Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 54mm f/2 lens for OLYMPUS PEN F

Frank's warped photog. collectibles (I) This page will start a small series of  rare and nonstandard photographical stuff warped enough for keeping, showing and write about it. Of course none of the usual "collectibles" like Leica and stuff. Mostly Japanese - this is where the main part of my interest in cameras is for - because I like them most for their aesthetics, I will start this small series with a EAST GERMAN (GDR) lense...

Found 2009 in an online catalogue of a well-reputated European LEICA dealer - a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 54mm f/2.0 lens in Olympus Pen F half-frame SLR mount

For the PEN F SLR camera, build from 1963-1972 as stated in my OLYMPUS PEN F SLR Main page, very few (if any) third party lenses were made. This probably  to the following reasons: No other camera company made half frame SLRs than Olympus: Olympus hold a few important  patents for camera details; though not for lens mount and lenses. Production number was relatively small, so there was no big base for business seen Japanese third party lens makers concentrated on making lenses for main standard mounts, in the 1950's German Leica, Exakta, and M42 (Praktica/ Pentax), later on Nikon, Canon and Minolta too The PEN F SLR need lenses to special specs not used in normal SLRs: smaller flange to film distance and smaller circle of image. Lenses developed according to these specs couldn't be used as a base for other camera adaptions Olympus itself made a good range of optics (20-800mm) for the PEN F series - described here - which were excellent in performance - if not to say worldclass for it's day - mechanically not as great, but at least well done according to contemporary standards (i.e. equipped with automatic diaphragm) - plus amazingly low priced, so again there would have been no big base for business

This prototype lens shows that obviously CARL ZEISS JENA  was thinking about doing third-party lenses for the OLYMPUS PEN mount in the 1960's years. Carl Zeiss Jena had lots of juridical problems with Zeiss Oberkochen (West Germany) in the late 1950's and slowly lost their world leading position in photographical lenses. So they may have looked for new markets. Furthermore, the high value of the US-Dollar for the East German economy let them look after small nieche markets too.. On the first glance this lens looks similar to a Contax Rangefinder remounted Sonnar lens, but it isn't. The lens mount is made in a style similar to Olympus, even including the small red focus point point, but with different details. Focussing is in meters, no feets (one scale). The f/-stop number distances aren't equalized. There are full click-stops.

See difference in lens mount: Carl Zeiss 54mm lens on the left mounted on the black FT, Olympus Zuiko G 40mm/1.4 lens on the chrome FV camera. The German lens shows brass under the black color because of its usage and the black finish isn't very good. It is just painted, not enameled, which is far more durable. The Japanese standard lens however is anodized black light alloy, which was a good standard in the 1960's lenses. Although Carl Zeiss Jena made light alloy lenses in large volumes too, this couldn't be expected for a prototype or small series lens. Note also that the lens is very short build. Even if it's focal length is 35% longer than the 40/1.4 the overall length is quite the same. Sonnars were known for small size and short build. This was one reason why they couldn't be adapted to SLR lenses as a standard (50-55mm) lens. So this one is the only SLR standard lens in this focal length range, however 54mm in half frame format translates to 75.6mm in 24x36mm (crop factor ~1.4) The other difference to the Olympus lens is that there is no spring diaphragm. The f/-stop is to set manually. The ring is made in alloy, similar (but not identically) looking to the aperture rings  made for Contax rangefinder lenses, including the small letters. The distance scale and DOF-scale letters are somewhat bigger, bigger than the Olympus lens as well. There is no Infrared mark.

So why it was 54 and not 50mm like the Contax RF Sonnar? Probably for the same reason why the Contax S SLR camera 1948 was initially shown with a 57mm Sonnar lens (picture here) - Not enough mirror clearance (too short backfocus length) for a 50mm lens. In the rear view you see the back element - typically small and near to flat like a typical Sonnar lens, and the same bluish-purple colored coating the "T" coated Jena lenses in the postwar era were noted for. It is also not hard to imaging that the back element isn't far from protruding into the camera's mirror box when mounted Why this lens has no auto diaphragm? The back side also shows that the typical small rear group of the Sonnar design left plenty of room to install a automatic diaphragm mechanism if the lens would have been produced in series. The lens mount however of this example wasn't made in respect to that. The S/N of the lens The 3,876,000 range of the lens fells well into the 1954 year according to a post war S/N list for Carl Zeiss Jena published by Rick Olseson in Photo.net 2004. Even this is no "official" list it seems reasonable to my own limited experience from other SLR lenses of the 1950's.

However, 1954 isn't even close to the Olympus Pen F production period. This suggests that either there was no strict timeline S/N sequence, leaving room for S/N batches for special purposes i.e. experimental  or prototype lenses, or that the optical unit was  produced earlier and eventually remounted. Then this remounting was done in a very professional way of a large optical company. Usually the S/N comes last to a lens before finishing, with the "beauty ring", according to the production run list. Seldomly a S/N of a certain lens is known in production circle before that step. If optical workers need to label parts or groups to keep them together, they mostly use other signs. But of course, the opposite happens also. The Sonnar 54/2 lens make pictures The Sonnar lens mounts and dismounts easily to any Olympus PEN F series camera like genuine lens and is a joy to use even without auto diagphragm. At f/2.0 the viewing image is reasonable bright. The aperture ring is easy going and clicks nicely to the f/-stops, leaving a perfect iris circle at any stop. The focussing ring is somewhat damped, as for heavier lenses. The focussing thread is long and takes nearly the full 360° to the close distance stop beyond the 0.6m mark, probably at 0.54m, which allows a similar small image size as the 0.38m of the 38/1.8 or 40/1.4 Olympus standard lenses. Using this lens on a PEN FT with the TTL meter, you don't miss the aperture numbers because you can measure at working aperture with zeroing the meter needle. Of course, this isn't a very precise measuring and you would't use slide film this way. A lens between 50 and 85mm is always a joy to use at least for me, because it's neither too long nor too short The results are very pleasing. Typical "softer" Sonnar look with great out-of-focus rendering (Bokeh), warmer color than the genuine Olympus lenses, but notably good contrast and excellent sharpness even in the outer zones - one level with the (still today excellent) genuine Olympus lenses, if not better. Taking color films you need Kodak Ektar 100 or a similar fine-grain film to see the full potential. It shows quite no color fringing at all - at least better than the Olympus 40/1.4 (notably an oustanding performer when stopped down to f/4-5.6)

Picture examples (100% frames) with the SONNAR 54/2.0 on film (Kodak Ektar 100) scanned with Nikon Coolscan V, taken at ~ f/2.8-4

(pictures taken in Idstein)






Crop of the edge part (note details and twigs show virtually no color fringing, unlike even most current lenses)