Tessar 40mm f/4.5 (Jena, 1938 design)

Carl Zeiss Jena · M42 + Exakta · 1938 · Tessar

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Also known as: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f/4.5 · Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 4,5/40 · Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 4.5/40 · Zeiss Jena Tessar 40mm f4.5 · CZJ Tessar 40mm f4.5 · CZJ Tessar 4.5/40 · Tessar 4,5/40 · Tessar 4.5/40 · Tessar 4,5/40 T · Tessar 4.5/40 T · Tessar 4,5/40mm · Tessar 40mm f/4.5 · Tessar 40mm f4.5 M42 · Tessar 40mm 4.5 · Tessar 40/4.5 · Tessar 4cm f/4.5 · Tessar 4cm f4.5 · Tessar 4,5/4cm · Tessar 1:4,5 f=4cm · Tessar 1:4.5 f=4cm · Tessar 1:4,5/40 · カールツァイスイエナテッサー 40mm F4.5 · テッサー 4cm F4.5

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Prewar 'f=4cm', Exakta (from 1938)	Exakta	1938	—	—
M42, slim aluminium barrel (postwar, f/4.5–22)	M42	—	—	—
M42, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16)	M42	—	—	—
Exakta, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16)	Exakta	—	—	—

Specifications differ by barrel, so this entry gives no family-wide filter, closest focus, aperture range, blade count or weight. Prewar 4cm: f/4.5–32, 0.7 m. Postwar slim: f/4.5–22, 0.6 m; 70 g for Flashback Camera's M42 lens. Barrel-shaped: f/4.5–16, 0.4 m on the scale, 49 mm filter; JAPB measured an Exakta example at 34.8 × 60.0 mm, 121 g and 10 blades, focusing to 38.5 cm. Apertures and distances are JAPB's.
The real focal length is 41.24 mm and the back focus 36.38 mm, with the glass under 10 mm from first to last surface (Kröger's drawing of the 1938/48 design). JAPB gives a 57° angle of view. On the 43.3 mm diagonal of the 35mm frame Kröger does not count 40 mm as a true wide-angle: it gave about 10° more than the standard lens, the shortest focal length the reflex mirror would allow.
Praktiflex (M40 thread): the sources disagree on when it started. Kröger says the wartime lots went increasingly to the Praktiflex; JAPB has the prewar version in Exakta mount only and lists the Praktiflex among the mounts of the postwar slim lens. No Praktiflex-mount example with a number or photograph was found, so there is no M40 variant here.
Praktina: JAPB lists the Praktina bayonet among the mounts of the barrel-shaped lens. No Praktina-mount example and no price-list entry for one was found, so it is not entered as a variant. Kröger's table of DDR prices names no mount for the lens.
Dating the barrels: Kröger says only that the slim mount came first and the 49 mm one later. JAPB dates the barrel-shaped version to the late 1940s and its Exakta lens to 1948–55. The numbered M42 lenses in that barrel are all from the 1952–55 block, and no slim lens with a published full number was found.
Production end: Kröger's table of postwar Tessar calculations marks the 4,5/40 mm of 20 April 1948 as discontinued in 1955, and his text says the last 2,000 were assembled at the end of that year. JAPB gives 1938–1955. Kröger's table of DDR retail prices, compiled from receipts and catalogues, lists the lens at 184 Mark for 1956, so it was still on sale after assembly ended.
The same focal length and aperture came from Görlitz: Kröger says Meyer-Optik had offered a Helioplan 4,5/40 since the late 1930s, as Jena had the Tessar. It is a different lens and has no place on this page.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Four elements in three groups; a tiny optical unit sunk deep behind the front ring. Every version has a single manual aperture ring: no preset ring, no spring or automatic diaphragm (Kröger; JAPB)
Engraved in centimetres ('f=4cm') before the war and as 4,5/40 on the later postwar lenses, with Carl Zeiss Jena and the number on the front ring
M42 lenses have a conical rim behind the thread, which Kröger says jams Praktica L-series bodies and must be removed for use on the Praktica B's M42 adapter; on many it has been cut off or notched since
Not Meyer-Optik's Helioplan 4,5/40, not the Rollei 35's Tessar 40mm f/3.5, and not the large-format Tessar 4,5/40 cm (a 400 mm lens)

