Triotar 135mm f/4

Carl Zeiss Jena · M42 + Exakta · 1938 · Triplet: three single elements in three groups

our own finding

Also known as: Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 135mm f/4 · Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 4/135 · Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 4/135mm · Zeiss Jena Triotar 135mm · Triotar 4/135 · Triotar 4/135mm · Triotar4/135 · Triotar 4_135mm · Triotar 4.0/135 · Triotar 4,0/135 · Triotar 135mm f/4 · Triotar 135mm f4 · Triotar 135mm · Triotar 135 · Triotar 1:4 f=13,5cm · Triotar 13,5cm · Triotar 13.5cm f/4 · Triotar 1:4/135 · Triotar 4/135 rotT · Jena Tr 1:4 f=135 · Tr 1:4 f=135 · トリオター 135mm F4

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
M42, manual diaphragm, straight barrel	M42	—	3283919 — red T, M42, front ring 'Carl Zeiss Jena Nr. 3283919 Triotar 1:4 f=13,5cm' (Kleinanzeigen, October 2026)	—
M42 preset, scalloped barrel	M42	—	3774640 — red T, screw-thread rear, metre scale only (Kleinanzeigen, August 2026) 3789392 — red T, M42 per the seller, in a leather case (Kleinanzeigen, December 2025) 4005767 — red T, with original caps; M42 in the Commons record's depicted items (Alexey Kurochkin's photographs)	—
Exakta bayonet	Exakta	—	—	—
Praktina bayonet, preset	Praktina bayonet	—	—	—
Export engraving 'Tr 1:4 f=135 … Jena'	M42	—	4668970 — sold with a Pentacon F and a Primotar E 3.5/50 (Kleinanzeigen, October 2026)	—
Stopping down to f/45, for Ihagee's Vielzweckgerät and Kolpophot	Not stated: sold as part of Ihagee's Vielzweckgerät for the Exakta	1955–1960	—	—

Optics and filter. Three elements in three groups (JAPB; Ihagee's list of November 1957 gives 3 separate elements, an 18.5° field and a 49 mm screw-in filter, that of June 1956 the filter alone). Kröger writes that the design was created in 1938 and calculated again a year later; no source consulted says how a lens of the first calculation can be told from one of the second, or whether both were produced. No designer is named.
Closest focus and length disagree between the three examples on record. JAPB's Praktina lens focuses to 1.1 m and is 125.5 mm long; the Heimatmuseum Alten records 1.5 m and 142 × 60 mm for its preset lens of the 1950s, without naming the mount; the distance scale of no. 4730793 runs to 1.2 m. The page gives no family figure for either.
Dates. Kröger: designed in 1938, recalculated in 1939, and stopped the year after the Sonnar 4/135 was offered for the reflex mounts in 1957. JAPB: 1938 to about 1959 for all versions, the Sonnar coming to the SLR around 1956. The DDR price list still sells the lens at 238 Mark until May 1960 and the remaining stock at 167 Mark (172.30 with quiver) from June 1960. Ihagee's West German list has replaced it with the Sonnar by October 1958. No prewar Triotar 4/135 with a dated number was found, so the start rests on Kröger and JAPB.
A counterpoint to Kröger's account of the Sonnar being kept for Zeiss Ikon cameras: the US Kine Exakta price list effective 1 March 1939 offers a "Zeiss Sonnar F/4 13.5cm" for the Kine Exakta at $130.00 on special import order, alongside the Triotar F/4 8.5cm, and lists no Triotar 13.5cm. Kröger himself shows a Jena Sonnar 4/135 of 1949, from a series of 600 made for the Contax rangefinder, that was refitted at the factory for the Exakta.
Exakta 66 and Leica thread. JAPB names both as rare mounts of the Triotar 135, and the ihagee.org Exakta lens list records one manual Triotar 4/135 for the horizontal Exakta 66. No example of either was found, so neither is a variant here.
Prices. DDR: 232 Mark in 1957, 238 Mark to May 1960, 167 Mark for remaining stock from June 1960 (Kröger's transcription of the DDR price lists). West Germany: DM 286.40 in Ihagee's Exakta lists of April 1955 and June 1956, DM 275 in November 1957. Kleinanzeigen asking prices in 2025–26 ran from 23 € to 150 €.

