Tessar 2.8cm f/8

Carl Zeiss · Contax RF · 1932 · Tessar, four elements in three groups

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Zeiss Tessar 28mm f/8 · Tessar 2.8cm f8

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Carl Zeiss Jena	Contax RF	1932–1945	—	No figure published

Pacific Rim Camera dates the lens 1933–1940, introduced in black and nickel and discontinued in 1940, and calls it reasonably common today. The variant table here runs 1932–1945. Both are recorded; no serial evidence has been found that would settle either end.
Two of Pacific Rim Camera's seven versions are effectively one-offs — two chrome lenses of 1933 and a single black-and-chrome lens made for Cornell Capa in 1936 — and the aluminium final version may also be a single test piece. A serial list, if one were ever published, would be the only way to confirm those counts.
The two published Jena tables agree closely across this lens's life but differ at the edges: camera-wiki gives 1940 as 2,652,000–2,678,000 where Craig Camera leaves 1940 blank, and camera-wiki opens 1942 at 2,800,000 where Craig Camera opens it at 2,799,599.
Corroboration was searched for and not found. The seven-version sequence, the 1933–1940 dates and the judgement that the lens is reasonably common today all rest on Pacific Rim Camera alone. Checked against camera-wiki, Craig Camera, Pentacon Six and Zeiss Ikon VEB's history of the Tessar, none of which carries a version sequence for this lens, and against English Wikipedia's list of lenses for the original rangefinder models, which does not include the 2.8cm Tessar at all and opens its wide end at the 3.5cm Biogon. The badge stays.
From two Japanese sources: introduced 1933 at 115 Reichsmarks — the third-cheapest Contax lens after the two 5cm Tessars, and still a luxury by the standards of the day (fortia); black-nickel for the Contax I and chrome later; the Japan Lens Association's repair report says the elements and parts inside the barrel are unusually small, the mechanism rarely fails, and nearly every repair is cleaning deposits off the glass — haze, in other words, is the thing to check.

How to tell them apart (expand)

f/8 maximum aperture and no rangefinder coupling: the least automatic lens in the system

Carl Zeiss Jena:

UNCOUPLED to the rangefinder — focused by scale alone
Black and nickel, later chrome

Serial-range notes

the whole number: How to date one. Carl Zeiss drew every photographic lens number from a single running sequence covering all models at once, so a Zeiss lens is dated by reading its number off a serial/year table rather than by counting within its own type — there is no per-model list of the Leitz kind. camera-wiki's table, taken from Wilkinson and Glanfield's A Lens Collector's Vade Mecum, runs the Jena sequence from 137,418 in 1912 to about 2,900,000 in 1942; Craig Camera publishes a near-identical list.
1364483–2900000: The Jena year boundaries that bracket this lens's production, from camera-wiki: 1932 = 1,364,483–1,389,279; 1933 = 1,436,671–1,456,003; 1934 = 1,500,474–1,590,000; 1935 = 1,615,764–1,752,303; 1936 = 1,674,882–1,942,806; 1937 = 1,930,150–2,219,775; 1938 = 2,267,991–2,527,984; 1939 = 2,527,999–2,651,211; 1940 = 2,652,000–2,678,000; 1941 = 2,678,326–2,790,346; 1942 = 2,800,000–2,900,000. The table stops at 1942, so anything later cannot be dated from the running number alone.
the barrel finish and the aperture scale: The version sequence Pacific Rim Camera gives, in place of serials: black and nickel with no filter thread and two small chrome bumps on the aperture ring (first version, 1933); two chrome examples of 1933, probably a test; the same black and nickel barrel without the bumps (1934–35); a single black-and-chrome lens made for Cornell Capa in 1936; the chrome version introduced alongside the Contax II in 1936; a version with the aperture scale running the other way; and finally a lens in aluminium rather than brass, possibly a single test piece of 1940.
any number near a year boundary: Blocks were allotted to production in sequence, but batches were not always finished in block order, so the published year ranges overlap — 1935 runs to 1,752,303 while 1936 opens at 1,674,882 — and a serial places a lens within a year or two rather than to a month. Pentacon Six sets out the mechanism and points to Hartmut Thiele's Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik, a transcription of the factory books, for batch-level dates.
above 3000000 (Jena) against 10000–3000000 (Oberkochen): Why a Zeiss number needs a factory before it needs a table. After 1945 the sequence forks: Carl Zeiss Jena in the East carried the old numbers on from 3,000,000, while Carl Zeiss Oberkochen in the West began a fresh sequence at 10,000 in 1946 — 10,000–500,000 = 1946–51, 500,000–1,100,000 = 1951–53, 1,100,000–2,600,000 = 1953–59. This lens is prewar Jena only and never carried an Oberkochen number, but the fork is what makes a six-figure Zeiss number ambiguous in general: 1920s in Jena, early 1950s in Oberkochen.
a letter followed by five digits: Not a lens number at all. That is the Zeiss Ikon CAMERA sequence, inherited from ICA in 1909, which rolls to the next letter at 99,999, reached Z in 1936 and restarted at A. A Contax body number and a Zeiss lens number belong to separate schemes and must never be read against the same table.
no serial list has been published for this lens: No source consulted publishes serial ranges, batch blocks or a production total for the 2.8cm Tessar. Pacific Rim Camera, which prints batch numbers for the 50mm, 85mm and 135mm Contax lenses, gives none here. A copy is dated from the general Jena table above and placed within the run by its finish and its aperture ring.

