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

Vario-Sonnar T* 28–70mm f/3.5–4.5 (C/Y)

Carl Zeiss · Contax/Yashica · 1998

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Contax Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 MMJ · Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 (MM) · Contax Vario-Sonnar 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 · Contax 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 MMJ · Vario-Sonnar T* 3.5-4.5/28-70 · Vario-Sonnar 3,5-4,5/28-70 · Zeiss 28-70 3.5-4.5 C/Y · CONTAX Vario-Sonnar T* 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 · Contax Zeiss 28-70mm MMJ · コンタックス バリオゾナー 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 · バリオゾナー T* 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 MMJ · CONTAX Vario-Sonnar 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 MM

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
MM (Japan, 1998–2005) Contax/Yashica 1998–2005 — —
  1. Construction, true focal lengths (28.0 mm wide, 67.9 mm tele), angles of view (77° and 35° diagonal), f/22 minimum, M67 × 0.75 thread, focusing range to 0.5 m, working distance 0.4 m, maximum scales 1:15 at the wide end and 1:6.2 at the tele end, and the aspheric and anomalous-dispersion elements are from Carl Zeiss's data sheet, cat. no. 10 47 63 (read from the Wayback Machine's capture of 5 May 2025; the live URL returned 404 on 1 November 2026). Kyocera's product page of October 2002 gives the same 8 groups and 9 elements, 77°12′–35°12′, and credits the aspheric glass-moulded element and anomalous-dispersion glass.
  2. Weight and size: Zeiss's sheet says 320 g and 70 × 68 mm; Kyocera's page and kakaku.com say 325 g and 70 × 68.3 mm; apotelyt.com gives 327 g and 69 × 71 mm; English Wikipedia 320 g. Kyocera's figure is used for the lens as it was sold. Stronger: Kyocera.
  3. Maximum aperture: the title of Kyocera's 2002 page reads F3.3〜4.5, a misprint. Its own aperture scale on the same page begins at 3.5, and Zeiss's sheet gives f/3.5–4.5; Zeiss's MTF curves at the wide end are labelled k = 3.5, effective f/4.01.
  4. Close focus: every source gives 0.5 m as the end of the normal focusing range. For the macro position Kyocera gives 0.3 m at 1:3 and Japanese Wikipedia 0.3 m; Zeiss's sheet states 1:6.2 at 70 mm as the maximum scale of the normal range and describes the makro-function separately as covering an identity card of about 7 × 11 cm, which on a 24 × 36 mm frame is a scale near 1:3, consistent with Kyocera. English Wikipedia's 0.4–0.5 m repeats the sheet's working distance of 0.4 m. The field carries the 0.5 m normal limit.
  5. Launch year: neither Kyocera's page nor Zeiss's sheet is dated, and neither Wikipedia gives a year. A kakaku.com user review of 2006 recalls the lens appearing in 1998 together with a camera body (the Aria is the 1998 body), which is the only date found; the single-source badge is set for it. 2005 is the end of Kyocera's camera business, not a date published for this lens.
  6. Price: ¥79,000 without case is Kyocera's manufacturer's suggested retail price as published in October 2002, for the MM type; it is the only list price found, and may not be the launch price. No US or DM price was found.
  7. Accessories per Kyocera: case No. 2 (sold separately); metal hood No. 1 through the 67/86 adapter ring, with which filters cannot be used; soft hood G-15 (70 mm); gelatin filter holder fits directly; snap-on cap K-61 (67 mm). Mutar T* I can be fitted; Mutar II and III cannot.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Vario-Sonnar 3,5-4,5/28-70 T* with a green 22 on the aperture ring; the compact standard zoom of the C/Y line, 68 mm long and 325 g against 99.5 mm and 735 g for the 28–85
  • Two-ring zoom: a focusing ring and a separate zooming ring, unlike the one-touch 28–85 and 35–70 (Zeiss data sheet)
  • 67 mm filter thread, shared with the 35–70, 70–210 and 100–300 Vario-Sonnars; the 28–85 and 35–135 take 82 mm
  • Not the Contax N Vario-Sonnar 24–85 or 28–80, which are autofocus lenses with electrical contacts and no aperture ring coupling for the C/Y mount, nor the Contax G 35–70, a rangefinder lens

MM (Japan, 1998–2005):