How to tell them apart (expand)

A long, slim aluminium lens: about half as long again as the Sonnar 4/135 that replaced it (Kröger), with its three elements at the front of the tube
f/4 to f/22, 49 mm screw-in filter, three elements; only the Vielzweckgerät version closes further, to f/45
The engraving dates it: 'Triotar 1:4 f=13,5cm' on the early straight barrel; 'Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 4/135' with a red T on the scalloped preset barrel; no T on the latest lenses; 'Tr 1:4 f=135 … Jena' on export lenses
Not the Triotar 8.5cm f/4 for the Contax and the Exakta, the 7.5cm of the Rolleicord, or the Triotar 40mm f/3.5 of the Rollei 35 B, C and LED

M42, manual diaphragm, straight barrel:

Straight tube with finely knurled, lengthwise-ribbed rings, as JAPB describes the early version
One knurled aperture ring carries the scale f/4–22 and turns against a fixed red index: the seller's photographs show it set at f/4 and at f/5.6. There is no separate preset ring
Focal length engraved in centimetres: 'Triotar 1:4 f=13,5cm', with 'Nr.' before the number and a red T
Distance scale in black metres and red feet; 'Germany' on the barrel

M42 preset, scalloped barrel:

The barrel widens toward a scalloped (notched) focusing grip midway down the lens
Preset diaphragm: twin rings at the front of the lens (JAPB's 'dual aperture rings'), with the scale f/4–22 and a red index mark
Front ring reads 'Carl Zeiss Jena', 'Triotar 4/135', a red T and the number, with no 'Nr.': the focal length is now in millimetres
Metre-only distance scale on nos. 3774425, 3774640 and 4005767; GERMANY engraved near the rear

Exakta bayonet:

Exakta bayonet at the rear in place of the 42mm thread
Ihagee's West German price lists give it as preset ('BV'), 49 mm screw-in filter ('49 E'), three elements and 18.5° field
The ihagee.org Exakta lens list records the Triotar 4/135 for the Kine Exakta bayonet with both manual and preset diaphragms

Praktina bayonet, preset:

Praktina bayonet at the rear; preset diaphragm with twin rings and the scalloped focusing grip
JAPB's measured example, dated 1952–55: 125.5 mm long from the flange at infinity, 63.8 mm across, 49 mm filter, 461 g, 15 straight blades, f/4–22 without click stops, 1.1 m closest focus (1:6.0), 320° focusing throw

Export engraving 'Tr 1:4 f=135 … Jena':

Front ring reads 'Tr 1:4 f=135', 'Nr 4668970' and 'Jena': neither 'Carl Zeiss' nor 'Triotar' appears, and there is no T
Scalloped preset barrel with red feet and black metre scales

Stopping down to f/45, for Ihagee's Vielzweckgerät and Kolpophot:

A Triotar 1:4/135 whose diaphragm closes to f/45 ('mit enger Blende 45', 'abblendbar bis Blende 45')

