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

Orestegor / Pentacon 300mm f/4

Meyer-Optik Görlitz · Pentacon Six + M42 + Exakta · 1967

Also known as: Orestegor 300mm f/4 · Orestegor 300mm f4 · Orestegor 300mm 1:4 · Orestegor 4/300 · Orestegor 1:4/300 · Orestegor 4/300mm · Orestegor 300/4 · Orestegor 300mm · Orestegor 300 · Meyer Orestegor 300mm f4 · Meyer-Optik Görlitz Orestegor 4/300 · Meyer-Optik Görlitz 300mm f4 Orestegor · Pentacon 4/300 · Pentacon 4/300mm · Pentacon 1:4/300 · Pentacon 300mm f/4 · Pentacon 300mm f4 · Pentacon 300mm 1:4 · Pentacon 300/4 · Pentacon 300 f4 · Meyer Optik 4/300 · Meyer Optik Görlitz 4/300 · Meyer-Optik Görlitz 4/300 · Meyer-Optik 300mm f4 · Орестегор 300 · Пентакон 300мм · Пентакон 4/300

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Orestegor 4/300, zebra rings (pre-production 'Nullserie') Praktisix / Pentacon Six (exchangeable rear adapter) 1967–1967 — —
Orestegor 4/300, black-painted flat-groove rings Praktisix / Pentacon Six (exchangeable rear adapter) 1968 — —
Pentacon 4/300, black zebra-type rings Pentacon Six (exchangeable rear adapter) — — —
Pentacon 4/300, cross knurl (red, later green scale) Pentacon Six (exchangeable rear adapter) — — —
Pentacon 4/300, slim tubular barrel (late 1980s) Pentacon Six (exchangeable rear adapter) — — —
Meyer-Optik relabel (1990–91) Pentacon Six (exchangeable rear adapter; a T2 adapter is new with this version) 1990–1991 around 1.200.xxx (Kröger: the numbers look 'plucked from the air') —
On the M42 (Praktica) adapter M42 (factory exchangeable adapter) — — —
On the Exakta adapter Exakta (factory exchangeable adapter) — — —
On the Praktina adapter Praktina (factory exchangeable adapter) — — —
  1. Dates: Kröger says two Görlitz staff presented the lens at the Leipzig Autumn Fair of 1967 (citing Fotografie 9/67) and that deliveries began at the end of the first quarter of 1968; pentaconsix.com first finds it in a 1967 Meyer brochure; Bobsin gives a production run of 1967 to 1990, with a short post-1990 run by the re-founded works before its insolvency in 1991.
  2. Specifications are TRA's at pentaconsix.com: 5 elements in 4 groups, 16°, 3.6 m, 95 × 1 mm filter, 2180 g, and 189 mm long without the shallow hood, 217 mm with it (he notes another website's 198 mm, which he takes for a transposition). Which barrel version he measured is not stated, and Bobsin says the late tubular barrel is noticeably lighter. Kamerastore's 2026 listings of two Orestegors tag them 95 mm filter but give 2072 g, 220 × 100 mm and 19 aperture blades, which no other source states.
  3. Not listed as versions: Bobsin knows two pre-production samples engraved with the focal length but no name, one all black with a slightly different barrel and focusing ring, the other otherwise the Nullserie lens; and some samples engraved 'Pentaconar' around 1969, a name considered when the combine's lens names were standardised, which did not go into series production. He also knows a sample of the tubular barrel whose serial may put it well before the earlier version. The sample numbers, three groups of two or three digits, sometimes followed by a letter, are not yet decoded.
  4. A Praktica B adapter for the Pentacon 4/300 and 5,6/500 appears in the 1987 price list at 90 M; no example was found, so it is not listed as a version.
  5. Prices are DDR retail list prices in Mark, from Kröger's price-list transcription for 1974: 505 M without adapter, 516.50 M with Praktisix or Praktica adapter, 523 M with Exakta Varex adapter. Kröger's Orestegor page gives the 516.50 M figure without a year and compares it with the Zeiss Sonnar 4/300, which had an automatic diaphragm and cost more than 300 M more, or over 400 M more with the Praktica adapter.
  6. Optical verdicts differ: Bobsin says the new lens outperformed even the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/300 of the day, while Kröger says it could not quite match the zebra Sonnar optically but was a clear advance on the Telemegor 4,5/300.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Orestegor 1:4/300 (Meyer-Optik), PENTACON 4/300, or after 1990 Meyer-Optik with the focal length; a heavy, broad lens of about 2 kg with a tripod clamp, a 95 mm filter thread and a manual preset diaphragm, with no automatic-diaphragm pin
  • The camera mount is a separate adapter held by a clamping ring and located by a groove, so the user can change it without tools (Bobsin); the rear lens sits almost level with the Praktisix bayonet (Kröger)
  • Not the Zeiss Sonnar 4/300, which has an automatic diaphragm, nor the Telemegor 4,5/300 it replaced, whose mount is fixed, nor the Soviet Tair-33 300mm f/4.5

