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

Flektogon 65mm f/2.8

Carl Zeiss Jena · Pentacon Six · 1956

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Flektogon 65mm f/2.8 · Flektogon 65mm f2.8 · Flektogon 65mm 2.8 · Flektogon 65 f2.8 · Flektogon 65 2.8 · Flektogon 2.8/65 · Flektogon 2,8/65 · Flektogon 2.8/65mm · Flektogon 2,8/65mm · Flektogon 1:2,8/65 · Flektogon 65/2.8 · Flektogon 65/2,8 · Flektogon 65mm · Flektogon 65 · Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 65mm f/2.8 · Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 2,8/65 · Carl Zeiss 65mm f2.8 Flektogon · Zeiss Jena Flektogon 65mm · CZJ Flektogon 65 · CZJ Flektogon 65mm f2.8 · aus Jena Flektogon 65mm f2.8 · Flektogon 65 Praktisix · Flektogon 65 Pentacon Six · Flektogon 65 P6 · Флектогон 2,8/65 · Флектогон 65 · フレクトゴン 65mm F2.8

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Bright alloy barrel with black leather focusing band (launch finish) Praktisix / Pentacon Six breech-lock, fully automatic spring diaphragm 1956 — —
Zebra barrel (by 1967 to the last batch of spring 1969) Praktisix / Pentacon Six breech-lock, fully automatic spring diaphragm 1967–1969 highest known 8,415,309 (February 1969, TRA) —
  1. Angle of view 64°, close focus 0.75 m, M86 × 1 filter thread, length 89 mm and weight 480 g are from TRA's table at pentaconsix.com. TRA also writes that the 65 is almost the same size as the Flektogon 50 but 'weighs considerably less', although his table gives 480 g for both; Kamerastore gives 456 g and 89 × 89 mm. The 1959 Jena data sheet reproduced by Kröger agrees on 64°, 0.75 m and M86 × 1, gives a 90 mm push-on diameter and prints 'ca. 280 g', a figure no other source repeats.
  2. Construction: Kröger gives six elements and no group count. Kamerastore's 6 elements in 5 groups and 8 aperture blades are a dealer's figures that no other source confirms, so the group and blade fields are left empty.
  3. Production: 345 in September 1956, 8,550 in all to 1969, about 1,000 of them in the last zebra batch of spring 1969 (Kröger). These figures rest on Kröger alone.
  4. Prices are DDR retail prices (EVP), from Kröger's compilation of price lists: 502 Mark for the Flektogon 2,8/65 Praktisix ASB in 1959, 412 Mark from 1960. Kröger notes that 412 Mark was still 48 Mark more than the new Flektogon 4/50.
  5. Finishes: the plain-alloy and zebra styles are documented for the 65. pentaconsix.com describes intermediate Jena styles for other lenses (black rings with a bumpy plastic grip by 1964, mostly black with a leather band from 1965), but no source shows a Flektogon 65 in either, and TRA's lens of December 1965 is not described by finish.
  6. Name rings: Kamerastore says some 65s read 'Carl Zeiss Jena' and some 'aus Jena', depending on the market. pentaconsix.com explains that for the US the Biometar and Sonnar names were cut to Bm and S because of West German Zeiss's lawsuits, while the Flektogon kept its name. No aus-Jena Flektogon 65 is described closely enough to list it as a separate version.
  7. Not production versions: Kröger describes trial V233 of 18 January 1957, the same layout with lanthanum dense crown in elements 3 and 6 and a BK3 front lens. Jena's test found it sharper and better at the corners than the series lens, but it was not produced, possibly because the SK21 and SK22 glasses were hard to obtain. Kröger also reproduces the May 1954 test report on prototype 3,780,649, annotated V77A.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Made only for the Praktisix / Pentacon Six breech-lock, with a fully automatic spring diaphragm. The mount is the one shared by the Exakta 66 and Arsenal's Kiev-6S, Kiev-60 and Kiev-88CM, not the screw-and-bayonet Salyut and Kiev-88
  • The front meniscus sits in a funnel-shaped front section; behind it the lens body has the same dimensions as the Tessar 2,8/80 ASB of the Praktisix (Kröger)
  • Detented aperture ring with equal spacing between the f-numbers, which Kröger calls internationally new in 1956
  • A depth-of-field (stop-down) lever right at the back of the lens, behind the aperture ring: TRA found it almost unreachable on his Hartblei 1006C and on at least some Kiev-88CMs
  • Takes 86 mm filters (pitch 1 mm). Its own hood screws on with a 95 mm thread over an 86–95 mm adapter ring and can be turned to line up with the frame corners. An East German state shop sold it to TRA as the hood for the Flektogon 50, on which users report vignetting; TRA found it was made for the 65
  • Always single-coated: no MC Flektogon 65 was made
  • Not the Arsenal Mir-38 65mm f/3.5 or the older Mir-3, the other 65 mm lenses in this mount