M42, manual diaphragm, straight barrel: JAPB describes the earliest Triotars as manual-aperture lenses on a straight tube with lengthwise ribbed grips, and the later ones as presets with a scalloped focusing grip. The one straight-barrel M42 lens seen, no. 3283919, is numbered in Jena's 1949–52 band, so the straight barrel was still being made when the 42mm thread arrived with the Praktica and the Contax S. Its seller reports a clean aperture and smooth focusing but light deposits on the inner glass surfaces.
M42 preset, scalloped barrel: The type most often offered in German listings in 2025–26. Sellers of nos. 3774640 and 3789392 both describe stiff rings, the second after years unused ("geht leider alles sehr schwergängig"; "Blende und Zoom etwas schwergängig (ewig nicht benutzt)"). The red T and the metre-only scale belong to the earlier preset lenses; see the serial notes for the later engraving and scale.
Exakta bayonet: Probably the first mount. Kröger and JAPB tie the 1938 design to the 35mm reflex, and Ihagee's Kine Exakta, made in Dresden from 1936 (camera-wiki), is the likeliest camera for it; the ihagee.org list records manual as well as preset Triotars for its bayonet. No prewar Exakta Triotar with a dated number has been seen, and the US Kine Exakta list of March 1939 offers the Sonnar 13.5cm, not the Triotar (see the table notes). Ihagee's own West German price lists carry it as "Carl Zeiß, Jena Triotar 1:4,0/135 mm BV" at DM 286.40 in April 1955, as "Jena Tr." at the same price in June 1956 and at DM 275 in the list of November 1957; by October 1958 the line is "S." 1:4,0/135, the Sonnar, at DM 294. No Exakta-mount example has been seen in sellers' photographs.
Praktina bayonet, preset: The lens JAPB photographs and measures for its data sheet. JAPB gives no serial number for it. Its 1.1 m closest focus is shorter than the 1.5 m the Heimatmuseum Alten records for its preset Triotar; see the table notes.
Export engraving 'Tr 1:4 f=135 … Jena': Camera-wiki's Exakta Varex page says that after 1954 Jena replaced the brand Carl Zeiss Jena with C.Z. Jena, Jena or aus Jena, and the lens names with letters: B, Bm, S, T and Tr. JAPB gives the reason: Jena could, with few exceptions, not use the Carl Zeiss name on exports to the West. The full name was still engraved in the same years (no. 4730793 reads Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar). Ihagee's West German Exakta lists show the change for this lens: "Carl Zeiß, Jena Triotar" in April 1955, "Jena Tr." from June 1956. The one example seen came in a Pentacon F outfit; the listing does not state its mount, and the M42 thread is assumed from the camera it was sold with.
Stopping down to f/45, for Ihagee's Vielzweckgerät and Kolpophot: Sold by Ihagee in West Germany. In April 1955 it appears only in the Kolpophot, a bellows outfit named for colposcopy, at DM 241.50. From June 1956 it is part 13 of the Vielzweckgerät, the column stand used with the Exakta for close-up, copying and microscope work, and part of the Kolpophot combination too: DM 332.25 in 1956, 1957 and October 1958, DM 279.30 in April 1960. The DDR price list carries a preset Triotar "abblendbar bis 1:45" at 205 Mark from June 1960, and a complete Exakta Kolpofot "inkl. Triotar mit enger Blende" at 588.60 Mark in 1960. Neither list gives its mount, and no example was found; whether its optics differ from the ordinary lens is not recorded. The years are those of the lists, not of manufacture.

Serial-range notes

the whole number: Carl Zeiss Jena numbered every lens in one running sequence, so a Triotar is dated against the company's bands and not by counting within the model. Camera-wiki, after Wilkinson and Glanfield, gives 2,267,991–2,527,984 for 1938 and 2,527,999–2,651,211 for 1939, and for postwar Jena 3,000,000–3,200,000 = 1945–49, 3,200,000–3,470,000 = 1949–52, 3,470,000–4,000,000 = 1952–55, 4,000,000–5,000,000 = 1955–58 and 5,000,000–6,000,000 = 1958–61. Batches were not always used in order, so a number places a lens within a year or two.
3283919: 1949–52 band. The straight-barrel M42 lens with a single aperture ring, engraved 'Triotar 1:4 f=13,5cm' with 'Nr.' before the number, red T, metre and feet scales.
3774425, 3774640, 3789392, 4004650, 4005767: 1952–55 and early 1955–58 bands. All the scalloped preset barrel with 'Triotar 4/135' and a red T on the front ring; nos. 3774425, 3774640 and 4005767 have a metre-only distance scale. No. 3774425 was offered in July 2026 at 150 € VB, no. 4004650 in August 2026 at 30 € VB.
4668970, 4730793: Later in the 1955–58 band. No T on the front ring, and a red feet scale added beside the black metre scale. No. 4730793 still reads 'Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 4/135' and its distance scale runs to 1.2 m (4 ft); no. 4668970 is the export lens engraved only 'Tr 1:4 f=135' and 'Jena'. No Triotar numbered in the 1958–61 band was found, which fits Kröger's end of production in 1958.

