Tele-Apotessar 500mm f/8

The Tele-Apotessar arrived in 1982 with the Prontor CF shutter that replaced the Synchro-Compur across the Hasselblad line, and it kept the element count of the Tele-Tessar it succeeded while changing almost everything else. Zeiss’s data sheet gives five elements in three groups, catalogue number 10 46 15, an exact focal length of 499.3 mm, f/8 to f/64, a field of 9.0° on the diagonal, an M 86×1 filter thread and 1,810 g — 290 g less than the 2,100 g of the C lens. The sheet is candid about where the saving came from: the lens “is surprisingly lightweight, a merit of the Tessar lens design principle.”

The two additions that justify the new name are apochromatic correction and internal focusing. Zeiss claims that “due to its apochromatic correction, the optical performance is so high that it can not be fully utilized with hand-held shooting” — a reversal of the older sheet, which had advertised the 2 kg Tele-Tessar as hand-holdable — and describes “a very smooth internal focusing mechanism,” so the barrel neither lengthens nor shifts its balance as the distance changes. The Hasselblad system tripod quick coupling sits directly under the centre of gravity, and the sheet notes that “the lens barrel incorporates very efficient light baffling devices to control stray light” and that the focusing ring travels past infinity so the lens stays usable across a range of temperatures. Preferred uses are given as editorial and documentary work, the recording of historical monuments, nature and wildlife.

Close focus is where the run splits. The Zeiss sheet gives 5 m, a reproduction ratio of 1:9.4, a field of 525 × 525 mm at a working distance of 4.6 m, and says “the optic is designed with special attention to close-up performance.” Earlier examples do not reach that far: KEH’s listing for one is headed “Early Version with Minimum Focusing Distance 8.5m” — the same close limit as the C Tele-Tessar — and the change to 5 m is generally reported to have come around 1989. No dated Zeiss or Hasselblad document read for this entry fixes the year, and none says whether the optics were revised along with the focusing travel or only the helicoid’s range extended.

It was the end of the line in two senses. Hasselblad Historical’s index lists “Tele-ApoTessar f/8 500 mm CF” as the last entry in the CF group, and no 500 mm appears at all under CB, CFi, CFE, F or FE — so unlike the 40, 50, 80, 120, 150, 180 and 250, the 500 was never given the CFi barrel, the databus contacts of a CFE, or a shutterless version for the focal-plane bodies. Anyone wanting more reach on a V body had to go to the special-order Mirotar 1000 mm f/5.6, a mirror lens with no shutter at all. SilvergrainClassics, comparing the two 500s in 2025, calls the Tele-Apotessar “a completely different optical design,” better but considerably more expensive used, and asks whether the premium is worth paying.

What remains open: the year the close limit changed, and on whose authority; whether the change was optical or mechanical; the lens’s end year, since Hasselblad kept it in the catalogue after the CFi generation arrived in 1998 without ever updating it; any list price; the designer, who is not named on the sheet; and production quantities, which would have to come from Nordin’s compendia.