Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6 (Contarex)

Carl Zeiss · Contarex · 1970 · Tele-Tessar: 4 elements in 4 groups (Pacific Rim)

our own finding

Also known as: Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6 · Tele-Tessar 5.6/400mm · Tele-Tessar 5,6/400 · Tele Tessar 400/5.6 · Tele-Tessar 1:5.6 f=400mm · Tele-Tessar 1:5,6 f=400mm · Tele-Tessar 5.6/400 Contarex · Contarex Tele-Tessar 400mm · Zeiss Ikon Contarex Tele Tessar 400/5.6 · Contarex 400mm f/5.6

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6, cat. no. 11.2434	Contarex	1970–1973	4737092 (Leitz: 1970) 4737207 (Leitz: 1969) 4737334 (Leitz: 1969) 47372140 as printed by Leitz, eight digits (Leitz: 1969) 4996556 (Leitz: 1973) 5704655 (Christie's, undated)	366 (Pacific Rim; also Leitz, Auction 8) or 321 (Leitz, Auctions 19, 22 and 24)

Production: 366 on Pacific Rim's page and in the description of Leitz Auction 8 (no. 4737092); 321 in the descriptions of Leitz Auctions 19, 22 and 24. Neither source says where its figure comes from, and the gap is not explained.
Filter: Zeiss Ikon's US catalogue of 1 October 1971 prints the filter mount as 'SC 77mm' (SC = screw mount); the February 1971 dealer schedule has no filter column. Pacific Rim's table gives 'S67', the 67 mm screw fitting that the October 1971 catalogue gives for the 180 and 250 Olympia Sonnars. That catalogue offers Contarex filters in 56 mm, 67 mm and 96 mm but none in 77 mm; the February 1971 dealer schedule does list 77 mm yellow, UV and skylight filters, but among the Icarex accessories. The entry follows the factory catalogue.
Dates: Pacific Rim gives 1970–1973 and English Wikipedia's lens table, which cites Pacific Rim and the October 1971 catalogue, gives 1970. The lens is absent from Zeiss Ikon's US list of 1 March 1968, whose lens section runs from the 18mm Distagon through the Vario-Sonnars, the 8×30 B monocular and the two Mirotars with no 400mm lens, and present in the February 1971 dealer schedule. Leitz dates three of its examples to 1969, a year earlier than Pacific Rim's start.
Angle of view 6° and the 4-element, 4-group construction are Pacific Rim's. None of the sources gives the weight, length, closest focus or aperture range, so they are left out.
Prices realised at Leitz Auction, all including buyer's premium (24% within the EU under the margin scheme, 20% for export): €2,160 for no. 4737092 (Auction 8, B/A, with grip, caps and case; estimate €2,500–3,000); €2,160 for the lens printed 47372140 (Auction 9, A/B, with grip, cap, strap and case; estimate €2,800–3,200); €2,640 for no. 4737334 (Auction 19, A-, mint, with caps, grip and case; estimate €2,500–3,000); €1,680 for no. 4737207 (Auction 22, A-, with caps, grip and case; estimate €2,500–3,000); €1,440 for no. 4996556 (Auction 24, B/A, caps only; estimate €1,200–1,500). Christie's 1997 lot was the whole collection, with a price realised 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 400mm f/5.6 Zeiss lens with a Contarex bayonet and a focusing knob: the only Tele-Tessar in the Contarex lists, and not to be confused with the Contax N Tele-Apotessar 400mm f/4 autofocus lens of 2002
Not the Hasselblad or Rollei Tele-Tessars (350mm, 500mm and 1000mm among them), which are medium-format lenses with their own mounts, nor the 8×30 B monocular that Zeiss Ikon listed in 1968 as a '400mm tele attachment' for the Contarex 50mm and 55mm lenses

Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6, cat. no. 11.2434:

Black barrel with a broad chrome ring, focused by a chrome-topped knob rather than a ring, the system of the 180mm and 250mm Olympia Sonnars, with a pistol grip below the barrel (Pacific Rim's photographs; Leitz lots sold 'with caps, grip and leather case')
The focusing knob carries the distance scale in metres and feet, depth-of-field marks and 'Lens made in West Germany' (Pacific Rim's close-up)
Front filter fitting a screw thread: 'SC 77mm' in Zeiss Ikon's US catalogue of 1 October 1971, 'S67' on Pacific Rim's page
Contarex bayonet at the rear; Zeiss product code 11.2434

Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6, cat. no. 11.2434: The only version. Pacific Rim gives 1970–1973, 366 made, black, 6° angle of view and 4 elements in 4 groups, and illustrates an example with its grip on a black Contarex Super and with its case and caps. Leitz has sold it five times under the title "Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar 5.6/400mm" (once written "5,6/400mm"), always "for Contarex", but its descriptions disagree on the run: 366 lenses in Auction 8, 321 in Auctions 19, 22 and 24. No source records a chrome example or a second version.

