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

Tessar 75mm f/3.5 (Rolleiflex)

Carl Zeiss · Rolleiflex TLR · 1932 · Tessar, 4 elements in 3 groups

Also known as: Rolleiflex Tessar 75mm f/3.5 · Rolleiflex Tessar 75mm F3.5 · Rolleiflex Tessar 3,5/75 · Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 7.5cm 1:3.5 Rolleiflex · Zeiss-Opton Tessar 75mm f/3.5 T · Carl Zeiss Tessar 1:3.5 f=75mm · Rolleiflex Automat Tessar 3.5 · Rolleiflex MX Tessar · Rolleiflex MX-EVS Tessar · Rolleiflex T Tessar 75mm · Rolleiflex 3.5 Tessar · ローライフレックス テッサー 75mm F3.5 · ローライフレックス オートマット テッサー · ローライフレックス T テッサー

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 7.5cm f/3.5 (Standard 622, Automat, New Standard; 1932–49) · Compur Rapid, 1–1/500, B, T Rolleiflex TLR 1932–1949 — —
Zeiss-Opton Tessar 75mm f/3.5 T (Automat K4B2, K4/50, Automat A / MX; 1949–54) · Compur Rapid, 1–1/500, B, T, X-sync Rolleiflex TLR 1949–1954 — —
Carl Zeiss Tessar 75mm f/3.5 (Automat B / MX-EVS, Rolleiflex T; 1954–76) · Compur Rapid MX (Automat B); Synchro-Compur MXV / VX (Rolleiflex T), 1–1/500, B Rolleiflex TLR 1954–1976 — —
  1. Which models carried the lens, their dates by month, shutters and the maker names (Zeiss Jena / Zeiss Opton / Carl Zeiss) are from the model table on English Wikipedia's Rolleiflex page, which follows Prochnow's K-codes. Element count is from antiquecameras.net ('the four element Zeiss Tessar and Schneider Xenar 75mm f/3.5 lenses'); the 4/3 layout is the Tessar design.
  2. The three variants are the three maker engravings, which follow the division of Zeiss after 1945: Jena (east), Zeiss-Opton (Oberkochen's trading name in the west, until the Carl Zeiss name was free to use there), then Carl Zeiss. The dates are those of the bodies each engraving is listed for; English Wikipedia names Jena, Opton and Xenar lenses together for every Automat from the K4B2 of October 1945 to the Automat B of 1956, so a given camera's lens is known only from its engraving.
  3. English Wikipedia's rows for the 3.5F Model 2 (Feb–Nov 1960) and Model 3 (Nov 1960–Dec 1964) read 'Zeiss Tessar or Schneider Xenotar' and 'Zeiss Tessar or Opton', which contradicts every other account of the 3.5F as a Planar/Xenotar camera and looks like a table error; the 3.5F is not listed here as a Tessar body.
  4. Blades, closest focus and weight: no fetched source gives them for the Rolleiflex Tessar. The Rolleiflex T's weight and dimensions, where known, belong to the camera. Filters are the Rollei Bay I bayonet from the Automat; the Standard 622 of 1932 predates the bayonet (push-on fittings).
  5. Coating: the T engraved on Zeiss-Opton and later lenses is Zeiss's coating mark; no fetched source dates the first coated Jena Tessars on Rolleiflexes, so the pre-war/post-war split in the Jena variant's markers is the general rule for Zeiss glass rather than a Rollei-specific finding.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A 75 mm f/3.5 Tessar is the taking lens of every Rolleiflex from the Standard 622 of 1932 to the Automat B (MX-EVS) of 1956, and of the Rolleiflex T of 1958–76; the viewing lens above it is a Heidoscop-Anastigmat f/3.1 or f/2.8 to 1956 and a Heidosmat f/2.8 on the T (en.wikipedia)
  • Three engravings by date: Carl Zeiss Jena 7,5cm (1932–49), Zeiss-Opton 75mm T (c. 1949–54), Carl Zeiss 75mm (1954–56 and the T)
  • The look-alike is Schneider's Xenar 75mm f/3.5, the other four-element lens offered on the same Automats and on the Rolleicord: the engraving decides. The five-element Planar and Xenotar 75mm f/3.5 belong to the 3.5C/E/F of 1956 onward
  • Bay I filters and hoods; a Bay II or III accessory does not fit

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 7.5cm f/3.5 (Standard 622, Automat, New Standard; 1932–49):

