Primotar E 80mm f/3.5 (Praktisix)

Meyer-Optik Görlitz · Pentacon Six · 1956 · Tessar type: four elements in three groups

Also known as: Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primotar E 80mm f/3.5 · Meyer-Optik Görlitz 80mm f3.5 Primotar E · Meyer-Optik Görlitz 80mm f3.5 V Primotar E · Meyer Optik Gorlitz Primotar E 80mm · Meyer Primotar E 3,5/80 · Meyer Primotar E 3.5/80 · Meyer Primotar 80mm Praktisix · Primotar E 80mm f/3.5 · Primotar E 80mm f3.5 · Primotar E 80mm 3.5 · Primotar E 80mm · Primotar E 80 · Primotar E 3,5/80 · Primotar E 3.5/80 · Primotar E 1:3,5/80 · Primotar E 1:3.5/80 · Primotar E 3,5/80mm · Primotar 80mm f/3,5 Prakticar six · Primotar 80mm Praktisix · Primotar 80mm Pentacon Six · Primotar 80mm f3.5 Pentacon Six · Primotar 3,5/80 Praktisix · Primotar 3.5/80 Praktisix · Primotar 3,5/80 Pentacon Six · Primotar 80 Praktisix · Primotar 80 P6 · Primotar 80mm · Primotar 3,5/80 · Primotar 3.5/80 · Примотар 80 · Примотар Е 3,5/80

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Primotar E 3,5/80, Praktisix breech-lock	Praktisix (the breech-lock later shared by the Pentacon Six)	1956	1672485–1698264 (Bobsin: divided knurl, no infrared index) 1711732 and up (Bobsin: divided knurl, with infrared index) up to 1788712 (Bobsin: continuous knurl on the automatic ring) 1711543 (an example offered by Foto Köberl, Graz)	No factory figure. Bobsin: 'several thousand' must have been made before production stopped, which he puts at about 1957

Specifications: TRA's P6 lens table gives 4 elements in 3 groups, 0.8 m, 49 × 0.75 filter, 47 mm long and 260 g, and leaves the angle of view blank. Bobsin's table gives f/3.5–16, 0.8 m, 47 mm long, 69 mm diameter, 49 mm filter and 265 g, and says the spring diaphragm has 6 blades. The weights differ by 5 g; this entry carries TRA's 260 g. Kamerastore lists 0.8 m, 6 blades, a 49 mm filter and 266 g.
Dates. Bobsin has the lens shown in 1956, with the Praktisix itself at the Leipzig autumn fair and then Photokina, and thinks production stopped about 1957, after which it no longer appears in Meyer's brochures or the trade catalogues; he says enough were made for it to stay on sale until 1968. Kröger's compilation of DDR price lists still prices a Praktisix with the Primotar in 1959 and 1960. TRA says the Primotar 'continued to be available until about 1964 and possibly later' as the cheaper standard lens. No end year is entered here.
Diaphragm. Kröger calls it a fully automatic spring diaphragm (vollautomatische Springblende, VSB or ASB), the camera holding the pin in and releasing it at the moment of exposure. Bobsin says Meyer's own literature called its Praktisix automatic ADB (automatische Druckblende) where Zeiss wrote ASB, notes that the terms were never clearly defined, and concludes that, although part of the spring mechanism can be said to sit in the camera, ADB seems the right term for the Praktisix, ASB being the better sales word; his table marks all three forms ADB. The mechanism is the same in both accounts; only the name differs. Kröger stresses that it is not the pressure diaphragm of the 35mm Primotar E 3,5/50, which takes its closing force from the press on the release.
Prices: no price for the lens alone was found. Kröger's compilation of DDR retail list prices gives the Praktisix with Primotar 3,5/80 at 962 Mark (1957), 981 Mark (1959) and 766 Mark (1960), against 1,032, 1,028 and 815 Mark with the Zeiss Tessar 2,8/80, and 705 Mark for the body to May 1960, 573 Mark from June 1960. Kröger notes that the saving over the Tessar outfit was under 50 Mark in 1959, too little to matter on a camera that expensive.
The Primotar 3,5/80 without the E. Bobsin says Meyer recalculated a Primotar 3,5/80 for the vertical Exakta 6×6 and showed it in 1954, and also mounted it for the 35mm Exakta (Kröger, by contrast, says that after the Exakta 6×6 failed no standard lens for a 6×6 SLR was needed until the Praktisix); that lens has 14 diaphragm blades, f/3.5–22 and 1 m close focus. For the Praktisix automatic the blades were cut to 6, because 14 would have needed too strong a spring. The Technische Sammlungen Dresden hold a Primotar 3,5/80 (no E) in Praktisix mount, no. 1421329, with no automatic diaphragm, which Bobsin takes to be an Exakta 6×6 lens reworked as a sample. It is a prototype, not a variant anyone can buy.
Other Meyer 80s and 85s that turn up beside it: the Primotar 3,5/85 of the Primarflex and Meister-Korelle, which both TRA and Bobsin say is sometimes seen in Praktisix mount, but only as conversions made outside the factory (TRA notes that the example on the cover of the book 'Mittelformat Ost' carries a serial older than the Praktisix); the Exakta-mount Primotar 3,5/80; and the Primotar 3,5/80 that Kröger says Thierhold designed for the Certo (Super) Six, which he says gained little commercial importance. None of these has the E or the Praktisix automatic.
Kamerastore titles one example '80mm f3.5 V Primotar E' and says the best-quality Meyer-Optik lenses of the era were marked with a red V. Neither Bobsin's nor TRA's tables record a V marking on the Primotar E 80.
Bobsin says Meyer planned the same automatic for a Primotar E 3,5/135 and listed it for the Praktisix beside the 80 in 1956–58, but knows only three samples, for the Praktisix, M42 and the Praktina (his table gives the Praktisix one as no. 02 999 905), and thinks it may never have been made in series. It is not a version of this lens.

