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

Tessar 50mm f/2.8 (Contarex)

Carl Zeiss · Contarex · 1960 · Tessar: 4 elements in 3 groups

our own finding

Also known as: Contarex Tessar 50mm f/2.8 · Contarex Tessar 50mm F2.8 · Contarex Tessar 2.8/50 · Contarex Tessar 2,8/50 · Contarex Tessar 2.8/50mm · Contarex 50mm f2.8 Tessar · Tessar 2.8/50 Contarex · Tessar 2,8/50 Contarex · Tessar 50mm f2.8 Contarex · Carl Zeiss f. Contarex Tessar 2.8/50mm · Zeiss for Contarex Tessar 2.8/50mm · Zeiss Contarex Tessar 50mm f2.8 · Carl Zeiss Tessar 50mm F2.8 Contarex · Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/50mm · Tessar 50mm f2.8 · Tessar 2.8/50 · Tessar 2,8/50 · Tessar 2.8 50mm · Tessar 1:2.8 f=50mm · Tessar 1:2,8 f=50mm · コンタレックス テッサー 50mm F2.8 · テッサー 50mm F2.8 コンタレックス · Contarex 50mm f/2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Chrome (1960–) Contarex 1960 2995375 — chrome, on Contarex Special U24647 (Christie's South Kensington, 9 October 1997, lot 288)
3293284 — 'chrome Tessar 2.8/50mm', with Contarex Special U26241, a lot Leitz dates to 1960 (Leitz Auction 36, lot 289)
3293473 — on Contarex Bullseye T89749 (Christie's, 1997, lot 288) 		—
Black (by 1965) Contarex 1965 416xxxx — black, made 1965 (Flashback Camera items 024567 and 026219)
4502928 — 'black Tessar f/2.8 50mm', on a second-model Contarex Super, P53333 (Christie's, 1997, lot 288) 		—
  1. Construction 4 elements in 3 groups: Pacific Rim Camera, the English Wikipedia lens table, Flashback Camera and Kamerastore. The 1961 US list gives four elements and draws the classic Tessar cross-section, a cemented rear pair behind two single front elements. Angle of view: 45° in the 1961 list, 47° at Pacific Rim. Smallest aperture f/22 (1961 list).
  2. Closest focus is given three ways: 15 in (0.38 m) in the 1961 Zeiss Ikon list, 35 cm in both Flashback Camera listings, and 0.3 m at Kamerastore. The table carries the maker's 15 in. The 1961 list gives the field covered at that distance as about 4½ × 6¾ in.
  3. Weight: no maker figure is on record. Flashback measured 206 g and 205 g on its black lens (or lenses) and Kamerastore gives 202 g; the table carries 205 g. Kamerastore also gives 9 aperture blades and a size of 44 × 62 mm without saying which figure is the length; no other source gives a blade count, so the 9 rests on that one dealer listing.
  4. Filters: Pacific Rim gives B56 and S49. The 1961 list's lens case holds '56mm filters' and two 56 mm shades for the system's lenses, and the 1968 list's 8×30 B monocular adapter 20.1639 is for the '50mm Planar or Tessar only'. Flashback's black lens came with the 50–135 mm hood.
  5. Dates: Pacific Rim gives 1960–1969; Leitz dates one chrome lens (294560) to 1960 and sold another (3293284) in a Special outfit it dates to 1960. The Tessar is not among the six lenses of Zeiss Ikon's US dealer bulletin of 1 April 1960 (Biogon 21, Distagon 35, Planar 50, Sonnar 85, 135 and 250), but it is on the 1 May 1961 list. Camera-wiki says it was added with the Bullseye Model D of 1964; the 1961 list shows that is wrong. The lens was still on the US lists of 1 March 1968 ($89), 15 February 1971 and 1 October 1971 ($110), so sales went on after the end of production that Pacific Rim gives.
  6. 5,978 made is Pacific Rim's figure; Flashback repeats it. No source splits it between chrome and black.
  7. 'Blitz': Christie's 1997 catalogue lists a "'blitz' Tessar f/2.8 50mm" no. 4503363. No Zeiss Ikon list on record shows a flash-automation Tessar. The lists of 1968 and October 1971 name only the B-Planar and B-Distagon as having 'built-in automatic flash control'. Those two lenses got new numbers (11.2412, 11.2413) while the Tessar stayed 11.2501 throughout. Neither the English Wikipedia lens table nor Pacific Rim mentions a Blitz Tessar. Christie's may have applied the word to a black Tessar in the same number block as a Blitz Planar. No Blitz variant is entered until a lens with the flash coupling is seen.
  8. A Contarex prototype Tessar 2.8/50mm, no. 100300V1/2, is described in the serial notes. Leitz has also sold two Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/50mm prototypes for other cameras under near-identical titles: no. 102 42 V1/1 for Exakta (Auction 14, lot 729, €660 including buyer's premium, https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Carl-Zeiss-Tessar-2.8-50mm-Prototype/AI-14-17663) and no. 10 02 67 V1/1 for the Voigtländer Vitessa (Auction 14, lot 728, €2,280 including buyer's premium, https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Carl-Zeiss-Tessar-2.8-50mm-Prototype/AI-14-17662). Neither is a Contarex lens.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Tessar, f/2.8 and 50 mm with the Contarex bayonet and no aperture ring: like the other automatic-preset Contarex lenses its aperture is set from the body, so on another camera it needs an adapter that works the diaphragm
  • Small and light for a Contarex normal lens, about 205 g; camera-wiki says it is almost identical in size to the 35mm Distagon
  • Not the Planar 50mm f/2 or black B-Planar 50mm f/2 (six elements), not the S-Planar 50mm f/4 reproduction lens, and not the Tessar 115mm f/3.5 bellows lens or the Tele-Tessar 400mm f/5.6, all of the same system
  • Not the Tessar 50mm f/2.8 of the Contaflex leaf-shutter SLRs, also a Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart camera with an Oberkochen Tessar: Japanese sellers sometimes title Contaflexes コンタレックス. Not the Jena Tessars for M42, Exakta or the Contax rangefinder either, none of which has the Contarex bayonet

