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

Sonnar 250mm f/5.6

Carl Zeiss · Hasselblad V · 1957 · Sonnar

Also known as: Zeiss Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 · Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 250mm f/5.6 · Sonnar 5.6/250 · Sonnar 250/5.6 · Hasselblad 250mm Sonnar · Hasselblad 250mm f/5.6 · Sonnar C 250mm · Zeiss Sonnar CF 250mm f/5.6 · Sonnar 250/5.6 CF · Sonnar T* 5,6/250 CFi · Hasselblad 250mm C T*

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Sonnar C 5.6/250, chrome (1957 baseline) · Synchro-Compur, 1s–1/500 and B Hasselblad V 1957–1969 — —
Sonnar C 5.6/250, black (non-T*) · Synchro-Compur, 1s–1/500 and B Hasselblad V 1969–1973 — —
Sonnar C T* 5.6/250 · Compur size 0 interchangeable reflex shutter with automatic iris diaphragm (Synchro-Compur, 1s–1/500 and B) Hasselblad V 1973–1982 — —
Sonnar CF T* 5.6/250 · Prontor CF, 1s–1/500 and B Hasselblad V 1982–1998 — —
Sonnar CFi T* 5.6/250 · Prontor CFi, 1s–1/500, B and F Hasselblad V 1998–2013 — —
  1. Element and group counts, weights, exact focal lengths, closest focus and filter series come from the Zeiss data sheets hosted by Hasselblad Historical (C250, CF250, CFi250).
  2. Generation start years follow the barrel and shutter families across the whole V line (C 1957, T* 1973, CF 1982, CFi 1998); no source consulted gives a month for the 250's own changeovers, and old stock overlapped the new.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The letter after the focal length is the generation: none or C (Synchro-Compur, 1957–82), CF (Prontor CF, 1982–98), CFi (Prontor CFi, 1998–2013). There is no F, FE or CB 250mm f/5.6 — the shutterless long lens was the Tele-Tessar 250mm f/4
  • Filter mount is the quickest sort: bayonet-50 on every C, bayonet-60 on CF and CFi
  • Red T* on the name ring from about 1973; chrome barrels are always pre-T*, but black C lenses without T* exist
  • Every version is 4 elements in 3 groups, 2.5 m closest focus and f/45 minimum aperture — a Superachromat in the same focal length and aperture is a different, six-element lens and is engraved Superachromat

Sonnar C 5.6/250, chrome (1957 baseline):

  • Satin-chrome barrel engraved Carl Zeiss / Sonnar 1:5.6 f=250mm; no red T* on the name ring
  • Synchro-Compur size 0 with the EV interlock — the aperture and shutter-speed rings move together until the cross-coupling lever is pressed
  • Bayonet-50 filter mount (Zeiss data sheet: 'bayonet for Hasselblad series 50'); 2.5 m closest focus; aperture scale runs 5.6-8-11-16-22-32-45
  • Red-ink Zeiss date code inside the rear mount — pre-1980 the last two digits are the month and the leading digit(s) plus 1957 the year

Sonnar C 5.6/250, black (non-T*):

  • Black-anodised barrel with the same C-type engraving, EV interlock lever and bayonet-50 filter mount as the chrome lens
  • No red T* after the Sonnar name — a short transitional window, since the black finish and the multicoating arrived within a few years of each other

Sonnar C T* 5.6/250:

  • Red T* on the name ring; black barrel; bayonet-50 filter mount; EV interlock lever
  • Zeiss data sheet: cat. no. 101026, 4 elements in 3 groups, 930 g, exact focal length 248.4 mm, 2.5 m closest focus, diagonal field 18°

Sonnar CF T* 5.6/250:

  • Prontor CF shutter in a black barrel with rubber focusing grip; bayonet-60 filter mount replaces the C lens's series 50
  • Green F on the shutter-speed ring — the setting that holds the leaf shutter open for a 2000- or 200-series body's focal-plane shutter
  • EV interlock is a push-button on the aperture ring rather than the C lens's lever
  • Zeiss data sheet: cat. no. 10 11 15, 4 elements in 3 groups, exact focal length 248.4 mm, 1000 g, 2.5 m, reproduction ratio 0 to 1:7.8

Sonnar CFi T* 5.6/250:

  • CFi engraved after the focal length; bayonet-60 filter mount; 1000 g; no databus contacts (the contact-carrying 250 was the Superachromat CFE)
  • Zeiss data sheet: cat. no. 10 11 37, 4 elements in 3 groups, 2.5 m, 1:7.8, exact focal length 243.4 mm — 5 mm shorter than the figure the C and CF sheets give

Serial-range notes

red-ink code inside the rear mount, pre-1980
Zeiss stamped a date code inside the rear of the mount: before 1980 the last two digits are the month and the leading digit(s) plus 1957 the year, so 1611 reads as November 1973. The lens serial itself is a Zeiss running number, and no published block-to-year table for the 250 was found.
red-ink code inside the rear mount, 1980 onward
From 1980 the code is two reversed year digits and a month letter, A = January — so a CF 250 reading 48C was made in March 1984.

