East German Zeiss lenses are some of the best-value glass you can adapt. They also come in a confusing spread of names, finishes and mounts, because the same factory sold them under different labels in different countries and kept changing the barrels. This guide shows you how to read the engraving, the barrel and the mount so you know roughly when a lens was made and which version you're buying.
Two Zeiss companies
Carl Zeiss was founded in Jena in 1846. After the Second World War, Jena ended up in East Germany and the company split in two. The original works carried on in Jena as a state enterprise, VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, and a new Carl Zeiss company was set up in Oberkochen in West Germany.
Both claimed the name for decades. German Wikipedia says the two sides settled in the London Agreement of 1 October 1971. Under it, Jena products sold outside the Eastern bloc carried the name aus Jena, meaning from Jena, and in some countries the plain words Jena or West Germany told the two apart. English Wikipedia shows a 1967 Flektogon engraved simply Jena, made for export to West Germany. Camera-wiki adds that in the West the Jena lenses also lost their famous names and used abbreviations, such as T for Tessar and S for Sonnar. The two Zeiss foundations merged again in 1992.
So a lens marked aus Jena, or just Jena with a T or S, is an East German Zeiss lens made for export. It isn't a fake, and it's the same factory as a lens engraved Carl Zeiss Jena. The West German lenses for the Contax/Yashica mount, made from the 1970s with Yashica, are a separate line from Oberkochen. Camera-wiki notes some names belong to only one side. Pancolar, Flektogon and Biometar are Jena names, and Distagon is an Oberkochen name.
The Pancolar shows how the barrels changed
The Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 is the best documented Jena lens, thanks to Marco Kröger's history of the factory, and it's a good guide to the eras.
- First version, 1965 to 1970. Made only in the zebra style, with bands of bright metal on a black barrel, and only in M42. It's shorter than the later lens. Kröger says its heavy crown glass needed thorium dioxide in four of its six elements and that it yellows strongly with age.
- Second version, from 1970. A new design calculated in 1967, using a different glass with far less thorium. German Wikipedia says it was made without optical changes until 1986, focuses down to 35cm, and gained multi-coating, marked MC, from 1976.
- MC versions. Kröger says the multi-coated Pancolars all have fully black barrels. The earliest, from January 1976, still used zebra-era aperture parts, most were made in a middle style, and a third, shorter barrel comes from the last years of East Germany.
Small details help too. Kröger notes that late zebra Pancolars and the first MC ones had the name printed on the front ring instead of engraved, though the serial number was always engraved. Lenses built with electrical contacts for Praktica's metering got the word electric engraved on the MC versions. Zebra lenses with those contacts weren't marked.
That gives a useful rule for the Pancolar. Zebra means late 1960s or early 1970s, and an all-black barrel with MC means 1976 or later. We haven't found the same dates documented for every Jena lens, so treat it as a Pancolar rule and check the lens page for others. If you're after the yellowing first version, see our guide to thoriated glass.
Check the mount as well as the name
German Wikipedia says Jena made these lenses for the M42 thread and for the Praktina and Exakta bayonets. From 1978 they were also made for the new Praktica B bayonet under the name Prakticar, and Praktica switched its cameras to that mount in 1979. Kröger says the Jena Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 in Praktica B mount was only made from February 1979 to June 1982.
That matters for adapting. An M42 lens uses a simple screw adapter. A Prakticar like the Prakticar 50mm f/1.8 needs a Praktica B adapter, and an Exakta lens needs an Exakta one. Look at the back of the lens in the photos. A thread means M42. Bayonet lugs mean you need to work out which bayonet it is.
If you're buying an auto M42 lens, the pin at the back closes the aperture only when it's pressed. Your adapter has to press it, or the lens needs a manual setting, or you'll shoot everything wide open.
Other Jena lenses you'll see
The Flektogon is Jena's line of wide angles. German Wikipedia says the first, a 35mm f/2.8, was made from 1950, developed in parallel with Angénieux's retrofocus design, and that Flektogons were made in Prakticar versions from 1978 until production ended in 1991. Our catalog covers the Flektogon 35mm f/2.4.
The Tessar dates back to 1902, when Zeiss patented Paul Rudolph's design. The Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 and Sonnar 135mm f/3.5 are common, and export copies may say T or S rather than the full name.
The Biotar 75mm f/1.5 is the older, rarer portrait lens. German Wikipedia dates the design to 1938. Its little brother, the Biotar 58mm f/2, is the lens the Soviet Helios-44 copied, which our Helios 44-2 guide covers.
Serial numbers
Collectors date Jena lenses from production lists compiled by Thiele, which Kröger's site draws on for batch dates and serial ranges. They're useful, but they don't sort versions cleanly. Kröger shows the first and second Pancolars were briefly built in parallel. Read the barrel and the markings first, and use the serial number as a cross-check.
Reading a listing
- The front ring. Carl Zeiss Jena, aus Jena, or Jena with a T or S are all East German. Carl Zeiss with T* on a Contax/Yashica lens is the West German line.
- The barrel. Zebra or all black, and whether it says MC or electric.
- The mount. A thread for M42, or a bayonet for Praktica B or Exakta.
- The glass. Ask for a flashlight photo through the lens. Our guide on how to check a used vintage lens explains what to look for.
You'll find all of these lenses on the Carl Zeiss Jena brand page, with what's for sale now.