Prewar 'f=4cm', Exakta (from 1938):

Front ring engraved 'Tessar 1:4,5 f=4cm' and 'Carl Zeiss Jena', in centimetres, with an aperture scale running to f/32 and a depth-of-field scale (the 4cm lens Kröger pictures with his account of the 1938 design; its mount is not shown)
JAPB's early version: narrower at the front than at the mount, aluminium, f/4.5–32, closest focus 0.7 m, some engraved 4cm; made for the Exakta only

M42, slim aluminium barrel (postwar, f/4.5–22):

Slim aluminium barrel, narrower at the front than at the mount, aperture ring 4.5–22 directly behind the front ring, distance scale in metres with depth-of-field marks (Flashback Camera's M42 lens, photographed)
Front ring engraved 'Carl Zeiss Jena' and 'Tessar 4,5…'; Flashback Camera lists it as a T-coated Tessar 4cm f4.5 and weighed it at 70 g
JAPB's postwar version: f/4.5–22 and a closest focus of 0.6 m, made for the Exakta, the Praktiflex and M42

M42, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16):

Barrel thicker in the middle than at either end, with knurled grips on the focusing ring; aperture ring at the front marked 16 11 8 • 5,6 • 4,5; distance scale to 0.4 m (Foto Fischer's lens 3830179; Kröger's photographs)
Front ring engraved 'Carl Zeiss Jena', 'Tessar 4,5/40' with a red T, and the number (3830179 and 3936231, photographed by their sellers); 3830212 is engraved 'Tessar 4,5/40' and its number with no T
49 mm filter thread, the one Jena's preset lenses had just standardised on, but no preset ring: one aperture ring only (Kröger)
Metre-only distance scales on Foto Fischer's lens, metres with feet in red on the lens Kröger photographs; 'GERMANY' on the barrel of some

Exakta, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16):

Exakta bayonet on the same barrel-shaped mount as the late M42 lens
JAPB measured a mid-1950s example: 34.8 mm long from the flange, 60.0 mm across, 121 g, 49 mm filter, 10 straight blades, manual aperture ring without click stops, 310° focus throw, closest focus 38.5 cm (1:7.45)
A very deeply recessed front element; JAPB thinks a hood hardly necessary

Prewar 'f=4cm', Exakta (from 1938): The original lens. Kröger, who works from the Zeiss calculation records, says Jena finished the calculation for a Tessar 4,5/4 cm for Ihagee's Kiné-Exakta in January 1938 (the calculation is dated 21 January 1938) and put it into series production the same year, at first in small numbers. Only after the outbreak of war did lots reach several hundred, increasingly for the Praktiflex as well. JAPB, by contrast, has this early version in Exakta mount only. No end date for the 4cm engraving has been published, and the Praktiflex lenses of those years are not entered as a variant here (see the table notes).
M42, slim aluminium barrel (postwar, f/4.5–22): Kröger: after the war the lens stayed in the programme and was made in fairly large numbers, at first from lens sets still in stock and then to the new calculation of 1948, and the first postwar mount was a slim aluminium one. An M42 lens cannot be older than the thread itself: camera-wiki dates the 42 mm thread on the Praktiflex to about 1947, and Kröger calls a Tessar 3,5/5 cm of March 1948 one of the first lenses with it. No source dates the end of this barrel. Flashback Camera bought its example in Germany in August 2022, says its previous owner lived near Leipzig, and gives only the last three digits of its number, 700.
M42, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16): Kröger: the later mount shared the M49 filter thread that had become standard on Jena's new preset mounts, but the Tessar 4,5/40 never got a preset diaphragm, which would not have suited its place as an inexpensive "wide-angle" for amateurs. JAPB calls this the late version, gives it f/4.5–16 and 0.4 m, dates it to the late 1940s and lists it in Exakta, M42 and Praktina mounts. Every numbered M42 example found is in this barrel: 3830179, offered by the dealer Foto Fischer of Landau at 139 € in September 2026; 3830212, offered with body 2159 in July 2026; and 3936231, offered at 99 € in May 2023 in an estate lot with Contax D 65607. All three fall in Carl Zeiss Jena's 1952–55 number block.
Exakta, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16): JAPB's data sheet is built on this lens and dates the version 1948–1955. On the Exakta the Tessar stayed in the programme after the war alongside the M42 lenses; JAPB also lists the slim postwar barrel in Exakta mount, but no example of it was found.