Specifications

Formula
Sonnar
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/5.6–f/45
Shutter
In the lens: Synchro-Compur size 0 on the C versions, Prontor CF from 1982 and Prontor CFi from 1998, 1s–1/500 and B, flash sync at every speed
Min. focus
2.5 m
Weight
930 g
Years manufactured
1957–2013
Country
West Germany (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen); Germany from 1990
Coating
Single-coated on the chrome and early black C lenses; T* multicoating from about 1973 on the C T*, CF and CFi

What reviewers say

Optical Ratings

Aggregated from the reviews above — follow the links for the full picture.

Chromatic aberration
very low
Optical formula — Sonnar
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from the Zeiss data sheet (C250) — 4 elements in 3 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized.
Schematic cross-section drawn for this site from the Zeiss data sheet (C250) — 4 elements in 3 groups; curvatures and spacing stylized. — Drawn for this site
ⓘ What these charts mean

MTF (modulation transfer function) shows how much contrast the lens keeps at a given fineness of detail, from the center of the frame to the corner — the coarse curves track punch, the fine ones resolving power, and a gap between solid and dashed lines means astigmatism. Relative illumination (falloff) shows how much darker the corners are than the center at each aperture. Manufacturers only began publishing these for modern lenses; no 1950s maker issued them, which is why older families here cite period magazine bench tests instead.

History

The 250mm f/5.6 Sonnar was the long lens of the Hasselblad V system from the beginning, and it outlasted almost everything around it. Zeiss’s data sheet for the C T* version gives the design in full: four elements in three groups, an exact focal length of 248.4 mm, 930 g, a diagonal field of 18°, closest focus 2.5 m, an aperture scale running from f/5.6 to f/45, a Compur size 0 interchangeable reflex shutter with automatic iris diaphragm, and a bayonet for Hasselblad’s series 50 filters. The sheet’s claim for it is a modest one — “even at full aperture the image quality of this lens is excellent and cannot be improved any further by stopping down” — with portraiture, long-range, press, sports and stage photography listed as the intended work, and the narrow depth of field recommended as a way to separate a portrait subject from an unsteady background.

That four-in-three computation never changed. The CF sheet of 1982 and the CFi sheet of 1998 both repeat it, and both repeat the same exact focal length or something very near it; neither claims a floating element, an aspheric surface, special glass or apochromatic correction. What changed was everything around the glass. The chrome barrel of the first years gave way to black anodising toward the end of the 1960s, and the red T* appeared on the name ring at the start of the 1970s — the usual date across the Hasselblad line is 1973 — which leaves a short window in which a black C Sonnar carries no T* mark at all. Neither transition has a documented serial boundary in any source consulted here.

In 1982 the Synchro-Compur was replaced by Prontor’s CF shutter. That version, cat. no. 10 11 15, moved the filter mount from series 50 to series 60, put a rubber grip on the focusing ring, turned the EV interlock from a lever into a push-button, and added the green F setting that holds the leaf shutter open so a leaf-shutter lens can be used on a 2000- or 200-series body’s focal-plane shutter. It also put on 70 g, reaching 1000 g. The CFi of 1998, cat. no. 10 11 37, kept the weight and the optics and carried the family to the end of the V system in 2013.

The CFi sheet is the one oddity in the run. It gives the exact focal length as 243.4 mm against 248.4 mm on both earlier sheets, and it adds a paragraph the others do not have: the optical materials are chosen to make the lens “very unsusceptible to thermal fluctuations”, safe to use in radiant heat from summer sunshine, industrial furnaces, jet propulsion test beds and rocket launch sites. Since the element and group counts are identical, either the glass was quietly changed or one of the figures is a printing error, and no document consulted here settles which.

Reception has always been divided in a way the sheets do not anticipate. Learn Film Photography’s review of a C T* praises the sharpness and an almost complete absence of chromatic aberration wide open, and calls it light enough to travel with; Silver in the Dark’s V-system guide reports that many owners struggle to hold it steady against a top shutter speed of 1/500 and find it hard to keep sharp — one reason a C or CF example changes hands for around $100 to $300.

What remains open: the serial boundaries of the chrome-to-black and pre-T*-to-T* changes; whether the CFi’s 243.4 mm is a recomputation or a typographical slip; who at Zeiss Oberkochen computed the lens, whom no source consulted names; any list price at any date, none of which was found here; and every production figure, which would have to come from Nordin’s compendia.

Expand Collapse

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 250mm f/5.6? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $280 across 112 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $220–$380). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: down 2% from $280.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$280$220–$380112
2026-09-06$280$220–$390114

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Related: Sonnar 150mm f/4 · Sonnar 180mm f/4 · Sonnar 250mm f/5.6 (1600F/1000F) · Sonnar Superachromat 250mm f/5.6 · Tele-Tessar 250mm f/4 · Tele-Tessar 350mm f/5.6 · Variogon 140-280mm f/5.6

Sources (6)

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.