black 3446645 is not far above chrome 3340572. Leitz’s dates for its two chrome lenses, 1964 for 3186825 and 1961 for 3340572, run against the serial order, so either the numbers were not issued in order or one date is wrong. No Blitz (flash-automation) version appears in the period lists, which give that feature only to the B-Planar 50/2 and B-Distagon 35/4. The 55 shares the 56 mm bayonet filters and the 20.0712 shade with the 50, 85, 115 and 135mm lenses, but needs its own ring, 20.1642, for the 8×30 B monocular.
Leitz Auction 28 sold two chrome lenses at €1,080 and €900, both including buyer’s premium; a black lens on a Super made €1,200 with the body, including premium, at Leitz Auction 25; and a black lens graded C by the selling store closed at ¥126,717 including tax on a single bid on Yahoo! Auctions Japan in October 2026. A Japanese store has sold new barrels for converting the lens to Leica M (one at ¥66,100 including tax in July 2026), and a lens rebuilt that way is no longer in Contarex mount, so check the mount and the aperture linkage before buying a lens described only as a Planar 55/1.4. On a mirrorless camera it needs a Contarex adapter that supplies the aperture control; Phillip Reeve, writing about the Contarex 50/2, says the adapter matters more than usual and that the aperture ring on the cheapest one he bought felt sluggish. Two of the three Flashback listings report coating wear on the front element, so look at the front glass under a light. Erwin Puts has published Zeiss’s original MTF graphs for the lens on his Contarex lens page.
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 Planar 55mm f/1.4 (Contarex)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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