Chrome (1960–):

  • Chrome barrel; the finish of every Tessar found numbered below 3,300,000
  • The cheapest normal lens in the 1961 Zeiss Ikon list, which sold the Special with it (10.2599) or with the Planar 50mm f/2 (10.2598); Pacific Rim Camera says the Special was often sold with the Tessar, and Leitz and Christie's have each sold one on a Special, though Christie's also had Tessars on a Bullseye, a Super and an Electronic

Black (by 1965):

  • Black barrel; the US lists never gave it a catalogue number of its own, so the finish is the only way to tell it
  • Examples are numbered in the 416xxxx and 450xxxx blocks; the 450xxxx block also holds a Blitz Planar f/2 50mm (4500920) in the same Christie's collection

Serial-range notes

2995375–3293473
The chrome lenses found with numbers: 2995375 on a Special and 3293473 on a Bullseye in Christie's 1997 collection, and 3293284, sold by Leitz with Special body U26241 in a lot it dates to 1960.
294560
As printed by Leitz for a chrome lens it dates to 1960 (Auction 12, lot 528). It has six digits, one fewer than every other production number on this page, so a digit may have been dropped; it cannot be placed in the sequence as it stands.
416xxxx
Black, made 1965, per Flashback Camera, which gives only the first three digits.
4502928, 4503363
Two lenses in Christie's 1997 collection, 435 numbers apart: 4502928 described as black, 4503363 as a 'blitz' Tessar (on Contarex Electronic R55464). The same block holds the collection's 'blitz' Planar f/2 50mm no. 4500920. See the notes under the table on the word 'blitz'.
100300V1/2
Not a production lens: a black prototype for the Contarex that Leitz dates to about 1960, with a 'lens assembly completely different to the production models' (Leitz Auction 31, lot 390, €2,160 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €1,600–1,800). Its number, with a 'V', is in the same style as those of the Planar 2/50 prototypes Leitz has sold for the Contarex (120 99 V52 and 12099 V 56/2).

Specifications

Formula
Tessar: 4 elements in 3 groups
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8–f/22
Diaphragm blades
9
Min. focus
0.38 m
Weight
205 g
Filter
49 mm, Contarex B56 bayonet and 49 mm screw thread (Pacific Rim Camera: B56 and S49)
Years manufactured
1960–1969
Country
West Germany (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen)
Original price
$71, the US list price of the lens alone on Zeiss Ikon's dealer price list effective 1 May 1961 (11.2501; the list states that discounts and dealer net prices were issued separately). The same list sold the Contarex Special with the Tessar, light hood and ground-glass insert for $394. Later US list prices: $89 (1 March 1968, Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer, when the B-Planar 50/2 was $189) and $110 (15 February 1971, dealer net $73.33 for one or two; and 1 October 1971). The lists do not say whether any tax is included. German Wikipedia gives 1224 DM for a Contarex with the Tessar in 1961, an outfit price, citing a company advertisement in Die Yacht, Heft 21/1960; the year of the price and the date of the cited issue do not agree. (today $745)

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

Optical formula — Tessar: 4 elements in 3 groups

History

The Tessar 50mm f/2.8 was the economy normal lens of the Contarex system: four elements in three groups, a design Zeiss Ikon’s own list called ‘widely known the world over for more than 50 years’, in a Contarex bayonet mount with the automatic preset diaphragm worked from the body. Zeiss Ikon’s US list of 1 May 1961 explains why a camera this expensive was offered with a Tessar at all. It praises the Tessar’s ‘needle-sharp definition and complete absence of distortion’ for architecture and line copying, argues that f/2.8 was fast enough for modern films, and calls it ‘particularly recommended for the Contarex special’, the meterless body the same list says was designed for photographers in the professional and scientific fields. At $71 it cost less than half the $153 Planar 50mm f/2, and the Special was sold with it as kit 10.2599 for $394. Pacific Rim Camera, comparing the March 1968 prices ($89 against $189 for the Planar), points out the oddity of the arrangement: most people worried about saving $100 were not in the market for a Contarex in the first place, and the Tessar, of which it gives 5,978 made, is a lot less common than the Planar. Flashback Camera adds that the f/2 lens sold far better.

