Sonnar 300mm f/4 (Bertele 1937 design and 1963 zebra)

Variants & identification

1. Prewar dates: Kröger has about 100 lenses in October 1938 and the preset diaphragm first shown at the Leipzig spring fair of 1940; Leitz has 60 lenses in October 1938 and sales from March 1940; Pacific Rim Camera dates the chrome lenses to 1940. Leitz's dated serials support 1938 for the chrome lenses.
2. Prewar finish: Kröger describes the 1938 lens as chrome-plated brass. Leitz has sold both chrome and black-and-chrome lenses with 1938 serials, and Pacific Rim Camera reports about 50 black lenses later in 1940.
3. No. 2427395, from the first batch, was sold by Leitz in Exakta mount (unsold at €1,200–1,400 estimate). No source says Zeiss supplied the prewar lens for the Kiné Exakta, and a rear mount on this lens can be changed, so it is not listed as a version.
4. Praktina: Kröger says the 1950s preset lens had an interchangeable mount for the Praktina too, and that a fully automatic adapter fitted the zebra lens to it. No Praktina-mount example is documented, so it is not listed as a version.
5. Before the ASB lens, Kröger says the small Leipzig firm Huffziger sold a cheap adapter that put the Flektoskop-thread Sonnar 180 and 300 on the Praktisix. A 1950s lens on a Praktisix mount is that, not a factory 6×6 lens. The DDR price list of 1974 still offered a camera adapter for the old preset Sonnar 180 and 300 at 55 Mark.
6. Kröger shows a special mount of the 1940-calculation lens made in summer 1963 for the FUK2 television camera of VEB Studiotechnik Berlin. It is not a photographic version.
7. Zebra prices, DDR price list of 1970: Praktisix ASB 845.80 Mark, Exakta 925.80, M42 931.80. Kröger's caption puts 931.80 on the Exakta lens.
8. Dimensions: pentaconsix.com gives 224 mm, 2070 g and 4.0 m for the Pentacon Six Sonnar 300 without saying which version, and 204 mm, 1550 g for a new version from about 1981. Kamerastore's Exakta 'Sonnar T' listing gives 245 × 95 mm, 1865 g, 3.5 m, 18 blades and an 85 mm filter. Pacific Rim Camera says the prewar lens weighs over six pounds.
9. Not this lens: the MC Sonnar 4/300 of 1974 (a new telephoto design with its own page), the Meyer/Pentacon Orestegor 4/300 and the Prakticar 4/300. Also not this lens: Leitz's 'Carl Zeiss Sonnar 4/300mm Prototype', no. 10 10 98 V2/1, which covers 8 × 10 inches and never went into production.
10. ⁰ pentaconsix.com shows US-market Praktisix lenses of 1964 engraved 'S' with the maker given as 'Jena', but its US brochure of that year predates the 300. No 300 so engraved has been documented.

