Primotar 50mm f/3.5 (Primotar E)

Meyer-Optik Görlitz · M42 + Exakta · 1957 · Tessar type

our own finding

Also known as: Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primotar E 50mm f/3.5 · Meyer Optik Primotar E 50mm f3.5 · Meyer Primotar E 3.5/50 · Primotar E 50mm f/3.5 · Primotar E 50mm 3.5 · Primotar E 3.5/50 · Primotar E 3,5/50 · Primotar E 3.5/50mm · Primotar E 1:3.5/50 · Primotar E 1:3,5/50 · Primotar E 1:3.5 f=50mm · Primotar E 1:3,5 f=50mm · Primotar E 50/3.5 · Primotar E 50mm · Primotar E 50 · Primotar 50mm f/3.5 · Primotar 50mm 3.5 · Primotar 50mm 1:3.5 · Primotar 50mm 1:3,5 · Primotar 3.5/50 · Primotar 3,5/50 · Primotar 1:3.5/50 · Primotar 1:3,5/50 · Primotar 50/3.5 · Meyer-Optik 1:3.5/50 · Meyer-Optik 1:3,5/50 · Meyer Optik 3.5/50 · Meyer Optik 3,5/50 · Meyer Optik 50mm f/3.5

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
M42, first engraving (Primotar E 1:3.5/50 V)	M42	1957	1710810, 1860702, 1907820, 1922638, 2162873 (numbered examples)	—
M42, later engraving (Primotar E 3.5/50)	M42	—	3138239, 3138768, 3162522 (numbered examples)	—
Exakta, first release (fixed turret)	Exakta	—	1833818 (numbered example)	—
Exakta, later release (rocker)	Exakta	—	2513708 (numbered example)	—

Optical and mechanical figures: 4 elements in 3 groups (Otto; m42lens), f/3.5–16 in half stops (Otto), 6 blades and 175 g (m42lens, first engraving), 0.5 m, M40.5 × 0.5 filter thread and 42 mm slip-on diameter (Meyer's leaflets and 1958 instruction sheet). The angle of view is 46° on one Meyer leaflet and 47° on another, on the 1958 Exakta sheet and on Otto's page. Otto lists no slip-on fitting.
Dates. Kröger has the lens developed in 1956, shown at the Leipzig spring fair of 1957 (Bild & Ton 3/1957) and stopped 'after a comparatively short time'. Otto's page, which quotes Kadlubek number KWD 0970, gives a production period of 1952 to 1958. The 1952 start falls years before the patents on which the mechanism rests, which Kröger dates to August 1955 for the first Exakta release and August 1956 for the switchable pressure diaphragm. Kröger's compilation of DDR price lists still has the lens on sale in 1960, and lists a Praktica IV B with a 'Primotar 3,5/50' in 1964. No end date is entered here.
Diaphragm. Meyer's leaflets call it a fully automatic pressure diaphragm ('vollautomatische Druckblende'), and the Pentacon F manual says it needs no cocking. Otto's page calls it a 'manually tensioned automatic diaphragm'.
Kröger's Primoplan page says the pressure-diaphragm patent filings of August 1956 were first used in the Primotar E. His Trioplan page shows an earlier Meyer lens with an automatic pressure diaphragm, a Trioplan 2.8/100 in Exakta mount shown at the spring fair of 1956 and made only briefly. On Kröger's own evidence, then, the Primotar E was Meyer's first standard lens with the mechanism rather than its first lens of any kind.
DDR prices from Kröger's compilation: the lens alone, M42 or Exa, 179 Mark until May 1960 and 109 Mark from June 1960, against 200 and then 123 Mark for the spring-diaphragm Tessar 2.8/50 over the same dates. Contax F with Primotar E 624 Mark (1957), 624 (1959), 446 (1960), against 663, 645 and 460 with the Tessar 2.8/50 and 750, 733 and 510 with the Biotar 2/58. Praktica FX2 with Primotar E 488 Mark (1959), 316 (1960).
Kröger thinks Hubert Ulbrich, who described the lens in Fotografie 8/1958, also worked on it. That is his inference, and Ulbrich is not credited as a designer here.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Engraved 'Primotar E'. The E stands for Einstellblende, a focusing aperture: the elements are slightly larger than f/3.5 needs, so the finder sees about f/3.0 while focusing, and the set aperture takes over for the exposure (Kröger; Meyer's leaflets)
A switch ring with a red dot and a black dot: red over the index gives the automatic pressure diaphragm, black the ordinary manual diaphragm (1958 instruction sheet)
Aperture ring 16, 11, 8, 5.6, 4, 3.5, with a dot between 8 and 5.6 and another between 5.6 and 4; distance scales in metres and in red feet, to 0.5 m and 1.7 ft
On the M42 lens, a pin at the rear of the thread for the camera's internal release (the patent drawing Kröger reproduces; m42lens nos. 1860702 and 3138768)
Not the Primotar E 3,5/80 for the Praktisix, which has a fully automatic spring diaphragm; not the preset Primotar 2,8/50 of 1959; not the prewar Primotar 3,5/5,4 cm for the Kiné-Exakta