How to tell them apart (expand)

A Meyer-Optik Primotar 3,5/80 in the large Praktisix / Pentacon Six breech-lock with an 'E' after the name, a diaphragm pin at the rear and a red-dot / black-dot ring at the front: that combination is this lens
Not the Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2,8/80 sold beside it with the Praktisix, nor the Biometar 2,8/80 that replaced the Tessar from 1959
Not the Primotar 3,5/80 without the E (Exakta 6×6, 35mm Exakta, 14 blades), the Primotar 3,5/85 of the Primarflex and Meister-Korelle, or the 35mm Primotar E 3,5/50

Primotar E 3,5/80, Praktisix breech-lock:

Engraved 'Primotar E' with 3,5/80 (or 1:3,5/80). Bobsin reads the E as the mark of the automatic diaphragm; Kröger says it stands for Einstellblende, the slightly larger focusing aperture. Either way, a Primotar 3,5/80 without the E is a different, earlier lens (see the notes under the table)
A pin at the rear of the mount for the camera's automatic diaphragm: pushed in by the camera the iris is held open, released at the moment of exposure it springs shut. TRA says it is the only Meyer lens for the P6 mount with this pin; the Telemegors, Orestegors and other Primotars are preset (Bobsin knows only samples of a Primotar E 3,5/135 with the same automatic)
No stop-down lever at the side, as on the Zeiss Jena Praktisix lenses. Instead a knurled ring at the front, between the aperture ring and the filter thread, with a red dot (automatic) and a black dot (manual, iris follows the aperture ring)
Aperture scale ends at 16, where the manual Primotar 3,5/80 goes to 22; focuses to 0.8 m, where the earlier lens stops at 1 m (Bobsin)
49 mm filter thread; about 47 mm long and 69 mm across; bright aluminium (Bobsin; TRA)

Primotar E 3,5/80, Praktisix breech-lock: The only version made for sale. Carsten Bobsin, writing in PHOTODeal in 2013, records three slightly different forms of it, which differ in the knurling of the automatic ring and in the infrared index and are given under the serial notes rather than as separate variants. The lens fits every body with the Praktisix breech-lock: the Praktisix, Praktisix II and IIA, the Pentacon Six and Six TL, the Exakta 66 and Arsenal's Kiev-6S, Kiev-60 and Kiev-88CM. TRA's lens table marks it as a lens for the Praktisix and the Praktisix II, and says the Praktisix II operates the automatic diaphragm pin on every lens that has one.

Serial-range notes

1672485–1698264: Bobsin's first form: the knurl of the automatic ring is divided, and there is no infrared index. The ranges in his table come from examples collectors have seen, not from a factory list; he says the Meyer production book has large gaps and that Görlitz serials, roughly chronological after the war, cannot be used to date a lens to a year.
1711732 and up: Bobsin's second form: still the divided knurl, now with an infrared index. He gives only the first number seen. Foto Köberl's no. 1711543 sits between his first and second ranges; its listing photographs are the way to see which form it is.
up to 1788712: Bobsin's third form, with the knurl running all the way round the automatic ring. He gives only the highest number seen, 1788712, so where the second form ends and the third begins is not recorded.

Specifications

Formula: Tessar type: four elements in three groups
Construction: 4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range: f/3.5–f/16
Diaphragm blades: 6
Min. focus: 0.8 m
Dimensions: 69 × 47 mm
Weight: 260 g
Filter: 49 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured: 1956
Country: East Germany (VEB Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz)
Material: Bright aluminium barrel
Original price: No price for the lens alone found. Praktisix with Primotar 3,5/80: 962 Mark (1957), 981 Mark (1959), 766 Mark (1960), East German retail list prices compiled by Marco Kröger; the body alone was 705 Mark to May 1960 and 573 Mark from June 1960.