• Prewar, for the Flektoskop reflex housing (Contax), chrome or black and chrome: Kröger: Zeiss Ikon gave the Flektoskop a Tele-Tessar 8/30 cm at first, but f/8 made the ground-glass image too dark to focus, so Bertele designed an f/4 Sonnar. The first calculation, no. 1244, is dated 21 April 1937, and a slightly changed 1244Z of 15 August 1938 went into a first lot of about 100 lenses in October 1938. The lens used SK18, FK5 and PSK3, glasses that first appeared in Schott's 1937 catalogue. It was presented with its preset diaphragm at the Leipzig spring fair of 1940, and Leitz says that was when it went on sale, most of the first lot having gone to the military. A recalculation of 6 April 1940 hardly came into use before the war ended.
• Postwar Jena, for the Flektoskop and Flektometer (Contax): Kröger: after the war Jena first made the lens again for the Contax reflex housing, now improved into the Flektometer, for the Contax II and III and the Stuttgart Contax IIa and IIIa. Pacific Rim Camera says production resumed in 1949, which Kröger's and Leitz's 1947 lenses contradict.
• 1950s–60s 35mm SLR lens, preset, Exakta mount: Kröger: from 1952 the lens was made only for the new 35mm reflexes, the Exakta Varex, the Praktica and the Praktina, each with its own interchangeable mount ('Wechselsockel'), and only now in steady, slowly growing lots. It used the recalculation of 6 April 1940. The DDR retail price list gives the preset lens with interchangeable mount at 816 Mark in 1956 and 762 Mark from June 1960, without splitting it by mount.
• 1950s–60s 35mm SLR lens, preset, M42 (Praktica) mount: Kröger names the Praktica among the three cameras the lens was made for from 1952, each with its own interchangeable mount. Kameraplanet listed a hazy lens as 'Carl Zeiss 300mm 1:4 Objektiv aus Jena Sonnar … (M42)' without saying which version it is, so no serial or engraving is recorded here for this mount.
• Sonnar 4/300 with automatic diaphragm (ASB), zebra, Praktisix / Pentacon Six: Kröger, from Zeiss documents supplied by Günther Benedix: the decision to rework the lens for the Praktisix was taken in spring 1960, first to cover the 56 × 56 mm format, and in September 1961 Zeiss decided to give it the Praktisix's automatic diaphragm. Because the diaphragm sat behind all the glass, Paul Klupsch asked for a protective plate behind the optics, and the 'Sonnar 4/300 mit Abschlußplatte' was calculated on 19 August 1963. A further version of 17 December 1964 without the foil spacers was not built. Kröger says the lens had won a gold medal at a Leipzig autumn fair, as had the Pentacon Six, before the start of series production made the news in Neues Deutschland; he does not give the year. The DDR retail price list gives the Praktisix ASB lens at 845.80 Mark in 1970. pentaconsix.com notes that a 1964 Praktisix II brochure did not yet include it.
• Zebra ASB lens on Zeiss's Exakta adapter: Sold as its own item: the DDR price list of 1970 gives the zebra lens for Exakta at 925.80 Mark. Kröger's caption gives 931.80 Mark for the Exakta lens he shows, which is the price list's M42 figure. Kröger adds that the same kind of fully automatic adapter existed for the Praktina, already out of production by then.
• Zebra ASB lens on Zeiss's M42 adapter: The DDR price list of 1970 gives the zebra lens for M42 at 931.80 Mark.
• 1963 design in the black cross-knurl barrel (1976): Kröger: Jena went on building the 1963 lens for about a year after the MC Sonnar 4/300 went into production on 19 August 1975, and put the last lot into the new barrel. From the December 1976 lot only the MC lens was made. He does not say which barrel the October 1975 lenses have.

Specifications

Formula

Sonnar-type telephoto in three components: a single front lens, an inner cemented pair and a rear cemented pair, with only six glass-air surfaces and all the glass in front of the diaphragm (Kröger, from Bertele's calculation 1244 of 21 April 1937). Pacific Rim Camera gives five elements in three groups for the prewar lens

Aperture range

f/4

Filter

M86 × 1 on the Pentacon Six lens (pentaconsix.com); 85 mm on a 1950s Exakta lens (Kamerastore); 77 mm thread or 80 mm slip-on on the prewar lens (Pacific Rim Camera) (Prewar, for the Flektoskop reflex housing (Contax), chrome or black and chrome, Postwar Jena, for the Flektoskop and Flektometer (Contax), 1950s–60s 35mm SLR lens, preset, Exakta mount, 1950s–60s 35mm SLR lens, preset, M42 (Praktica) mount) · M86 × 1 (pentaconsix.com) (Sonnar 4/300 with automatic diaphragm (ASB), zebra, Praktisix / Pentacon Six, Zebra ASB lens on Zeiss's Exakta adapter, Zebra ASB lens on Zeiss's M42 adapter, 1963 design in the black cross-knurl barrel (1976))