  • Front ring engraved Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:3,5 f=7,5cm; in a Compur Rapid to 1/500 without flash synchronisation on cameras before the K4/50 of October 1949 (en.wikipedia model table)
  • Pre-war lenses are uncoated; a post-war Jena lens on an Automat K4B2 may carry the red T of Zeiss's coating

Zeiss-Opton Tessar 75mm f/3.5 T (Automat K4B2, K4/50, Automat A / MX; 1949–54):

  • Engraved Zeiss-Opton Tessar 1:3,5 f=75mm with a red T; focal length written in millimetres rather than 7,5cm
  • Compur Rapid with an X flash socket from the K4/50 (October 1949) and the Automat A of June 1951 to March 1954 (en.wikipedia model table)

Carl Zeiss Tessar 75mm f/3.5 (Automat B / MX-EVS, Rolleiflex T; 1954–76):

  • Engraved Carl Zeiss Tessar 1:3,5 f=75mm (no Opton), in a Compur Rapid MX with M and X sockets on the Automat B of April 1954 to September 1956, or a Synchro-Compur MXV (VX on the T3 from July 1966) on the Rolleiflex T (en.wikipedia model table)
  • The T's Tessar is described as made with lanthanum glass (en.wikipedia)

Specifications

Formula
Tessar, 4 elements in 3 groups
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5
Shutter
Compur Rapid, 1–1/500, B, T (1932–51, X-sync from 1949); Compur Rapid MX (Automat B / MX-EVS, 1954–56); Synchro-Compur MXV and VX (Rolleiflex T, 1958–76), 1–1/500, B
Filter
Bay I (push-on on the Standard 622 of 1932)
Years manufactured
1932–1976
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 Tessar 75mm f/3.5 is the lens most Rolleiflexes were built around. It arrived on the Standard 622 in November 1932, three years after the first Rolleiflex and its f/4.5 and f/3.8 Tessars, in a Compur Rapid that reached 1/500, and it stayed as the taking lens of the Automat from 1937, the New Standard of 1939, the post-war Automats to the MX-EVS of 1956, and the Rolleiflex T from 1958 to 1976. English Wikipedia’s model table lists it, by maker, on every one of those rows. It is the four-element Tessar that Carl Zeiss had been building since 1902, here as a 75 mm lens for the 6×6 frame, and antiquecameras.net pairs it with Schneider’s Xenar of the same specification as the two lenses that were “standards of excellence for Rolleis” for decades.

The engraving on the front ring tells the post-war history of Zeiss. Pre-war lenses read Carl Zeiss Jena, with the focal length written 7,5cm. After 1945 the Jena works was in the Soviet zone, and the Zeiss staff who had been moved west set up at Oberkochen, where for some years their lenses were engraved Zeiss-Opton, with a red T for the coating, because the Carl Zeiss name was contested; from about 1954 the western lenses read Carl Zeiss. English Wikipedia names all three sources, Jena, Opton and Schneider’s Xenar, for every Automat from the K4B2 of October 1945 to the Automat B of 1956, so the maker of a given camera’s lens is known only from its glass. The Rolleiflex T’s Tessar, the last of the line, is described as made with lanthanum glass for higher resolution and colour correction.

From October 1956 the main Rolleiflex 3.5 line moved to five-element lenses, the Zeiss Planar and Schneider Xenotar, and the Tessar survived on the Rolleiflex T as the cheaper camera, alongside the Xenar-equipped Rolleicord. Forum opinion on the Tessar against the Planar follows a pattern: soft at the edges wide open, with f/8 as its sweet spot, and little between the two designs once stopped down. No blog or video review of the lens itself was found; the Rolleiflex T and MX-EVS pages carry what reviewers say of the cameras.

Filters and hoods are Rollei’s Bay I bayonet from the Automat onward (the Standard 622 predates the bayonet). On any example the shutter dates the camera more closely than the lens: Compur Rapid without synchronisation before October 1949, with an X socket on the K4/50 and Automat A, M and X on the Automat B, and a Synchro-Compur MXV, then VX with self-timer, on the T.

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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 wanted — shot with a Tessar 75mm f/3.5 (Rolleiflex)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, EUR: a median of €290 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-02 (middle half €280–€300). 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 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Tessar 7.5cm f/4.5 and f/3.8 (early Rolleiflex) · Xenar 75mm f/3.5 (Rollei) · Planar 75mm f/3.5 (Rolleiflex) · Xenotar 75mm f/3.5 (Rolleiflex) · Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8A) · Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (1600F/1000F)

Sources (2)

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.