Orestegor 4/300, zebra rings (pre-production 'Nullserie'):

  • Engraved Orestegor with the Meyer name, and bright zebra (alternating black and silver) rings (Bobsin)
  • Bobsin says this is the version shown in the brochures of the time; the production lenses that followed are painted black all over

Orestegor 4/300, black-painted flat-groove rings:

  • Engraved Orestegor 1:4/300 with the Meyer-Optik name
  • The rings have the flat-groove knurl of the zebra period, but painted black, so the lens is all black without the usual zebra look (Kröger; Bobsin: 'Zebra', schwarz lackiert)
  • A broad front 'funnel' holding the front lens, as on all the older versions (Bobsin)

Pentacon 4/300, black zebra-type rings:

  • Engraved PENTACON 4/300, no Orestegor name; the older broad-funnel barrel, painted black
  • Bobsin lists three ring patterns under this name: black-painted zebra rings, then a knurled aperture ring, then knurled aperture and focusing rings; he says the Pentacon lenses he pictures differ only in their knurling

Pentacon 4/300, cross knurl (red, later green scale):

  • PENTACON 4/300 with the diamond cross knurl on the rings; the older broad-funnel barrel
  • Distance scale in red or in green: Bobsin lists both cross-knurl versions, red first
  • No 'MC' anywhere: Kröger says the cross knurl came without a change to multicoating

Pentacon 4/300, slim tubular barrel (late 1980s):

  • Still engraved PENTACON 4/300, but the barrel is a straight tube, without the broad front funnel of the earlier lenses, and visibly slimmer (Bobsin)
  • Bobsin says the new barrel made the lens noticeably lighter; whether the optics changed is not known
  • Green scale on the series lens; Bobsin also lists red-scale examples, one of them a sample with a narrower tripod clamp

Meyer-Optik relabel (1990–91):

  • Slim tubular barrel with a green scale, engraved with the Meyer-Optik name and the focal length; the Orestegor name was not revived (Bobsin)
  • Kröger illustrates one with a new adapter for the T2 thread

On the M42 (Praktica) adapter:

  • The same lens head with the M42 screw adapter held by the rear clamping ring; a Pentacon Six owner needs only the Pentacon Six adapter to use it on 6×6

On the Exakta adapter:

  • The same lens head with the Exakta outer-bayonet adapter

On the Praktina adapter:

  • The same lens head with the Praktina breech-bayonet adapter

Specifications

Formula
True telephoto of the Orestegor 4/200 type: Kröger says it has basically the same layout as Hubert Ulbrich's 4/200 (DDR patent 32.656 of 2 May 1961); Bobsin describes it as the Telemegor scheme with the positive front lens split in two (for coma and spherical aberration at f/4) and the rear cemented pair resolved into single lenses (for astigmatism), with the back focus cut to no more than 24% of the focal length so that it clears the Praktisix bayonet without vignetting at close range; Kröger gives 25%, about 75 mm. Five elements in four groups (pentaconsix.com)
Designed by
Ulbrich Hubert — the Orestegor 4/200 design (DDR patent 32.656) whose layout the 300 follows, per Kröger
Construction
5 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range
f/4
Min. focus
3.6 m
Dimensions
189 mm long
Weight
2180 g
Filter
95 mm
Years manufactured
1967–1991
Country
East Germany (Görlitz)
Coating
Single-coated throughout; Kröger and Bobsin both say the 300, unlike the 500, was never given multicoating
Original price
505 M without adapter, 516.50 M with Praktisix or Praktica adapter, 523 M with Exakta Varex adapter (DDR retail list prices, 1974, Kröger's transcription of the price lists)