Serial-range notes

3000000–4000000 (1945–1955): THE RULE. Carl Zeiss Jena numbered every lens in one running sequence, so a Tessar 4,5/40 is dated from the company's block table, not from a list for this model. Camera-wiki's postwar table: 3,000,000–3,200,000 for 1945–49, 3,200,000–3,470,000 for 1949–52 and 3,470,000–4,000,000 for 1952–55, with 4,000,000–5,000,000 for 1955–58. Kröger explains that Jena allotted a block of numbers to each production lot when it was ordered, and that a lot could be assembled months after a later-numbered one, so a number dates a lens only roughly. He says the last 2,000 Tessars 4,5/40 were assembled at the end of 1955.
3830179, 3830212, 3936231: The three numbered M42 lenses found, all in the barrel-shaped 49 mm mount and all in the 1952–55 block. 3830179 and 3830212 are 33 numbers apart. 3830212 came with body 2159, which carries a 'Contax D' nameplate and which its seller calls an early S. Kröger places S no. 1034 in December 1949, the month the 1,000th S was celebrated, so 2159 is an early body and the lens, from the 1952–55 block, is most likely younger than it. 3936231 came in an estate lot with Contax D 65607 and its boxed accessories.

Specifications

Formula: Tessar
Construction: 4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range: f/4.5
Filter: 49 mm (M42, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16), Exakta, barrel-shaped mount with 49 mm filter (f/4.5–16))
Years manufactured: 1938–1955
Country: Germany (Carl Zeiss Jena); East Germany from 1949
Coating: T-coated postwar lenses are documented: Flashback Camera describes its slim M42 lens as T-coated, and M42 lenses 3830179 and 3936231 carry the red T on the front ring. Lens 3830212, 33 numbers from 3830179, shows no T in its seller's photograph. No source consulted says whether the prewar 4cm lenses were coated
Material: Aluminium barrel on every version (JAPB; Flashback Camera)
Original price: 184 Mark (DDR) for the lens alone: the 1956 entry in Marco Kröger's table of DDR retail prices, which he compiled from receipts and catalogues; his Tessar history gives the same 184 Mark as its price in the 1950s. No prewar or US price found.

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Optical formula — Tessar

Kröger's ray-trace drawing of the Tessar 4,5/40 mm (1938/48): f' = 41.24 mm, back focus 36.38 mm, glass length 9.78 mm; and his element drawing with the glasses SK4, LF1, KzF2 and SK10

History

Carl Zeiss Jena’s Tessar 4,5/40 is the lens Jena made for the 35mm reflex camera’s first problem with short focal lengths: the swinging mirror needs room behind the lens, and the wide-angles Zeiss had built for rangefinder cameras sat almost on the shutter. Marco Kröger, who works from the Jena calculation records, dates the calculation to January 1938, for Ihagee’s Kiné-Exakta. On the 43.3 mm diagonal of the 35mm frame, he points out, 40 mm is no real wide-angle. It was simply the shortest focal length the mirror would allow, and it gave only about ten degrees more than the standard lens. His drawing shows why: the real focal length is 41.24 mm, the back focus 36.38 mm, and the whole optical unit is less than 10 mm long, a tiny Tessar sitting well forward of the film. Kröger knows of no other Tessar 1:4.5 built to Reichspatent 463,739 of 1926, the design behind Jena’s wide-angle Tessars 1:3.5. The lens went into series production in 1938 in small numbers, and lots of several hundred came only after the outbreak of war, more and more of them for the Praktiflex.