M42, first engraving (Primotar E 1:3.5/50 V):

Front ring engraved 'Meyer-Optik Görlitz', the number, a small Φ-like sign and 'Primotar E 1:3.5/50' (a decimal point on the lens, where Meyer's leaflets print 3,5), ending in a red V (Otto's no. 2162873; m42lens no. 1860702; nos. 1710810 and 1922638 on Praktica FX2s)
Depth-of-field scale reading 16, 11, 8 and 5.6 on each side of a red triangle marked 3.5 (m42lens no. 1860702)
'Germany' engraved on the focusing barrel of m42lens no. 1860702 and of no. 1907820

M42, later engraving (Primotar E 3.5/50):

Front ring engraved 'Meyer-Optik Görlitz', the number, the Φ-like sign and 'Primotar E 3.5/50', with no '1:' and no red V (m42lens no. 3138768; no. 3162522; no. 3138239 on a Praktica IV B)
Depth-of-field scale reading 16, 11, 8, a dot and 4 on each side of the index, with a red infrared dot beside it (m42lens no. 3138768; the M42 lens in Kröger's photograph)
Same switch ring, aperture ring, rear pin and 40.5 mm thread as the first engraving

Exakta, first release (fixed turret):

Exakta bayonet with an arm at the side carrying a tall cylindrical release button, threaded on top for a cable release (Kröger's no. 1833818; Meyer's leaflets)

Exakta, later release (rocker):

A flat rocker lever in place of the turret, as on the Domiron and Domiplan (Kröger's no. 2513708)
On Kröger's no. 2513708 the front ring has no '1:' after 'Primotar E', like the later M42 engraving, while the depth-of-field scale is still the earlier one with 3.5 at the index

M42, first engraving (Primotar E 1:3.5/50 V): The form Meyer's leaflets and advertisements illustrate, with 'Primotar E 1:3.5/50' and the red V on the front ring, and the one on the lowest-numbered lenses seen. On a Praktica FX2, a Contax F, FB, FM or FBM, or one of their Pentacon twins, the camera's release pushes the pin and the iris closes for as long as the release is held. Numbered examples with this engraving sit on two Praktica FX2s (nos. 1710810 and 1922638) and a KW Praktiflex (no. 1907820) in marketplace listings, and in Otto's collection (no. 2162873). m42lens files it as 'v1, red V': 4 elements in 3 groups, 6 blades, f/3.5–16, 0.5 m, 40.5 mm filter, 175 g.
M42, later engraving (Primotar E 3.5/50): A later run with a simplified engraving and a redrawn depth-of-field scale. m42lens files it as 'v2' with the same 4/3 optics, 6 blades, f/3.5–16, 0.5 m and 40.5 mm filter. Kröger's compilation of DDR price lists has a Praktica IV B with a 'Primotar 3,5/50' at 436 Mark in 1964, and a Praktica IV B offered in September 2026 carries no. 3138239 with this engraving. Together they suggest the lens was still supplied with Prakticas well after 1960, though a used outfit proves nothing about what left the factory together. No source dates the change of engraving.
Exakta, first release (fixed turret): The Exakta has its release on the front of the body, so the lens carries its own release ('Kamera-Anschlußstück mit Außenauslöser') that presses the camera's button and stops the lens down in one movement. Meyer's 1958 instruction sheet for the Exakta Varex and Exa says the release has to be adjusted to each camera with a set screw and nut on its underside, checked at f/16, and that the button takes a cable release. The same sheet says the Carl Zeiss Jena stereo attachment (base 60/120) fits, and calls the Primotar E the fully automatic lens that makes stereo pictures possible on the Exakta Varex and Exa. Kröger credits this first release to Johannes Richter, Oscar Neugebauer and Erich Weigel, West German patent 1,143,100 of 4 August 1955.
Exakta, later release (rocker): Kröger shows the change side by side: the fixed form was replaced by a much simpler rocker of the kind found on the contemporary Domiron and Domiplan. He credits it to Johannes Richter, Gerhard Domaschk and Richard Rummel, filed in West Germany on 1 August 1958. He does not date the change on the Primotar E itself.

