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

Sonnar 135mm f/3.5 (1600F/1000F)

Carl Zeiss · Hasselblad 1600F · 1954 · Sonnar

Also known as: Zeiss Sonnar 135mm f/3.5 · Sonnar 3.5/135 · Hasselblad 1000F Sonnar 135

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
1600F/1000F thread mount Hasselblad 1600F (M60×6 three-start thread) 1954–1957 — About 2,100 in six batches (Marco Cavina)

Serial-range notes

red ink inside the rear mount
Zeiss date code: before 1980, month in the last two digits, year as the remaining figure plus 1957.

Specifications

Formula
Sonnar
Construction
5 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/22
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
74 × 80.5 mm
Weight
520 g
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.

Optical formula — Sonnar
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from official Zeiss data sheet (10 10 09) — 5 elements in 3 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized.
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from official Zeiss data sheet (10 10 09) — 5 elements in 3 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. — Drawn for this site

History

The short telephoto of the 1000F outfit, and a simplified Sonnar: five elements in three groups, where Bertele’s original for the Contax used six or seven. Zeiss’s factory sheet gives the true focal length as 134.34mm at f/3.48 and the back focal distance as 89.09mm; the lens covers 34°, focuses to 1m, and weighs 520g in a barrel 80.5mm long and 74mm across.

The design is credited to Lange, Eismann and Jahn, with a German patent filed on 5 April 1954, and it uses a barium flint for the rear element. Cavina counts about 2,100 made in six batches from 1953 or 1954 onward — a substantial number by the standards of this system, where a lens selling two thousand copies was a success.

It sits on the M60×6 three-start thread of the 1600F and 1000F. Nothing from the later V system fits, and this lens fits nothing later; the 1957 changeover was complete.

What the record does not settle is how it performs. Zeiss published the geometry and the coverage but the sheet carries no MTF, and no review of this lens on this camera has surfaced in any language consulted. The lenses that followed it in the V system are extensively tested; the pre-1957 Zeiss glass is known mostly through the cameras it came attached to.

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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 Sonnar 135mm f/3.5 (1600F/1000F)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $300 across 8 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $130–$370). First day tracked.

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

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order — those come from the search and the sort described above.

Listings updated 2026-09-05. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

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.