Bright alloy barrel with black leather focusing band (launch finish):

  • Mostly bright metal barrel with a black leather band on the focusing ring, the style of the first Jena lenses for the Praktisix (pentaconsix.com, from an 80mm Tessar of February 1958)
  • A 1964 Praktisix II brochure still shows the 65 in plain alloy with the leather band, while the Flektogon 50, Biometar 120 and Sonnar 180 in the same picture already have black rings and the bumpy plastic grip (pentaconsix.com)
  • A 1959 Jena export data sheet ('Aus JENA') reproduced by Kröger shows the lens with bright alloy rings and a black textured covering on the funnel-shaped front; sellers and forum posts call this finish the 'silver' Flektogon 65

Zebra barrel (by 1967 to the last batch of spring 1969):

  • Mostly black barrel with bright metal stripes and front edge on the focusing and aperture rings, Jena's zebra style of about 1967–74 (pentaconsix.com)
  • TRA illustrates a zebra 65 completed on 27 May 1967; Jakub T. Jankiewicz's photograph on Wikimedia Commons shows one on a tilt-shift adapter
  • The last batch of about 1,000, assembled in spring 1969, was zebra (Kröger); TRA gives February 1969 as the last manufacture and 8,415,309 as the highest serial he knows

Serial-range notes

3,543,278 and 3,543,279
The first two prototypes, to trial V77, completed in March 1952; their sample test followed only in October 1953 (Kröger).
3,780,649
One of two further prototypes of May 1953, with the front lens enlarged by almost 10 mm and the design otherwise unchanged. The test report of 16 May 1954, annotated V77A, found less light fall-off with only a slight loss of resolution; the lens had been fitted to a Meister-Korelle for outdoor shots, but the camera's mirror could not be used because it struck the lens (Kröger).
8,415,309
The highest serial TRA had found, on a lens of February 1969, which he takes as the last manufacture (pentaconsix.com).

Specifications

Formula
Retrofocus wide-angle of Dietzsch's 'first type': a Biometar-type (double-Gauss) base lens of about the final focal length, with a strongly curved negative meniscus set 45.5 mm in front of it to lengthen the back focus; six elements, the front and rear lenses of SK16 dense crown and the base lens otherwise of very dense flints (Kröger, from the V77 data sheet). True focal length 67 mm, back focus 65.1 mm, optical length 68.5 mm
Designed by
Solisch Rudolf — led the Jena group that completed the calculation on 6 January 1950 · Zöllner Harry — began Jena's retrofocus (Flektogon) work with Solisch in 1948, on which this design drew
Construction
6 elements
Aperture range
f/2.8
Min. focus
0.75 m
Dimensions
89 mm long
Weight
480 g
Filter
86 mm
Years manufactured
1956–1969
Country
East Germany (Jena)
Coating
Single-coated throughout: a Jena data sheet of 1959 reproduced by Kröger gives T coating (T-Belag), and production ended in 1969, before Jena introduced multicoating in 1976 (pentaconsix.com)
Original price
502 Mark (DDR retail list price, EVP) for the Praktisix ASB lens in 1959; 412 Mark from 1960, after the price cut of spring 1960 (Kröger's compilation of DDR price lists). No US or West German price is recorded.

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Distortion
noticeable
Optical formula — Retrofocus wide-angle of Dietzsch's 'first type': a Biometar-type (double-Gauss) base lens of about the final focal length, with a strongly curved negative meniscus set 45.5 mm in front of it to lengthen the back focus; six elements, the front and rear lenses of SK16 dense crown and the base lens otherwise of very dense flints (Kröger, from the V77 data sheet). True focal length 67 mm, back focus 65.1 mm, optical length 68.5 mm