Specifications

Formula: Triplet: three single elements in three groups
Construction: 3 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range: f/4–f/22
Filter: 49 mm
Years manufactured: 1938
Country: Germany (Jena; East Germany from 1949)
Coating: The earliest lenses are uncoated and a red T marks the coated ones (JAPB); the T is on every lens seen from the 1949–52 serial band into the 1955–58 band, and gone from the latest ones
Material: Aluminium barrel on the postwar lenses (the Heimatmuseum Alten records aluminium and plastic)
Original price: 232 Mark (DDR retail, preset, 1957), 238 Mark to May 1960 and 167 Mark for remaining stock from June 1960 (DDR price lists, transcribed by Marco Kröger); DM 286.40 in Ihagee's West German Exakta lists of April 1955 and June 1956, DM 275 in November 1957. No US or Japanese price found.

What reviewers say

Marco Kröger (zeissikonveb.de) (blog) — An outstanding lens that gets everything out of a triplet that a triplet can give, but about half as long again as the Sonnar 4/135, its three elements sitting at the very front of a tube that otherwise holds only air; as a long lens to carry everywhere it is unwieldy, which he suggests Jena recognised in 1957 when it went back to the Sonnar. via machine translation — corrections welcome

History

The Triotar 4/135 is the long lens Carl Zeiss Jena made for the 35mm reflex before the Sonnar came to it: a three-element triplet of 135 mm and f/4, taking a 49 mm filter, built for the Exakta bayonet, the 42mm thread of the Praktica and the Contax S line, and the Praktina. Marco Kröger (zeissikonveb.de) dates the design to 1938, when Jena began making lenses for the new 35mm single-lens reflexes, and says it was calculated again a year later. He calls it the most puzzling 35mm lens Jena made, because Zeiss already had a 135mm f/4, Ludwig Bertele’s Sonnar of 1931 for the Contax rangefinder. His explanation lies in how the Zeiss group was organised. The Sonnar had been designed at the Zeiss Ikon subsidiary in Dresden, in the old Ernemann works, and as he sees it was kept almost entirely for Zeiss Ikon’s own cameras. When Jena supplied other camera makers it used designs from its own office: the Biotar where Zeiss Ikon used the fast Sonnar normals, the Triotar for the long Sonnars. Kröger says that arrangement came apart only in the 1950s. Two exceptions cut across it: in March 1939 Ihagee’s American importer offered a Zeiss Sonnar 13.5cm f/4 for the Kine Exakta, on special order, and Kröger himself shows a Jena Sonnar 4/135 of 1949, made for the Contax rangefinder, that the factory refitted for the Exakta.

The end came quickly once the Sonnar arrived. Kröger writes that in 1957 the Sonnar 4/135 was offered in the reflex mounts, still to Bertele’s 1937 calculation, and that the Triotar was stopped the following year. The price lists broadly agree. The DDR list prices the preset Triotar at 232 Mark in 1957 and 238 Mark until May 1960, then sells off the remaining stock at 167 Mark. In West Germany, Ihagee’s Exakta lists carry it at DM 286.40 in 1955 and 1956 and DM 275 in November 1957, and by October 1958 the Sonnar has taken its place at DM 294. JAPB gives about 1959 as the end for every version. One version outlived the rest: a Triotar that stops down to f/45, sold by Ihagee as part of its Vielzweckgerät, the column stand used with the Exakta for close-up and copying, and of its Kolpophot, a bellows outfit named for colposcopy. It appears in Ihagee’s lists from April 1955 to April 1960, and the DDR list still prices it at 205 Mark from June 1960.