Serial-range notes

4737092–4737334: Three of the five numbers Leitz has published sit within 250 of each other (4737092, 4737207, 4737334), and a fourth, printed as 47372140, has one digit too many for a Zeiss number of the period and most likely belongs to the same block. Leitz dates this group 1969 and 1970. None of the sources gives a factory block list for this lens, so the Leitz years are the auction house's own dating.
4996556: Dated 1973 by Leitz (Auction 24), the last year of production in Pacific Rim's table.
5704655: Listed without date or finish among the fixed-focal-length lenses of the Contarex collection Christie's sold in London on 9 October 1997. It is higher than any other number recorded for this lens. Leitz dates a Contarex Planar 85mm f/1.4 numbered 5771209 to 1974 and a black Distagon 35mm f/4 numbered 5149520 to the last batch of 1973, which would put this lens around 1973–74, possibly after Pacific Rim's end date; no source dates 5704655 itself.

Specifications

Formula: Tele-Tessar: 4 elements in 4 groups (Pacific Rim)
Construction: 4 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range: f/5.6
Filter: 77 mm
Years manufactured: 1970–1973
Country: West Germany (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen)
Original price: $765 US list price for the lens, in Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer's confidential dealer schedule of 15 February 1971 (dealer net $510) and again in the US Contarex catalogue of 1 October 1971; before any sales tax. No German DM price and no 1970 launch price is recorded. (today $5,930)

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History

The Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6 was the longest refracting lens Carl Zeiss made for the Contarex, and one of the last to join the system. It is absent from Zeiss Ikon’s US list of March 1968 and present in the dealer schedule of February 1971, at $765 list and $510 to the dealer; only the 85–250mm Vario-Sonnar and the 40–120mm Vario-Sonnar cost more among the lenses with a printed price, and the Mirotar 500 and 1000 mirror lenses above it were by special order with the price on request. Pacific Rim dates it 1970 to 1973 and gives four elements in four groups and a 6° angle of view. It calls the lens a late addition whose high cost made it “a fairly unsuccessful lens in the marketplace”.

There is only one version. Pacific Rim lists it in black only and no chrome example has been recorded. It focuses by a knob rather than a ring, the arrangement of the 180mm f/2.8 and 250mm f/4 Olympia Sonnars, and four of the five lenses Leitz has sold came with the pistol grip, a leather case and caps; the fifth had its caps only. How many were made is disputed: 366 on Pacific Rim’s page and in one Leitz description, 321 in three later Leitz descriptions, and no source explains the difference. The filter fitting is disputed too. Zeiss Ikon’s US catalogue of October 1971 prints it as a 77 mm screw mount, while Pacific Rim’s table gives S67, the 67 mm screw fitting of the Olympia Sonnars. The same catalogue offers Contarex filters in 56, 67 and 96 mm but none in 77 mm. A buyer who wants filters should measure the thread.

The published serial numbers fall into three groups. Leitz has sold 4737092, 4737207 and 4737334, dated 1969 or 1970, and a lens printed as 47372140, which is probably the same block with one digit too many. Leitz has also sold 4996556, dated 1973. Christie’s sold 5704655, undated, in the large Contarex collection it auctioned in 1997. Leitz dates three of these lenses to 1969, a year before Pacific Rim’s start date. None of these sources gives a factory block list for the lens, so the years are Leitz’s own dating.

At Leitz the lens has made between €1,440 and €2,640 including buyer’s premium; the cheapest, at €1,440, came with its caps only. It fits the Contarex bayonet shared by every interchangeable-lens body from the Bullseye to the Super Electronic; on a modern camera it needs a Contarex adapter. No review or Zeiss data sheet for it is known, so its weight, closest focus and aperture range are not recorded here. Whether its diaphragm is automatic is not stated either: the October 1971 catalogue credits automatic pre-set diaphragms to the “18mm to 250mm lenses”, which leaves the 400mm out without saying how it works. Two other things are easy to confuse with it: the Contax N Tele-Apotessar 400mm f/4, an autofocus lens of 2002, and the 8×30 B monocular, which Zeiss Ikon listed in 1968 as a “400mm tele attachment” for the Contarex 50mm and 55mm lenses.

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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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