What reviewers say

History

The Orestegor 300mm f/4 is, with the 5,6/500, the Meyer long lens Pentacon Six users know best: a Meyer-Optik Görlitz telephoto with a manual preset diaphragm, sold first as the Orestegor and for most of its life simply as the Pentacon 4/300. It replaced the Telemegor 4,5/300 after little more than a decade. Marco Kröger says it was presented at the Leipzig Autumn Fair of 1967 and delivered from the end of the first quarter of 1968, and that it follows the layout of Hubert Ulbrich’s Orestegor 4/200, filed for patent in 1961, whose split positive front member brought the lateral colour of a fast telephoto under control. Carsten Bobsin describes the same step from the Telemegor: the front collecting lens split in two and the rear cemented pair resolved into single lenses, five elements in four groups by pentaconsix.com’s count. The design point that mattered was the short back focus, about a quarter of the focal length. Kröger notes that it came to almost exactly the Pentacon Six’s 74 mm flange distance, so the rear lens sits nearly level with the bayonet and the mount barely vignettes, which is what let Meyer open the lens to f/4 and still cover 6×6.

That short back focus also let the 300 join the exchangeable adapter system Meyer had introduced with the Orestegor 5,6/500. The camera mount is a separate adapter held by a clamping ring and located by a groove, which the photographer, and the dealer, could change without tools. Kröger pictures factory adapters for the Praktisix and Pentacon Six, M42, the Exakta bayonet and even the Praktina, which had been out of production since 1960. The 1987 price list adds a Praktica B adapter. The Telemegor’s mount had been fixed, so an owner had to buy the lens again for each camera. In 1974 the lens cost 505 Mark without adapter, 516.50 M with the Praktisix or Praktica adapter and 523 M with the Exakta one, East German list prices. Kröger points out that the competing Zeiss Sonnar 4/300 had an automatic diaphragm but cost several hundred Mark more. The Orestegor never got an automatic diaphragm. Kröger says Roswitha Kaiser’s 1976 patent for one was used only on the Pentacon auto 4/200, and that the 300 was never multicoated either.

Bobsin, who has catalogued the lens closely, counts more than a dozen versions over a run from 1967 to 1990. They group into a few kinds. Pre-production samples carry only the focal length. The zebra-ringed Nullserie of 1967 is the lens shown in the brochures. The series Orestegor has the same flat-groove knurl painted black, so it lacks the zebra look of other lenses of its time. Around 1969 a few samples were engraved ‘Pentaconar’, but the series lens became PENTACON 4/300, with a sequence of knurl patterns and then, in the later 1970s, the cross knurl with a red or a green scale. A slimmer tubular barrel without the broad front funnel followed: Bobsin puts it in the mid-1980s, while Kröger says the barrel was modernised shortly before the Wende. After the combine was dissolved, the re-founded Görlitz works made a few hundred more before its insolvency in 1991, engraved Meyer-Optik and, Kröger notes, numbered around 1.200.xxx. The two writers do not agree on its quality. Bobsin says it outperformed the Zeiss Sonnar 4/300 of the day, while Kröger says it could not quite match the zebra Sonnar but was well ahead of the Telemegor. He cites Fotomagazin’s July 1992 test of new old stock, which scored it −2.1 wide open and −1.6 at f/8.

When buying, look at the adapter before the engraving. The head is the same whatever mount it wears, so an M42 or Exakta lens becomes a Pentacon Six lens with the right adapter, and the adapter is worth checking for in the listing. A Kiev-60 or Kiev-88CM takes the Pentacon Six adapter as well. Expect a lens of about 2 kg used from its tripod clamp, with a shallow hood that is normally left on and carries the cap. Check that the preset ring works cleanly and that the long helicoid reaches infinity; two Kamerastore listings in 2026 reported haze, scratches, worn aperture blades and, on one, fungus, coating damage and a stiff helicoid that stopped short of infinity. Titles with ‘MC’, ‘Sonnar’ or ‘Prakticar’ are Zeiss lenses, ‘Telemegor’ is the f/4.5 predecessor, and ‘Tair-33’ is the Soviet 300mm f/4.5.

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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

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Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $200 across 16 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $170–$250). First day tracked.

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

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Listings updated 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

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.