There are two barrels, and the engraving changes with them. JAPB describes the earlier lenses as having a manual diaphragm on a straight tube, the earliest of them uncoated, and the later ones as presets whose barrel widens toward a scalloped focusing grip. The straight barrel was still being made after the war. An M42 lens numbered 3283919, in Jena’s 1949–52 band, has it: one knurled aperture ring with no preset, a red T, and the front ring “Carl Zeiss Jena Nr. 3283919 Triotar 1:4 f=13,5cm”. From numbers in the 1952–55 band onward, every lens seen has the preset barrel and reads “Triotar 4/135” with a red T. The latest ones seen, from later in the 1955–58 band, drop the T and add a red feet scale beside the metres. Lenses for the West lost the Carl Zeiss name during the trademark dispute with Oberkochen. Ihagee’s list of April 1955 still prints “Carl Zeiß, Jena Triotar”, while its June 1956 list says “Jena Tr.”. A lens numbered 4668970, sold with a Pentacon F, reads only “Tr 1:4 f=135” and “Jena”. JAPB lists Exakta and M42 as the common mounts, and measured a Praktina lens of 1952–55 at 125.5 mm long and 461 g, with a 15-blade diaphragm and 1.1 m closest focus. It also names the Exakta 66 and the Leica thread as rare mounts, but no example of either was found.

Kröger rates the lens highly as optics. In his words it gets out of a triplet everything a triplet can give. His complaint is its size: it is about half as long again as the Sonnar that replaced it, because the three elements sit at the very front and the rest of the tube holds only air. As a long lens to carry all the time, he finds it unwieldy. He suspects Jena reached the same view in 1957, when it went back to the Sonnar.

Triotars are cheap: in 2025–26, German sellers asked between 23 € and 150 €. Sellers report stiff focusing and aperture rings on lenses left unused for years, and one reports light deposits on the inner glass surfaces. On a preset lens, check that the preset ring really stops the diaphragm at the value set. Check the mount, too. The M42 lens has a plain thread and the Exakta lens a bayonet, and a Praktina lens needs a Praktina body or adapter. Closest focus differs between examples: 1.1 m on JAPB’s Praktina lens, 1.2 m on the scale of no. 4730793 and 1.5 m in a museum record, so check the scale on the lens itself. A listing titled only “Triotar” may be another lens of the name: the 8.5cm f/4 for the Contax and the Exakta, the 7.5cm of the Rolleicord, or the 40mm f/3.5 fixed to the Rollei 35 B, C and LED.

The sources consulted leave several questions open. They do not say how the 1938 and 1939 calculations differ or whether both were made, give no production figures by mount, and date no prewar example. Nor do they say what mount the f/45 version had or whether its optics differ, and no Exakta 66 or Leica-thread lens has been seen in photographs.

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 taken with the Triotar 135mm f/4 — Triotar 4/135 no. 4005767 with its original caps: 'Carl Zeiss Jena', 'Triotar 4/135' and the red T on the front ring — Alexey V. Kurochkin, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Triotar 135mm f/4? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 13.5cm f4 Chrome Lens Exakta Mount — $45.00 · Cardinal Camera (Used) · likely exakta
Leica TM CZJ Triotar T 13.5cm/4 #3124432, c.1948, RF coupled, caps, Ex — $145.00 · Igor Camera Exchange
Zeiss Jena for Leica M39 Triotar 4/135mm red T lens coupled Leica Screw Mount (LTM) — €199.00 · Arsenal Photo
Carl Zeiss カールツァイス Triotar 135mm F4 M42 — from ¥35,800 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-10-30
E28[7864]3 カールツァイス Carl Zeiss Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar T 135mm F4 — from ¥13,360 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-10-30

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-10-30. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.