The lens is a little later than the camera. Zeiss Ikon’s US dealer bulletin of April 1960, announcing the first shipments, lists six lenses from 21 to 250 mm and no Tessar. The May 1961 list prices it, and Leitz dates one chrome lens to 1960 and sold another with a Special body in a lot it dates to 1960. Camera-wiki’s statement that the Tessar arrived with the Model D Bullseye of 1964 is contradicted by that 1961 list. Pacific Rim gives production as 1960–1969. The lens stayed on Zeiss Ikon-Voigtländer’s US lists as 11.2501 through 1971, at $89 in March 1968 (when the Super with Tessar was $534 and the Professional with Tessar $404) and $110 in February and October 1971, when it was listed with both the Super and the Super Electronic. In Germany, German Wikipedia gives 1224 DM in 1961 for a Contarex with the Tessar, citing a company advertisement in a 1960 issue of Die Yacht; the article does not explain why a 1960 issue supports a 1961 price.

There are two finishes and one optical design. The chrome lens appears to have come first. Every numbered chrome example found is below 3,300,000: 2995375 on a Special and 3293473 on a Bullseye in Christie’s 1997 collection, and 3293284 with a Special Leitz dates to 1960. Black lenses appear in the 416xxxx block (Flashback dates one to 1965) and the 450xxxx block (4502928, on a second-model Super), the block that also holds a Blitz Planar f/2 in the same Christie’s collection. The US lists never separate the finishes. Christie’s also catalogued a “‘blitz’ Tessar”, no. 4503363, but Zeiss Ikon’s own lists give flash automation only to the B-Planar and B-Distagon, both renumbered for it, while the Tessar kept 11.2501. Until a Tessar with the flash coupling is seen, that description is best treated as a cataloguer’s label for a black lens. The one true outlier is a black prototype, no. 100300V1/2, that Leitz sold for €2,160 including buyer’s premium and whose lens assembly it describes as ‘completely different to the production models’.

The specifications vary slightly from source to source. The 1961 list gives 45°, f/22 and a closest focus of 15 in (38 cm). Pacific Rim gives 47°. Flashback gives 35 cm and Kamerastore 0.3 m. The front takes the system’s B56 bayonet accessories and a 49 mm thread (Pacific Rim). Flashback weighed its black lens at 205–206 g, and Kamerastore gives 202 g. Camera-wiki says it is almost identical in size to the 35mm Distagon.

For a buyer, this is the cheapest way into Contarex glass. Chrome lenses sell for little: €156 at Leitz for one whose optics needed cleaning (including buyer’s premium), €259 for Kamerastore’s one listing, and ¥28,000 for a worn-coated chrome lens at Flashback in 2026. A Special outfit with the Tessar, both finders and bellows made €780 at Leitz including premium. Black lenses cost more: Flashback asks ¥50,000 for an overhauled one of 1965, nearly twice its price for a worn chrome lens. Check the front element for coating wear and the edges of the inner elements for haze, which two of Flashback’s three listings report. Check that the helicoid turns smoothly. Like the other automatic-preset Contarex lenses it has no aperture ring, so on a mirrorless body it needs an adapter that works the diaphragm. Do not confuse it with the Tessar 50mm f/2.8 of the Contaflex, a different Zeiss Ikon camera whose listings Japanese sellers sometimes title コンタレックス, or with the Jena Tessars for M42, Exakta and the Contax rangefinder. The other Contarex normals are the Planar 50mm f/2 and its black Blitz successor, the S-Planar 50mm f/4 for close work, and the Planar 55mm f/1.4.

Still open: a maker’s weight and dimensions, the blade count (9 rests on one dealer listing), when black replaced chrome, whether any Tessar was made with the Blitz flash coupling, and the DM price of the lens alone.

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

More sample photos elsewhere

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Tessar 50mm f/2.8 (Contarex)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

The listings collector hasn't run for this family yet — check back soon, or search the marketplaces directly meanwhile.

Related: Planar 50mm f/2 (Contarex) · S-Planar 50mm f/4 (Contarex) · Planar 55mm f/1.4 (Contarex)

Sources (14)

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.