Specifications

Formula: Tessar, four elements in three groups
Construction: 4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range: f/8
Min. focus: 1 m
Weight: 130 g
Filter: 40.5 mm
Years manufactured: 1932–1945
Country: Germany

What reviewers say

fortia (fortia's camera review), a 1935 black-nickel example on digital (blog) — "意外とキレがある" — surprisingly crisp, and perhaps at its best close up; flare arrives readily in the wrong light, as the uncoated 1930s glass would; a film test promised.

History

At f/8 and with no rangefinder coupling, the 28mm Tessar is the least automatic lens in the Contax system: you estimate the distance, set the scale, and let the depth of field do the rest — which at 28mm and f/8 covers most of what is in front of you.

It was the system’s first wide-angle, listed from the Contax I onward, and it makes an instructive pair with the Leitz 28mm Hektor of 1935: f/6.3, also needing an accessory finder, also asking the photographer to guess. Wide-angle photography before retrofocus designs meant slow lenses and scale focusing on both sides of the Leica–Contax argument.

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 Tessar 2.8cm f/8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $430 across 11 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $350–$480). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $430.

By day

Date	Median	Middle half	Listings
2026-09-11	$430	$350–$480	11
2026-09-06	$430	$350–$480	11

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

Zeiss Jena for Contax II III Tessar 8/2.8 cm lens Chrom — $250.00 · eBay · likely jena
Rare Vintage Contax Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8cm f/8 Wide Angle Lens 1936 — $299.00 · eBay · likely jena
Zeiss Jena 2.8cm f8 Tessar for Contax (#80) — $350.00 · eBay · likely jena
CZJ Tessar 2.8cm/8 #1998709, c.1936, steel barrel, caps, CLA'd, Ex+ — $375.00 · Igor Camera Exchange
CZJ Tessar 2.8cm/8 #2235344, c.1937, steel barrel, caps, Ex+ — $375.00 · Igor Camera Exchange
CZJ Tessar 2.8cm/8 #2235315, c.1937, steel barrel, CLA'd 2025, Ex+ — $425.00 · Igor Camera Exchange
Zeiss Jena Tessar 8/2.8cm for Contax NOTTESTED — $444.91 · eBay · likely jena
Zeiss Contax Tessar 2.8cm f8 Wide Angle lens for Contax RF. Universal Viewfinder — $475.00 · eBay
Zeiss Jena Tessar 8/2,8cm 28mm + Finder for Zeiss Ikon Contax II III — $550.00 · eBay · likely jena
Zeiss Contax Tessar 2.8cm f8 Wide Angle for Contax RF. Universal Viewfinder. CLA — $575.00 · eBay
CZJ TEST MODEL Tessar 2.8cm/8 #2672215, c.1940, use camera internal mount, steel barrel, metal caps, CLA'd, Ex- — $1,795.00 · Igor Camera Exchange
Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8cm f/8 28mm Contax RF 1936 Chrome - FOR PARTS/REPAIR — $250.00 · eBay · likely jena junk / for parts
Zeiss Jena for Contax Tessar 8/2,8cm lens — €499.00 · Arsenal Photo · likely jena
Zeiss Jena for Contax Tessar 8/2,8cm lens Black/Nickel lens — €600.00 · Arsenal Photo · likely jena
Carl Zeiss Jena 2.8cm f8 Tessar Black & Nickel Lens Vintage Rare Cover & Case — £299.00 · eBay · likely jena

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.