  • The only version: an MM lens from the start, so the smallest f-number (22) on the aperture ring is engraved in green, and no AE barrel exists (Japanese Wikipedia lists it only among the MM lenses)
  • Two separate rings, one for focusing and one for zooming, where the 28–85 and 35–70 Vario-Sonnars use a single push-pull ring (Zeiss data sheet)
  • Short and light for a C/Y zoom: 70 mm across, 68 mm long, 320–325 g, with a 67 mm filter thread (Zeiss data sheet; Kyocera)
  • Built in Japan for Kyocera; sellers write it as MMJ

Specifications

Formula
Vario-Sonnar zoom, 9 elements in 8 groups, with a glass-moulded aspheric element and a glass of anomalous partial dispersion¹
Construction
9 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/22
Min. focus
0.5 m
Dimensions
70 × 68.3 mm
Weight
325 g
Filter
67 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1998–2005
Country
Japan
Coating
T*
Original price
¥79,000 without case (Kyocera list price, MM type, October 2002) (today ¥90,000)

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 — Vario-Sonnar zoom, 9 elements in 8 groups, with a glass-moulded aspheric element and a glass of anomalous partial dispersion¹
ⓘ 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 Vario-Sonnar T* 3.5-4.5/28-70 was the last and smallest of the standard zooms for the Contax/Yashica mount: nine elements in eight groups, one of them a glass-moulded aspheric and one of anomalous partial dispersion, in a barrel 68 mm long and 70 mm across that weighs 320–325 g, which Zeiss’s data sheet compares to a good 50 mm f/1.4. The sheet gives true focal lengths of 28.0 and 67.9 mm, 77° to 35° across the diagonal, f/3.5–4.5 to f/22, focusing to 0.5 m, and a 67 mm filter thread chosen so that filters do not darken the corners at the wide end. Unlike the one-touch 28–85 and 35–70, it has two rings, one for focusing and one for zooming, so that one is not disturbed by the other, and a macro position that Kyocera rates at 0.3 m and 1:3 and Zeiss describes as framing an identity card. Kyocera’s product page of 2002 calls it a new design that put image quality first and then minimised size and weight, and its title misprints the aperture as F3.3–4.5; the scale on the same page starts at 3.5.

It exists only as an MM lens, built in Japan for Kyocera and sold as MMJ, with the green 22 on the aperture ring that lets Program and shutter-priority bodies set the diaphragm. No date is printed on the Zeiss sheet or the Kyocera page. The only year found is a kakaku.com reviewer’s recollection that it appeared in 1998 together with a camera body, which fits the Aria of that year, and it stayed on Kyocera’s price list until the company left the camera business in 2005. In October 2002 Kyocera listed it at ¥79,000 without case, against ¥154,000 with case for the 28–85 f/3.3–4.

Zeiss’s own curves describe it fairly. At 28 mm and full aperture, which the sheet gives as an effective f/4.01, the 10 cycles/mm contrast is about 90% in the centre and still above 50% at the edge of the frame, with the 40 cycles/mm curve falling to roughly 20–30% in the corners; at f/8 the 10 and 20 cycles/mm curves run above 80% almost to the corner. Barrel distortion at 28 mm reaches about 3% of image height at the corner, and relative illuminance wide open falls to around 30% there, recovering to about 60% at f/5.6 and f/8. No blog or video review of it has been found, and reviewer opinion of it is scarce compared with the 35–70 and 28–85.

A buyer should run both rings through their travel, since the two-ring layout has a separate zoom helicoid to wear, look at the front element for cleaning marks on the aspheric surface, and remember that the matching metal hood No. 1 needs the 67/86 adapter ring and excludes filters; the soft hood G-15 is the alternative. The Mutar T* I converter fits, the II and III do not. Open points are the launch year, a Kyocera or Zeiss publication dating it, the number of diaphragm blades, and any price outside Japan.

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Vario-Sonnar T* 28–70mm f/3.5–4.5 (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: Vario-Sonnar T* 28–85mm f/3.3–4 (C/Y) · Vario-Sonnar T* 35–70mm f/3.4 (C/Y) · Vario-Sonnar T* 40–80mm f/3.5 (C/Y) · Vario-Sonnar T* 35–135mm f/3.3–4.5 (C/Y)

Sources (6)

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.