The lens survived the war. Kröger says it was made in fairly large numbers afterwards, first from lens sets still in stock and then to a data sheet completed on 20 April 1948. That sheet lists the glasses by actual melts rather than catalogue values (SK4, LF1, KzF2 and SK10 in his drawing), and Kröger reads it as most probably the 1938 design recomputed for the glass then available, not a new one. The Praktiflex’s change to a 42 mm thread, which camera-wiki dates to about 1947 and Kröger illustrates with a Tessar 3,5/5 cm of March 1948, made it a lens for the Dresden Contax S as well. Until the Flektogon 2,8/35, shown at the Leipzig spring fair of March 1950 and first made in a lot of 50 that July, it was Jena’s only lens wider than the standard for a 35mm reflex; JAPB calls it the widest SLR lens of those years. JAPB adds that the Flektogon long stayed beyond amateur budgets, and Kröger places the Tessar as the inexpensive “wide-angle” for amateurs, at 184 Mark in the 1950s. No source consulted shows the Tessar catalogued with the S itself, but it turns up with the line’s bodies: no. 3936231 came in a Berlin estate with a Contax D and its boxed accessories, and no. 3830212 with body 2159, a low-numbered camera with a Contax D nameplate.

The versions differ in barrel, not optics. The prewar lens is engraved “Tessar 1:4,5 f=4cm” and has an aperture scale running to f/32. The first postwar barrel is a slim aluminium one, narrower at the front than at the mount, stopping down to f/22. Flashback Camera’s M42 example, T-coated and scaled in metres, weighs 70 g. The later barrel is fatter in the middle and takes a 49 mm filter, the size Jena’s new preset lenses had standardised on. It has an aperture ring at the front marked to f/16 and focuses to 0.4 m. JAPB measured an Exakta example of the mid-1950s at 34.8 × 60.0 mm and 121 g, with ten straight blades and a focus throw of 310°. Kröger notes that this lens never got the preset ring of its stablemates: every version has one aperture ring and is stopped down by hand, whatever the body. JAPB dates the fat barrel to the late 1940s and lists it for the Exakta, M42 and the Praktina; the three M42 lenses with full published numbers are all in it and all from Jena’s 1952–55 block, and one of them, 3830212, lacks the red T the other two carry. No Praktina or Praktiflex example of this lens was found.

Kröger and JAPB both tie the end to Görlitz. Meyer-Optik had long offered its own Helioplan 4,5/40, but in 1955 it showed the Primagon 4,5/35, a true wide-angle of over 60 degrees, and sold it from the spring of 1956 for 165 Mark. Jena assembled its last 2,000 Tessars 4,5/40 at the end of 1955, and Kröger’s table of DDR retail prices still lists the lens at 184 Mark for 1956. In Kröger’s words, the era of makeshift lenses for the reflex camera was over, and the era of the retrofocus wide-angle had begun.

For a buyer, the first thing to check on an M42 lens is the rim behind the thread. Kröger explains that it tapers to help the lens find the thread, and that it fouls the diaphragm pusher of later bodies: the Praktica FX2 of 1956 had to make its release switchable, and from the Praktica L of 1969 onward the lens jams the camera. Many have since had the rim cut away or notched, more or less neatly, and Kröger says the change is also needed on the Praktica B’s M42 adapter and on some adapters for digital cameras. The Contax S, D and E have no diaphragm release in the mirror box for the rim to foul: Kröger names the Contax F of 1956 as the first of the line to get one. Whether the rim touches the release of the F and its successors is not recorded. Date the lens by its number against Jena’s block table before treating it as original to a body: a postwar lens numbered near 3,800,000 is a lens of 1952–55, whatever camera it now sits on. Keep it apart from three lenses that share its numbers: Meyer’s Helioplan 4,5/40, the Rollei 35’s Tessar 40mm f/3.5, and the large-format Tessar 4,5/40 cm, a 400 mm lens. Asking prices in Germany in 2026 ran from 139 € for a dealer-checked M42 lens with a year’s warranty to 170 € with a body; the Contax D estate lot with the lens and its boxed accessories was offered at 99 € in 2023.

Left open by the sources consulted here: when the slim barrel gave way to the 49 mm one, how many were made in all and how they divide between the Exakta, Praktiflex and M42 mounts, whether a Praktina version was ever sold, whether the prewar 4cm lenses were coated, and any launch price before the 1950s.

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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.

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