Years manufactured

1938–1976

Country

Germany (Jena; East Germany from 1949)

Coating

Single coating, marked T, on postwar lenses (Leitz: no. 3116177 of 1947 and no. 3743672 of about 1950). Kröger's account of the 1963 design mentions no multicoating: the multicoated MC Sonnar 4/300 is a different design

Original price

DDR retail list prices (EVP): 816 Mark (1956) and 762 Mark from June 1960 for the preset 35mm lens with interchangeable mount; 845.80 Mark (1970) for the zebra Praktisix ASB lens, 925.80 on Exakta and 931.80 on M42. From the price lists compiled by Marco Kröger. No prewar Reichsmark or US dollar price found.

What reviewers say

• Zach Horton (blog) — Puts the Jena Sonnar 300 in his second tier ('Really Excellent'): he loves it and finds its images comparable to the 180, but it is so large and heavy that he calls it impractical and hard to use handheld. He does not say which version he used.
• mflenses.com (blog) — A short 2006 review of the 'Olympic' Sonnar 300, sold in Exakta, M42 and Pentacon Six mounts: very well built, with a solid aperture and smooth focusing, a good lens but not comparable with the 180mm 'Olympic' Sonnar. single source, unconfirmed

History

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 300mm f/4 (Bertele 1937 design and 1963 zebra)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

• Kamerahalter Objektivhalterung für Sonnar 4/300 + Pentacon Six Sonderanfertigung — €79.00 · eBay · likely zebra-praktisix
• Carl Zeiss Jena 300mm f4 Sonnar Lens Adapted to Pentax 67 Mount #620 — $144.98 · eBay
• defective Pentacon SIX P6, SONNAR 4 / 300, Carl Zeiss Jena CZJ, 30 cm ☆☆☆ — $179.00 · eBay
• VINTAGE OLYMPIA CARL ZEISS SONNAR 4/300mm Red T 18 BLADES for EXA/EXAKTA — $265.00 · eBay · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar
• RARE Black EDITION Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 300 mm F4.0 lens Pentacon Six Mount — $285.00 · eBay
• Zeiss Jena Olymia Sonnar 4/300mm Q1 for Contax Flektoskop Mirror Housing Post War — €300.00 · Arsenal Photo · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar
• Zeiss Jena Olympia Sonnar 4/300mm Q1 for Contax Flektoskop Mirror Housing Post W — $369.17 · eBay · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar
• [Near MINT] Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 300mm f4 Olympia Lens Exakta Mount From JAPAN — $379.99 · eBay · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar
• M42, OLYMPIC-SONNAR 4 / 300, Carl Zeiss Jena CZJ, 30 cm olympia design type ☆☆☆ — $399.00 · eBay
• Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar F/4 300mm with Pentacon Six mount, P6, medium format — €415.00 · eBay
• eiss Jena for Exakta Sonnar 4/300mm red T Olympia lens Telephoto lens — $491.00 · eBay · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar
• SERVICED MINT Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/300 ZEBRA EXCELLENT Pentacon Six Exakta66 — €479.00 · eBay · likely zebra-praktisix
• Zeiss Sonnar 4/300mm ,,Zebra,, Pentacon SIX RARE — €499.00 · eBay · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar
• Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 300mm F4.0 Telephoto Lens for EXAKTA and TOPCON Cameras — $699.99 · eBay · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar
• Rare version objectif Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar f/4 300mm zebra #8426882. Pentacon — €800.00 · eBay
• Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 300 mm f 4 Q1 Zebra / Pentacon SIX / P6 / Kiev 66 (1086) — €899.90 · eBay
• Carl Zeiss Jena 4/300 mm Olympia Sonnar with Flektometer for Jena Contax II — $2,200.00 · eBay
• Zeiss Jena Olympia early Sonnar 4/30cm chrome w. Flektoscope for Contax — €3,000.00 · Arsenal Photo · likely Contax-flektoskop-prewar

Listings updated 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.