What reviewers say

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Optical formula — Tessar type: four elements in three groups

Bobsin prints the Primotar's lens section, a Tessar type, beside the three generations of the lens (PHOTODeal II/2013, p. 5)

History

The Primotar E 3,5/80 is the cheaper of the two standard lenses offered with the Praktisix when Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz showed the camera in 1956. The other was Carl Zeiss Jena’s Tessar 2,8/80. It came from the VEB Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz, still selling under the Meyer-Optik name, and like the Tessar it is a four-element lens of the Tessar type. The design was not new. Carsten Bobsin, who wrote up Meyer’s Praktisix lenses in PHOTODeal in 2013, says a Primotar 3,5/80 had been recalculated for the vertical Exakta 6×6 and shown in 1954, and had also been mounted for the 35mm Exakta. What the Praktisix version added was the automatic diaphragm. TRA’s lens table makes it the only Meyer lens in the P6 mount with a diaphragm pin and lists every other one, Telemegors, Orestegors and the other Primotars alike, as a preset lens; Bobsin knows a Primotar E 3,5/135 with the same automatic only as samples.

Marco Kröger, writing on zeissikonveb.de, describes how it works. The camera holds the pin in while the photographer focuses, which keeps the iris open. At the moment of exposure the camera lets the pin go, and a spring in the lens closes the iris to the set aperture. Like the 35mm Primotar E 3,5/50 it was based on, it has an Einstellblende: the opening while focusing is a little larger than f/3.5. Kröger says that is what the E stands for; Bobsin reads the E as the mark of the automatic. The 50 has a pressure diaphragm that takes its closing force from the press on the release, and Kröger counts the 80 as a true spring diaphragm. Bobsin points out that Meyer’s own literature called it ADB, a pressure diaphragm, and thinks that term fits the Praktisix better. Bobsin says the fourteen blades of the earlier lens would have needed too strong a spring, so the automatic version has six, and it stops down only to f/16. There is no stop-down lever. A knurled ring at the front, with a red dot for automatic and a black dot for manual, switches the automatic off so the iris follows the aperture ring directly.

It did not last. Kröger says it was not much in demand. In 1959 a Praktisix outfit with the Primotar cost 981 Mark against 1,028 Mark with the Tessar, a saving that hardly counted on so expensive a camera. Once the Biometar arrived in 1959, both 80mm Tessar types were obsolete. The sources disagree about when it ended. Bobsin thinks production stopped in about 1957 and that the several thousand made were enough to keep it on sale until 1968. Kröger’s price lists still have the Primotar outfit in 1960 at 766 Mark. TRA says it remained the economy standard lens until about 1964 and possibly later.

There is one version, which Bobsin records in three slightly different forms. The first has a divided knurl on the automatic ring and no infrared index, and he has seen it in the 1,672,000s to 1,698,000s. The second keeps the divided knurl and adds an infrared index, from 1,711,732. The third has the knurl running all the way round, up to 1,788,712. His figures come from examples he has seen, not from a factory list. Specifications are close to consistent: 0.8 m closest focus, a 49 mm filter thread and 47 mm length in both TRA’s and Bobsin’s tables, with weights of 260 and 265 g. Kamerastore gives 266 g. A Primotar 3,5/80 without the E, which has 14 blades and stops down to f/22, is the earlier Exakta lens. The one in Praktisix mount at the Technische Sammlungen Dresden, no. 1421329, has no automatic; Bobsin takes it for an Exakta 6×6 lens reworked as a sample. A Primotar 3,5/85 on a Praktisix is, according to both TRA and Bobsin, a conversion made outside the factory from a Primarflex or Meister-Korelle lens.

When buying, set the switch ring to the red dot, choose f/16, and press and release the rear pin. The iris should snap shut and reopen cleanly every time, and with the ring on the black dot it should follow the aperture ring. The lens fits every camera with the Praktisix breech-lock, including the Pentacon Six, the Exakta 66 and the Kiev-60 and 88CM, and TRA says the Praktisix II works the pin of every lens that has one. Check the bright aluminium barrel for haze and fungus; the example Foto Köberl offered, no. 1711543, was described with slight clouding and fungus. Sellers usually write ‘Primotar E 3,5/80’ or ‘80mm f3.5 Primotar E’, and sometimes only ‘Primotar 80mm’. Look for the E, and for the big breech-lock mount, before paying for a Praktisix lens.

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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 $370 across 5 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $360–$400). First day tracked.

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

Praktisix PRIMOTAR 3.5 / 80 red V, MEYER OPTIK GÖRLITZ Pentacon SIX ☆☆☆☆ — $239.00 · eBay · likely praktisix
Meyer-Optik Primotar E 1:3.5/80 Red T Praktisix Pentacon Six — €300.00 · eBay · likely praktisix
Meyer Optik Gorlitz Primotar E 80mm F/3.5 Red V #1672769 For Pentacon Six — $360.00 · eBay
Meyer Optik Primotar E 80mm F3.5 Red V Lens Pentacon Six Mount #447 — $371.07 · eBay
Meyer Optik Gorlitz Q Primotar E 3.5/80mm Red V Lens For Pentacon Six — $400.00 · eBay
CLA'd Praktisix II 6x6 Medium Format Camera w Meyer Primotar E 80/3.5 Lens Works — $499.00 · eBay · likely praktisix

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