Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8A)
Carl Zeiss · Rolleiflex TLR · 1949 · Tessar, 4 elements in 3 groups
Also known as: Rolleiflex 2.8A Tessar 80mm f/2.8 · Rolleiflex 2.8A Tessar 80mm F2.8 · Rolleiflex 2,8A Tessar · Rolleiflex 2.8 A Tessar · Rolleiflex K7A Tessar · Zeiss-Opton Tessar 1:2.8 f=80mm Rolleiflex · Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 8cm f/2.8 Rolleiflex · Rolleiflex 2.8A Opton Tessar · Rolleiflex 2.8A Jena Tessar · ローライフレックス 2.8A テッサー · ローライフレックス 2.8A テッサー 80mm F2.8
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 8cm f/2.8 (pre-war-made glass fitted to early 2.8A bodies) | Rolleiflex TLR | 1949–1951 | — | — |
| Zeiss-Opton Tessar 80mm f/2.8 T (later 2.8A bodies) | Rolleiflex TLR | 1949–1951 | — | — |
- Dates by month, shutters and the viewing lens are from the model table on English Wikipedia's Rolleiflex page (K7A). Element count and the pre-war origin of the glass are from antiquecameras.net ('four-element objective', 'of pre-war manufacture'); the 4/3 layout is the Tessar design. No source gives blades, closest focus or weight.
- Maker: the lens is usually described as a Zeiss-Opton Tessar; English Wikipedia names both Carl Zeiss Jena and Zeiss Opton, and antiquecameras.net's 'pre-war manufacture' can only mean Jena glass. The brand is therefore given as Carl Zeiss, with the two engravings as variants. The serial number at which the factory changed to Opton lenses is quoted in a dealer's listing seen only in search results (not fetched) as 1,115,000, with a production figure of 7,870; neither is used here.
- Production: antiquecameras.net gives 9,870 Rolleiflex 2.8A cameras against 1,250 of the 2.8B that replaced it. The same page reports, from an unnamed source, that 'half of these cameras were returned to Franke & Heidecke as part of a recall', and that both the 2.8A and 2.8B were sold only in the United States.
- Quality: antiquecameras.net says the lens was 'often cited as being soft' and 'poorly received', and quotes Modern Photography that it 'often gave trouble when used wide open'; it calls the 2.8A a commercial flop. No review of the lens on its own was found.
How to tell them apart
- The only Rolleiflex with an f/2.8 Tessar: an 80 mm Tessar under a Heidosmat f/2.8 viewing lens, Bay III filters, on a body of December 1949 to August 1951 (en.wikipedia)
- Two engravings: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:2,8 f=8cm, or Zeiss-Opton Tessar 1:2,8 f=80mm T
- Compur Rapid to 1/400 with an X socket on the first type, Compur Rapid MX to 1/500 with M and X on the second (April–August 1951)
- The Biometar of the 2.8B, the Xenotar of the 2.8C onward and the Planar of the 2.8C–F are five- and six-element lenses and read so on the ring; a Tessar 2.8 on a Rolleiflex is a 2.8A. The Zeiss-Opton Tessar 80mm f/2.8 for the Hasselblad 1600F is the same design in a bayonet mount with a focusing helicoid
Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 8cm f/2.8 (pre-war-made glass fitted to early 2.8A bodies):
- Engraved Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:2,8 f=8cm, focal length in centimetres; coated glass of pre-war origin on a camera of 1949–51 (en.wikipedia; antiquecameras.net)
Zeiss-Opton Tessar 80mm f/2.8 T (later 2.8A bodies):
- Engraved Zeiss-Opton Tessar 1:2,8 f=80mm with a red T, focal length in millimetres; the West German (Oberkochen) lens, which English Wikipedia's K7A row names as the 2.8A's taking lens
- Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 8cm f/2.8 (pre-war-made glass fitted to early 2.8A bodies): English Wikipedia gives the 2.8A's taking lens as an 80 mm Tessar 'either by Carl Zeiss Jena [or] Zeiss Opton'; antiquecameras.net describes the 80mm Tessar 2.8 as 'of pre-war manufacture' and says its construction was 'supposedly' faulty. Forum accounts, not fetched for this page, have the Jena lenses as pre-division stock, coated after the war and bought in by Franke & Heidecke, with front and rear groups mismatched on some. No fetched source gives the point at which Opton lenses replaced them.
- Zeiss-Opton Tessar 80mm f/2.8 T (later 2.8A bodies): The Oberkochen lens of the same four-element design, listed by English Wikipedia for both K7A rows (Compur Rapid to 1/400 from December 1949, Compur Rapid MX to 1/500 from April 1951). Forum opinion prefers the Opton lens to the Jena, while holding that f/2.8 is more than a Tessar comfortably gives.
Specifications
- Formula
- Tessar, 4 elements in 3 groups
- Construction
- 4 elements / 3 groups
- Aperture range
- f/2.8
- Shutter
- Compur Rapid, 1–1/400, B, X-sync (Type 1, Dec 1949–Feb 1951); Compur Rapid MX, 1–1/500, B, M&X-sync (Type 2, Apr–Aug 1951)
- Filter
- Bay III
- Years manufactured
- 1949–1951
- 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 80mm f/2.8 is the lens of the Rolleiflex 2.8A, the first Rolleiflex with an f/2.8 taking lens, built from December 1949 to August 1951 and, by antiquecameras.net’s account, sold only in the United States. Franke & Heidecke opened the Tessar design a full stop beyond the f/3.5 of the standard Rolleiflex and lengthened it to 80 mm, under a Heidosmat f/2.8 viewing lens, in a Compur Rapid that reached 1/400 on the first bodies and, as a Compur Rapid MX with both M and X synchronisation, 1/500 on the second type of April to August 1951. Filters and hoods are the Bay III bayonet that the whole 2.8 series would keep.
The glass came from both halves of a divided Zeiss. English Wikipedia names the lens as “either by Carl Zeiss Jena [or] Zeiss Opton”, the Oberkochen works trading under the Opton name while the Carl Zeiss name was contested; antiquecameras.net adds that the 80mm Tessar 2.8 was “of pre-war manufacture”, which can only describe Jena glass, and that its construction was “supposedly” faulty. Forum accounts fill in a story this page could not check: pre-division Jena lenses coated after the war and bought in by Rollei, some with mismatched front and rear groups, replaced at the factory by Opton lenses from a serial in the 1,115,000s. What is sourced is the verdict. The lens, antiquecameras.net writes, was “often cited as being soft” and poorly received, Modern Photography found that it “often gave trouble when used wide open”, one account has half the cameras returned to the factory in a recall, and the 2.8A was a commercial failure: 9,870 cameras, then in February 1952 the 2.8B with a five-element Zeiss Jena Biometar, and from December 1952 the 2.8C with Schneider’s Xenotar and Zeiss’s Planar, which settled the question of what an f/2.8 Rolleiflex lens should be.
The Tessar 2.8 is therefore a two-year lens on a camera collectors buy for its place in the sequence. No blog or video review of it was found; forum owners who like it mention its round aperture and the usual Tessar pattern of a soft full aperture and good results stopped down, and prefer the Opton engraving to the Jena. A buyer reads the ring (Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:2,8 f=8cm, or Zeiss-Opton Tessar 1:2,8 f=80mm with a red T) and the shutter’s top speed, and expects a camera of seventy-five years to need a service. The same Zeiss-Opton Tessar 80mm f/2.8 design, in a bayonet mount with its own helicoid, was the standard lens of the Hasselblad 1600F and 1000F.
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 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8A)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
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