Serial-range notes

1710810–2162873 and 3138239–3162522: The two M42 engravings fall into two separate blocks of numbers among the lenses with a legible number: 'Primotar E 1:3.5/50 V' on 1710810, 1860702, 1907820, 1922638 and 2162873, and 'Primotar E 3.5/50' on 3138239, 3138768 and 3162522. Of the two Exakta lenses in Kröger's photograph, 1833818 (fixed release) falls inside the first block; 2513708 (rocker) falls between the two, and its front ring already lacks the '1:' while its depth-of-field scale is the earlier kind. Eight M42 lenses are a small sample, and no source gives Meyer's number blocks for this lens, so a number dates a lens only roughly.

Specifications

Formula: Tessar type
Designed by: Schubert — credited in Brandt, Photo-Objektiv (1956), p. 134, as cited by Kröger · Thierhold — credited in Brandt, Photo-Objektiv (1956), p. 134, as cited by Kröger
Construction: 4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range: f/3.5–f/16
Diaphragm blades: 6
Min. focus: 0.5 m
Weight: 175 g
Filter: 40.5 mm (0.5 mm pitch), 40.5 × 0.5 screw-in; 42 mm slip-on
Years manufactured: 1957
Country: East Germany (VEB Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz)
Coating: Coated. The first engraving ends in Meyer's red V, the mark for Vergütung (coating); the later engraving omits it
Material: Bright metal barrel
Original price: 179 Mark (DDR) for the lens alone, M42 or Exa, until May 1960; 109 Mark from June 1960 (Kröger's compilation of DDR price lists)

What reviewers say

Marco Kröger (zeissikonveb.de) (blog) — He rates it the most remarkable lens ever designed in Görlitz, for the image quality it gave at its price rather than for speed. The optics are almost ten years younger than the Tessar 2.8/50's, and he says the difference shows on critical inspection of the pictures. The pressure diaphragm with its brighter focusing aperture was mechanically better than the Tessar's loud semi-automatic. To buyers f/3.5 looked old-fashioned, so the lens never got the attention it deserved.

Optical formula — Tessar type

Meyer's leaflets show the four-element layout as a drawing beside the lens (reproduced by Kröger)

History

The Primotar E 3,5/50 is the standard lens that Meyer-Optik in Görlitz, by then the nationalised VEB Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz, brought out for 35mm reflexes in M42 and Exakta mount. It was shown at the Leipzig spring fair of 1957 and given the DDR’s Q quality mark. It is a four-element Tessar type. Marco Kröger, writing on zeissikonveb.de, cites Brandt’s Photo-Objektiv of 1956 for its designers, Schubert and Thierhold, and thinks Hubert Ulbrich, who wrote it up in Fotografie in 1958, had a hand in it too. Ulbrich’s article stresses the glass: high-index crowns paired with deep flints. It filled a gap. After the war Meyer had made no Tessar-type standard lens for 35mm, only the prewar Primoplan 1.9/58 above and the Trioplan triplets below, and Carl Zeiss Jena’s Tessars filled the space between. A Primotar 2.7/50 of December 1949 never got past a small run for the Altix.

What made the lens necessary was the diaphragm. In 1956 the Kamerawerke Niedersedlitz gave the Praktica FX2, and that autumn the Contax F, a release inside the mirror box that pushes a pin in the back of the lens. Jena’s spring-diaphragm Tessar and Biotar already worked with it, and Meyer had nothing that did. Kröger says the Jena and Niedersedlitz solution was protected by patents, so Görlitz built its own. In a pressure diaphragm (Druckblende) the force that closes the iris comes from the finger on the release, so there is nothing to cock. The Pentacon F manual describes it from the camera side: the iris closes when the release is pressed, stays closed while it is held and opens again when it is let go. At long speeds, such as ½ s and B, the release has to be held down for the whole exposure. A switch ring, red dot for automatic and black dot for manual, lets the photographer stop down to check depth of field at any moment, something Kröger says was nearly impossible once Jena’s spring diaphragm had been cocked. The E stands for Einstellblende. The elements are slightly larger than f/3.5 requires, so the finder sees about f/3.0 while focusing; that extra opening is not corrected and is never used for the exposure. Kröger rates the result the most remarkable lens Görlitz ever designed, for the image quality it gave at its price. At 109 Mark in 1960 it was also cheaper than the 123 Mark spring-diaphragm Tessar. Buyers read f/3.5 as old-fashioned, though, and Kröger says production was stopped after a comparatively short time.

