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Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (Praktisix)

Carl Zeiss Jena · Pentacon Six · 1956

Also known as: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 80mm f/2.8 Praktisix · Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2,8/80 Praktisix · Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 80mm f2.8 Pentacon Six · Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2,8/80mm Pentacon Six · CZJ Tessar 80mm Praktisix · CZJ Tessar 80mm Pentacon Six · Zeiss Jena Tessar 80mm Pentacon Six · Tessar 80 2.8 Praktisix · Tessar 2,8/80 Praktisix · Tessar 2.8/80 Praktisix · Tessar 80mm Praktisix · Tessar 80mm f2.8 Praktisix · Tessar 2,8/80 Pentacon Six · Tessar 2,8/80mm Pentacon Six · Tessar 2.8/80 Pentacon Six · Tessar 2.8/80mm Pentacon Six · Tessar 80mm Pentacon Six · Tessar 80mm f2.8 Pentacon Six · Tessar 80mm F2.8 Pentacon Six · Tessar 80mm f/2.8 P6 · Tessar 80mm f2.8 P6 · Tessar 80 P6 · Tessar 2,8/80 P6 · Tessar 80mm Pentacon 6

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Tessar 2,8/80 with fully automatic diaphragm, Praktisix breech-lock Praktisix (the breech-lock later shared by the Pentacon Six) 1956–1958 — Over 11,000 called for between June 1956 and February 1958 (Kröger); 'several thousand' produced between 1956 and 1958 (pentaconsix.com)
  1. Specifications: pentaconsix.com's data table gives automatic diaphragm, 1.0 m, M58 × 0.75 filter, 50 mm long and 240 g, leaves the angle of view blank, and says its figures are drawn from published sources. Kröger gives about 54° as the angle the 80mm Tessar had to cover on 6×6. None of the sources cited gives the blade count, minimum aperture or diameter.
  2. Elements and groups: Kröger and pentaconsix.com both call it the four-element Tessar, and Kröger describes its cemented group; the three-group count follows from the Tessar construction, not from a document that states it for this lens.
  3. Production: Kröger says over 11,000 were called for ('gefordert') between June 1956 and February 1958, which is an order quantity rather than a confirmed output; pentaconsix.com says several thousand were produced between 1956 and 1958. Both are kept.
  4. Calculation date: pentaconsix.com and Kröger's list of postwar Jena calculations give 7 July 1950. Kröger notes that the data sheet completed in June 1951, naming the Meister-Korelle as its use, strangely carries that 1950 date again, although the line he traces runs on from V72 and V72a (calculated 1 December 1949), V85 and V86 (July 1950) to sheet 550104B (24 January 1951), the first with KF5 in the rear negative. Data sheet 550104D (May 1952) and 550104E (February 1956, for the Praktisix diaphragm) are later executions of the same lens.
  5. Prices: the sources cited give no separate price for the lens. Kröger's compilation of DDR price lists gives the Praktisix with Tessar 2,8/80 at 1,032 Mark (1957), 1,028 Mark (1959) and 815 Mark (1960), against 705 Mark for the body to May 1960 and 573 Mark from June 1960; his Praktisix page gives 1,028 Mark falling to 815 Mark. These are East German retail list prices.
  6. Not on this page: the same 1950–51 Jena calculation was made in other mounts and shutters, which Kröger lists as the Meister-Korelle (first 192 lenses in July 1951), the Exakta 6×6 (several hundred made in summer 1951, later fitted with an adapter for the vertical Exakta 6×6 of 1954) and the Certo Six folding camera (at least 12,000, mostly in the Tempor leaf shutter). The Reflex-Korelle and Super Ikonta Tessar 2,8/8 cm of the 1933 calculation, the Oberkochen Zeiss-Opton Tessar 80mm f/2.8 of the Hasselblad 1600F and 1000F, and the 1933-calculation Tessars that went into the first Rolleiflex 2.8 in 1949 are different lenses with pages or listings of their own.
  7. Bodies: the breech-lock mount is the one later used by the Pentacon Six and Six TL, the Exakta 66 and Arsenal's Kiev-6S, Kiev-60 and Kiev-88CM, so the lens will mount on them; Kröger and pentaconsix.com describe it only as a Praktisix lens. None of the sources cited says whether the Exakta 66 metering prism works with it.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2,8/80 in the large Praktisix / Pentacon Six breech-lock mount, with an automatic-diaphragm barrel and a 58 mm filter thread: that combination is this lens
  • Outwardly the same as the earliest Biometar 2,8/80 (bright alloy, black leather focusing band); only the name ring tells them apart
  • Not the Oberkochen Zeiss-Opton Tessar 80mm f/2.8 of the Hasselblad 1600F/1000F, not the leaf-shutter Tessar of the Certo Six or Super Ikonta, and not the Reflex-Korelle, Meister-Korelle or Exakta 6×6 lenses, which have other mounts

