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

Vario-Sonnar T* 100–300mm f/4.5–5.6 (C/Y)

Carl Zeiss · Contax/Yashica · 1996

Also known as: Contax Vario-Sonnar 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 · Contax Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 100-300mm F4.5-5.6 · Contax 100-300mm F4.5-5.6 MMJ · Vario-Sonnar T* 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 MMJ · Vario-Sonnar 4,5-5,6/100-300 · Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 4,5-5,6/100-300 · Contax Zeiss 100-300 Vario-Sonnar · Vario-Sonnar 100-300 C/Y · コンタックス バリオゾナー 100-300mm F4.5-5.6 · Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 100-300mm F4.5-5.6 (MM) · CONTAX Vario-Sonnar T*100-300mm F4.5-5.6 MMJ · Contax 100-300 zoom

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
MM (Japan, 1996–2005) Contax/Yashica 1996–2005 — —
  1. Family focal length and aperture are the wide end: 100 mm and f/4.5, the aperture falling to f/5.6 at 300 mm. Element and group count (7群12枚), angle of view (24° to 8°), aperture scale 4.5–8–11–16–22–32, 1.5 m close focus at 1:4 at 300 mm, 925 g, 71 × 143 mm, 67 mm filter, case No. 8 and the ¥230,000 list price are from Kyocera's archived product page of October 2002, which also describes three ultra-low-dispersion elements in the design. Japanese Wikipedia, apotelyt, English Wikipedia, Aperturepedia and Phillip Reeve's review agree on 12/7, 1.5 m, 67 mm and 925 g.
  2. Smallest aperture: f/32 from Kyocera's scale and Aperturepedia; English Wikipedia's table gives f/22, which the maker's page outweighs. Diameter: 71 mm from Kyocera and apotelyt, 70 mm on English Wikipedia, Aperturepedia and in the review.
  3. Largest magnification: 1:4 at 300 mm on Kyocera's page, 1:3.3 in Phillip Reeve's specification list; Kyocera's is the stronger.
  4. Aperture blades: eight, from Phillip Reeve's review and Aperturepedia's database.
  5. Year: 1996 from Aperturepedia's database, which cites no Zeiss or Kyocera document; Phillip Reeve's review says only the mid-1990s and calls it one of the last lenses designed for the mount. Zeiss's datasheet survives on the Wayback Machine as a scanned PDF whose text could not be extracted for this page.
  6. Converters and hoods, from Kyocera's page: Mutar T* I usable with light fall-off at the long end and vignetting there when stopped down, Mutar II and III not usable; adapter ring 67/86 with metal hood No. 5, or the 67 mm G-13 soft hood; cap K-61, 67 mm snap-on.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 4,5-5,6/100-300 T* on the front ring; all-metal push-pull barrel with engraved scales and rubberised focus and aperture rings, compact (143 mm) when collapsed at 100 mm and extending as it zooms; the front element rotates with focus (Phillip Reeve)
  • 67 mm filter thread and 925 g, the same thread as the German 70–210 but heavier than the 80–200mm f/4
  • Green f/32 on the aperture ring (MM), the only C/Y zoom that stops down past f/22; Made in Japan on the barrel
  • Not the Contax N Vario-Sonnar 70–300mm f/4–5.6 (autofocus, no aperture ring, N bayonet) nor the Sony Vario-Sonnar zooms

MM (Japan, 1996–2005):

  • Smallest f-number (32) engraved in green, the MM mark, with the extra cam on the mount for Program and shutter-priority bodies; Japanese Wikipedia lists the lens in the MM table only
  • Made in Japan on the barrel: sellers write MMJ. One Dutch dealer has also described an MMG example; no German-marked copy has been confirmed, so check the engraving

Specifications

Formula
Vario-Sonnar, 12 elements in 7 groups with three ultra-low-dispersion elements; push-pull tele zoom, 1:4 at 300 mm
Construction
12 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/4.5–f/32
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
1.5 m
Dimensions
71 × 143 mm
Weight
925 g
Filter
67 mm
Years manufactured
1996–2005
Country
Japan
Coating
T*
Original price
¥230,000 with case, Kyocera's Japanese list price (メーカー希望小売価格) as published on kyocera.co.jp in October 2002; no launch price in any currency was found (today ¥261,000)

What reviewers say

History

The Vario-Sonnar T* 100–300mm f/4.5–5.6 is the longest zoom Carl Zeiss made for the Contax/Yashica mount and one of the last lenses designed for it, released in the mid-1990s according to Phillip Reeve’s site and in 1996 according to Aperturepedia. Twelve elements in seven groups, three of them ultra-low-dispersion glass by Kyocera’s description, it covers 24° to 8°, opens to f/4.5 at 100 mm and f/5.6 at 300 mm, and is the only C/Y zoom to stop down to f/32. It focuses to 1.5 m throughout, which Kyocera rates as 1:4 at 300 mm, weighs 925 g, measures 71 × 143 mm collapsed and takes 67 mm filters. It was built in Japan as an MM lens and sold as MMJ; a Rotterdam dealer has described an MMG copy as well, which no other source confirms. Kyocera’s page of October 2002 listed it with the No. 8 case at ¥230,000, the dearest of the telephoto zooms, and allowed the Mutar T* I with fall-off and vignetting at the long end while ruling out the Mutar II and III. It stayed in the range until Kyocera left the Contax business in 2005.

It is a push-pull zoom with an all-metal barrel, engraved scales and rubberised focus and aperture rings, compact at 100 mm and extending as it zooms. Jannik Peters’s review on phillipreeve.net, shot on a Sony A7-series body in 2019, finds the build great and the handling mostly conventional, with two drawbacks: the front element rotates with focus, so polarisers need resetting, and at 925 g it is heavy for its speed. He warns that the cement in the rear group can haze with age, though his copy was clear; a buyer should look through the rear of the lens against a light.

Optically he rates it sharp from 100 to 200 mm, where it keeps up with good primes even wide open in the centre, and weakest at 300 mm, where stopping down helps the edges. It is quite flare resistant, with low veiling flare and good contrast that improves at the longer settings. Lateral chromatic aberration is negligible at 100 and 135 mm, visible at 200 and pronounced at 300, but of the kind a raw converter removes. Bokeh is good for a 100–300 zoom and not great in absolute terms: mechanical vignetting of highlights at close focus and some outlining in the transition zone, most at 300 mm. His conclusion recommends it to patient landscape photographers who value its optics, build and collapsed size over autofocus, stabilisation and EXIF data, and asks whether it is worth the premium it commands on the used market; apotelyt puts that at US$400–800. On the TalkPhotography forum an owner calls it a favourite with more pop than the Canon L zooms it replaced.

Still open: a Zeiss or Kyocera launch date, confirmation or refutation of a German-built MMG run, and any production figure or serial table.

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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.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Vario-Sonnar T* 100–300mm f/4.5–5.6 (C/Y)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Tele-Tessar T* 300mm f/4 (C/Y) · Vario-Sonnar T* 70–210mm f/3.5 (C/Y) · Vario-Sonnar T* 80–200mm f/4 (C/Y)

Sources (8)

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.