Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8B)
Carl Zeiss Jena · Rolleiflex TLR · 1952 · Biometar (modified Gauss), 5 elements in 4 groups
Also known as: Rolleiflex 2.8B Biometar 80mm f/2.8 · Rolleiflex 2.8B Biometar 80mm F2.8 · Rolleiflex 2,8B Biometar · Rolleiflex 2.8 B Biometar · Rolleiflex K7B Biometar · Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 1:2.8 f=80mm Rolleiflex · Zeiss Jena Biometar 8cm 2.8 Rolleiflex · Rolleiflex Biometar · ローライフレックス 2.8B ビオメター · ローライフレックス 2.8B ビオメター 80mm F2.8
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8B, K7B; Feb 1952–Mar 1953) | Rolleiflex TLR | 1952–1953 | — | 1,250 cameras (antiquecameras.net) |
- Dates by month, shutter and viewing lens are from the model table on English Wikipedia's Rolleiflex page (K7B). Element count and production are from antiquecameras.net ('constructed with 5 elements', 'a mere 1,250 models produced'). The group count of four is the Biometar design as catalogued on this site's page for the 1948 Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (five elements in four groups: a Biotar whose rear cemented pair is replaced by a single negative meniscus); no fetched Rollei source gives the groups. Blades, closest focus and weight are not given by any fetched source.
- Relation to the other Biometar 80mm f/2.8: the same Jena design name and specification as the lens made from 1951 for the Exakta and M42 reflexes and later the Pentacon Six, but a fixed lens in a Compur shutter without mount or helicoid. A forum quotation of John Phillips, surfaced by search and not fetched, has the Biometar first designed for the Master Korelle before Rollei took it for the 2.8B. The two are relatives, not one family.
- Why it ended: antiquecameras.net attributes the short run to post-war supply problems; English Wikipedia says only that the 2.8C with Xenotar or Planar followed. That a West German camera depended on an East German lens in 1952 is the usual explanation offered, but no fetched source states it.
- Quality: antiquecameras.net says the Biometar 'produced much better results than the Tessar 2.8' it replaced. No blog or video review of the lens on the 2.8B was found.
How to tell them apart
- The only Rolleiflex with a Biometar: Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 1:2,8 f=80mm on the front ring of a 2.8B body of 1952–53, under a Heidosmat f/2.8, in a Compur Rapid MX with M and X sockets, Bay III filters (en.wikipedia)
- Not the Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 in Exakta, M42 or Pentacon Six mount, which is an interchangeable lens with its own focusing mount and no shutter
- The 2.8A before it reads Tessar, the 2.8C after it reads Xenotar or Planar; a Rolleiflex engraved Biometar is a 2.8B
Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8B, K7B; Feb 1952–Mar 1953):
- Engraved Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 1:2,8 f=80mm, under a Heidosmat f/2.8 viewing lens, in a Compur Rapid MX to 1/500 with M and X sockets; Bay III filters (en.wikipedia K7B row)
- Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8B, K7B; Feb 1952–Mar 1953): The one body the Biometar was ever fitted to: the Rolleiflex 2.8B of February 1952 to March 1953, which English Wikipedia marks 'Rare' and antiquecameras.net puts at 1,250 cameras, a run cut short by 'issues with post war supplies'. The 2.8C with Schneider's Xenotar was already on sale from December 1952.
Specifications
- Formula
- Biometar (modified Gauss), 5 elements in 4 groups
- Construction
- 5 elements / 4 groups
- Aperture range
- f/2.8
- Shutter
- Compur Rapid MX, 1–1/500, B, M&X-sync
- Filter
- Bay III
- Years manufactured
- 1952–1953
- Country
- Germany
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The Biometar 80mm f/2.8 is the lens of the Rolleiflex 2.8B, made from February 1952 to March 1953 and the scarcest of the Rolleiflex 2.8 series. It was Franke & Heidecke’s answer to the failure of the 2.8A, whose four-element Tessar had drawn complaints wide open: a five-element lens from Carl Zeiss Jena, the Biometar, a Biotar-derived Gauss design that Jena had also been making since 1951 as an interchangeable 80 mm lens for the Exakta and M42 reflexes. On the Rolleiflex it sat under a Heidosmat f/2.8 viewing lens in a Compur Rapid MX to 1/500 with M and X synchronisation, with the Bay III filter bayonet of the 2.8A, and antiquecameras.net reports that it “produced much better results than the Tessar 2.8”.
It lasted a year. English Wikipedia marks the 2.8B “Rare”; antiquecameras.net counts 1,250 cameras, against 9,870 of the 2.8A, and attributes the short run to “issues with post war supplies”. The geography explains what the sources leave unsaid: in 1952 Jena was in the German Democratic Republic and Franke & Heidecke in Braunschweig in the Federal Republic, and a West German professional camera could not build its flagship on glass from across the border. The 2.8C, with Schneider’s five-element Xenotar and then Zeiss Oberkochen’s Planar, was on sale from December 1952, three months before the last 2.8B, and those two lenses carried the 2.8 series to the end. The 2.8A and 2.8B, antiquecameras.net says, were sold only in the United States.
No blog or video review of the Rolleiflex Biometar was found; what exists on the design is written about the interchangeable Jena lens for Exakta, M42 and the Pentacon Six, which is the same name and specification with its own mount and helicoid, and is catalogued here separately. A forum quotation of the Rollei historian John Phillips, surfaced by search, has the Biometar first designed for the Master Korelle before Rollei took it. For a buyer the 2.8B is a collector’s camera, bought for its rarity and its place between the Tessar and the Xenotar rather than for a lens anyone has tested against them; the engraving Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 1:2,8 f=80mm is the identification, and the camera’s shutter and leatherette, not the lens, decide its condition.
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 Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8B)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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