Tessar 2,8/80 with fully automatic diaphragm, Praktisix breech-lock:

  • Mostly bright alloy barrel with a black leather band on the focusing ring, the style of the first postwar Jena lenses (pentaconsix.com shows an example that left the line on 27 February 1958)
  • Same mount and barrel as the first Biometar 2,8/80 of 1959: Kröger says there is practically no outward difference between the two, so read the name ring for Tessar or Biometar
  • Fully automatic spring diaphragm with a ball-bearing mechanism; the full-aperture opening was cut back by a fraction of a millimetre so that the blade tips would not show (Kröger, data sheet 550104E of February 1956)
  • M58 × 0.75 filter thread, 1.0 m closest focus, 50 mm long, 240 g (pentaconsix.com)

Serial-range notes

the whole number
Carl Zeiss Jena numbered every lens from one running sequence. camera-wiki's postwar Jena blocks are 4,000,000–5,000,000 for 1955–58 and 5,000,000–6,000,000 for 1958–61, so a Praktisix Tessar made between June 1956 and February 1958 should carry a seven-digit number in the 4 millions or at the very start of the 5 millions. No batch list with serial ranges for this lens is given in the sources cited here; Hartmut Thiele's Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik is the source that would settle it.

Specifications

Formula
Tessar: four elements, the rear pair cemented (three groups). Kröger describes the 1950–51 Jena calculation as an unusual Tessar with the cemented group reversed, lanthanum crown glass (SK21) in place of the earlier SSK5, and crown-flint KF5 in the rear negative element
Designed by
Harry Zöllner — head of the photo-optics department at Carl Zeiss Jena, whose computing office produced the 1950–51 Tessar 2,8/80 calculation (Kröger)
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/2.8
Min. focus
1 m
Dimensions
50 mm long
Weight
240 g
Filter
58 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1956–1958
Country
East Germany (VEB Carl Zeiss Jena)
Original price
No price for the lens alone is given in the sources cited. Praktisix with Tessar 2,8/80: 1,032 Mark (1957), 1,028 Mark (1959), 815 Mark (1960), East German retail list prices compiled by Marco Kröger; the body alone was 705 Mark to May 1960 and 573 Mark from June 1960.

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

Optical formula — Tessar: four elements, the rear pair cemented (three groups). Kröger describes the 1950–51 Jena calculation as an unusual Tessar with the cemented group reversed, lanthanum crown glass (SK21) in place of the earlier SSK5, and crown-flint KF5 in the rear negative element