For the Dresden reflexes, the Primotar E was one of three standard lenses for the Contax F, alongside the Tessar 2.8/50 and the Biotar 2/58. In 1957 the outfits cost 624, 663 and 750 Mark. On the F, FB, FM and FBM and their Pentacon-badged export twins it stops down automatically. Meyer’s own leaflet lists the Contax D and E and the Pentacon among the cameras it fits, and it screws onto a Contax S like any 42 mm lens. The D, the E and the S have no pusher in the mount, so on them the switch has to sit on the black dot and the lens works as an ordinary manual one. The S had left production about five years before the Primotar E appeared, so a Primotar E on an S was added later, not supplied with it. Meyer’s leaflet also names two close-up fittings that keep the automatic diaphragm working with extension rings or bellows: a release bridge for the Exakta and a special extension ring for the Praktica and the Pentacon models.

There are two mounts, and each is known in two forms. The Exakta lens has to fire a camera whose release is on the front of the body, so it carries its own release on an arm beside the mount. At first this was a tall fixed turret, threaded for a cable release and adjusted to each camera with a set screw. It was later replaced by the flat rocker used on the Domiron and Domiplan. Kröger photographs one of each, nos. 1833818 and 2513708. The M42 lens has a pin at the back for the camera’s pusher and comes in two engravings. The first reads ‘Primotar E 1:3.5/50’ and ends in a red V, Meyer’s coating mark, with a depth-of-field scale numbered 5.6 to 16 on each side of an index marked 3.5. The later one reads ‘Primotar E 3.5/50’ with no V, and its depth-of-field scale reads 4, a dot, 8, 11 and 16. Numbered examples of the first engraving run from 1710810 to 2162873 and of the later one from 3138239 to 3162522; Kröger’s rocker-release Exakta lens, no. 2513708, sits between the two and already drops the ‘1:’. One of the later lenses sits on a Praktica IV B, and Kröger’s compilation of DDR price lists has a Praktica IV B outfit with a ‘Primotar 3,5/50’ at 436 Mark in 1964. That fits poorly with the production period of 1952 to 1958 on Mike Otto’s collector site, praktica-collector.de, whose start also falls years before the patents the mechanism depends on. Otto also calls the diaphragm manually tensioned, where Kröger and the Pentacon manual say it needs no cocking.

When buying, work the pressure diaphragm before anything else. With the switch on the red dot and the ring at f/16, press the pin of an M42 lens, or the release of an Exakta lens, and the iris should close and open again cleanly when let go. With the switch on the black dot it should follow the aperture ring directly. Kröger notes that the mechanism had to be made very light so as not to make the camera’s release stiff, and that it closes more slowly than a spring diaphragm. On an Exakta lens, check that the release arm and its adjusting screw are complete. Sellers write ‘Primotar E 3,5/50’ or ‘Primotar 1:3.5/50’, and sometimes only ‘Primotar’ or ‘Meyer-Optik 1:3.5/50’. Three other Primotars are easily confused with it: the Praktisix Primotar E 3,5/80, which has a fully automatic spring diaphragm; the preset Primotar 2,8/50 of 1959; and the prewar Primotar 3,5/5,4 cm of the Kiné-Exakta. On the German market it turns up both on its own and on Prakticas and Pentacon Fs. A Pentacon F with a ‘Primotar 1:3.5/50’ and a Triotar 135 was offered at 150 euros in October 2026, and Praktica FX2 and Praktiflex outfits with the lens at 59 and 99 euros, both negotiable.

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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 taken with the Primotar 50mm f/3.5 (Primotar E) — Primotar E 3,5/50 no. 1906373, top view — Trinitrix, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

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

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Primotar 50mm f/3.5 (Primotar E)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

【返品保証】 Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Primotar E 50mm F3.5 V レンズ e8948 — from ¥7,900 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-02

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Listings updated 2026-10-30. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.