History

The Flektogon 65mm f/2.8 was Carl Zeiss Jena’s first wide-angle for 6×6 reflex cameras. Marco Kröger thinks it was probably the first retrofocus design for medium format anywhere. Jena began it for the Meister-Korelle, the modernised Reflex-Korelle that a new Dresden firm announced in 1949, because no other maker offered a 6×6 wide-angle that cleared a reflex mirror. Rudolf Solisch’s group, drawing on the retrofocus work Solisch and Harry Zöllner had begun in 1948, finished the calculation on 6 January 1950. The base lens is the new Biometar, a double-Gauss type, with a strongly curved negative meniscus 45.5 mm in front of it, six elements in all. The true focal length is 67 mm and the back focus 65.1 mm, which Kröger says was only just enough even for the Meister-Korelle. The first two prototypes were finished in March 1952 and two more in May 1953, one of them with a front lens almost 10 mm larger to cure the dark corners. By then the Meister-Korelle and Primarflex were out of production, the Pentosix had been shelved and the Exakta 6×6 withdrawn, so the lens waited six years for a camera.

That camera was the Praktisix. A first series of 345 Flektogons with a fully automatic spring diaphragm was made in September 1956, just after the camera’s debut at Photokina and the Leipzig autumn fair. It was the system’s first interchangeable lens. A funnel-shaped front holds the meniscus, and behind it the body matches the Tessar 80 ASB. Kröger notes that the detented aperture ring with evenly spaced stops was new anywhere at the time. A recalculation of January 1957 (trial V233), with lanthanum crowns and a cheaper front glass, tested sharper with better corners, but it never went into production. Every Flektogon 65 was made to the 1950 calculation. The price was high: 502 Mark in the 1959 DDR list, and still 412 Mark after the spring 1960 cut, 48 Mark more than the new Flektogon 4/50. Kröger blames the large front blank of dense crown. Once the 50 arrived the 65 was made only in lots of a few hundred. A last 1,000 were assembled in spring 1969, and 8,550 were made in all.

There is one optical version and two documented finishes. Early lenses are bright alloy with a black leather focusing band, and a 1964 Praktisix II brochure still shows the 65 that way. By May 1967 it had the zebra barrel, black with bright stripes on the focusing and aperture rings, and the final 1969 batch was zebra too. The highest serial TRA has found is 8,415,309, from February 1969. The lens ended before Jena’s multicoating of 1976, so there is no MC version and no all-black one. Kamerastore says some name rings read ‘Carl Zeiss Jena’ and some ‘aus Jena’, depending on the market, and a 1959 Jena export data sheet already labels the lens ‘Aus JENA’. pentaconsix.com explains that for the US the Biometar and Sonnar names were cut to Bm and S, while the Flektogon kept its name.

Opinions of its performance are mixed. Kröger has never got really crisp pictures from his examples, and finds noticeable distortion. He puts this down to the design’s age, and Eberhard Dietzsch later wrote that a Gauss base lens was not necessarily the best starting point for a retrofocus wide-angle. Zach Horton passes on its reputation as the one mediocre lens of the original line, though he has not tried it. TRA’s test is kinder: at f/11 his 1965 Flektogon and an Arsenal Mir-38B gave prints he could not tell apart, and the Flektogon’s focusing, aperture ring and stop-down pin worked far better. He also reports that Kievaholic’s Kevin Ing found his Flektogon much sharper than the Mir, and that Ing thought sample variation might explain the difference. On mflenses, one user rates the Flektogon 50 much better wide open and another passes on a general view that the 65 was one of the system’s weakest lenses, while pointing out that it is a full stop faster.

When buying, check that the spring diaphragm snaps shut and reopens when the pin is pressed, and look through the lens for haze and scratches on the large front element. It fits the shared breech-lock of the Praktisix, Pentacon Six, Exakta 66 and the Kiev-6S, Kiev-60 and Kiev-88CM, but not the Salyut or Kiev-88. TRA warns that its stop-down lever, at the very back behind the aperture ring, is almost unreachable on a Hartblei 1006C and some Kiev-88CMs. Filters are 86 mm. The original hood screws on with a 95 mm thread over an 86–95 mm adapter ring, and TRA was sold it in an East German state shop as the hood for the Flektogon 50, on which users report vignetting; it was made for the 65. With 8,550 made in all (Kröger), TRA calls it relatively rare. Sellers write ‘silver’ for the early finish and ‘zebra’ for the late one. No confirmed group or blade count, exact date for the change of finish or Western price has been published.

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 taken with the Flektogon 65mm f/2.8
A zebra Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 65/2,8 on a Fotodiox (Rokr) Pentacon Six tilt-shift adapter — Jakub T. Jankiewicz, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Flektogon 65mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $550 across 7 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half $530–$600). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Flektogon 35mm f/2.8

Sources (11)

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.