History

The Tessar 2,8/80 was the Carl Zeiss Jena standard lens the Praktisix was first delivered with after Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz showed the camera at Photokina in 1956, sold alongside Meyer-Optik’s cheaper Primotar E 3,5/80. It was not a new design. Marco Kröger, working from the Jena data sheets, traces it to a run of trial calculations made in 1949–51 to replace the prewar Tessar 2,8/8 cm, first for Franke & Heidecke’s Rolleiflex and then, once Braunschweig was lost as a customer, for East German cameras. The result, which Jena’s calculation list dates to 7 July 1950, used the new lanthanum crown glass and, unusually for a Tessar, a reversed cemented group. Before the Praktisix it went into the Meister-Korelle from July 1951, the Exakta 6×6 and the Certo Six folding camera. For the Praktisix it got a new barrel with the fully automatic spring diaphragm, on a data sheet of February 1956. Kröger says the diaphragm ran on ball bearings to close fast enough, and that the full aperture was cut back slightly so the blade tips would not show.

Kröger says over 11,000 were ordered for the Praktisix between June 1956 and February 1958, an order figure rather than a count of finished lenses. pentaconsix.com says several thousand were produced between 1956 and 1958, and gives February 1958 as the last month the Tessar was made in Praktisix mount. The two sources give different reasons for the change. pentaconsix.com says the makers thought the camera would sell better with a more prestigious standard lens than the four-element Tessar. As Kröger reads the factory record, residual spherical aberration made the lens shift focus as it was stopped down. On a camera that is always focused at full aperture and stops down only at the moment of exposure, that error affected nearly every frame. Kröger writes that Harry Zöllner, head of the photo-optics department, used this to convince Zeiss officials to drop the Tessar for a new Biometar, and his Biometar patent, filed in January 1957, compares its coma with that of “the lens of quite good reputation used until now”, which Kröger identifies as this Tessar. Kröger adds that the story of Zöllner fighting party officials who wanted to keep the Tessar name circulated at the time, but that the Biometar’s uncertain patent position was probably the bigger obstacle. He describes the lens as truly weak at f/2.8, turning from a soft-focus lens into the familiar crisp Tessar between f/4 and f/5.6. The Biometar took over in spring 1959. Price lists still show a Praktisix with the Tessar in 1959 (1,028 Mark) and after the 1960 price cut (815 Mark), which suggests outfits went on selling from stock.

There is only one version. pentaconsix.com shows an example that left the line on 27 February 1958: mostly bright alloy with a black leather band on the focusing ring, the style of Jena’s first postwar lenses. The same site lists it at 1.0 m closest focus, an M58 × 0.75 filter thread, 50 mm long and 240 g. The first Biometars of 1959 used the same barrel and finish, and Kröger says there is practically no outward difference, so read the name ring before paying Biometar money or Tessar money. A Praktisix offered with an 80mm lens may carry either, or a later lens. pentaconsix.com shows a Tessar on a Praktisix II made years after the Tessar stopped. Sellers often describe it as a Pentacon Six lens, because the Praktisix breech-lock is the mount the Pentacon Six, the Exakta 66 and the Kiev-6S, 60 and 88CM later shared. Other Tessar 80/2.8s turn up beside it: the Certo Six and Super Ikonta leaf-shutter lenses, Reflex- and Meister-Korelle lenses, and the Oberkochen Zeiss-Opton Tessar of the Hasselblad 1600F and 1000F. None of these has the large breech-lock mount.

When buying, check that the automatic diaphragm snaps shut and reopens cleanly at every setting. Kröger describes the ball-bearing mechanism as unusually elaborate for so economical a lens type, and a lens nearly seventy years old may need it serviced. Also check the leather band for lifting or shrinkage. Do not buy it to shoot wide open: on Kröger’s evidence it is soft at f/2.8 and sharpens up between f/4 and f/5.6. None of the sources cited gives a production list with serial ranges, a separate lens price, a blade count or a lens section for the Praktisix version itself. Hartmut Thiele’s Jena production book, which pentaconsix.com and Kröger both cite, is where batch numbers would be confirmed.

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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.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (Praktisix)? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $260 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $230–$260). First day tracked.

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

Related: Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (1600F/1000F) · Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (Rolleiflex 2.8A) · Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (6×6, 1956 design)

Sources (9)

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.