The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8

A photograph clipped from the 'Radio Times' of the actor Charlotte Ritchie is in the lens hood of a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 M42 screw-thread lens fitted via an adapter to a Canon EOS 30D DSLR camera. Photographed using a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 on a Canon EOS 40D. I realise this is way too much technical information for most people. I got a bit carried away.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 30D. It was the fruit which cost £1.50. The lens was £12 on eBay about three years ago. The Tessar lens is an old and simple optical design. Even when the Practika MTL 5 camera was being sold new around 1976, the East German Tessar was the cheaper option to the Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 lens, which many will claim to be the superior choice. I have used the Pentacon, and enjoyed it, but repeatedly I return to the Tessar. I'm really not sure why.

"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept". (Henri Cartier Bresson) I used a Canon EOS 20D with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar lens deliberately missing focus for a watery effect.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera. The chief reason I bought into the Canon EOS system was to use this lens. Fortunately the low cost of secondhand discontinued digital SLR cameras enables such indulgences. The design of the Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm F2.8 Tessar stretches back at least to the 1930's where countless examples exist in different forms, formats, and mounts. This is a fundamentally simple lens of just four elements in three groups with five aperture blades. It is not the best 50mm lens that I own. However, it is certainly the cheapest. So it is something of a mystery why I find it so satisfying to use. It is slow for a 50mm lens at f/2.8. The focus throw is very wide, allowing precision at the expense of fast handling. It seems sharp, but nearly all 50mm lenses are sharp. It performs well wide open; so do many others. Colour rendition is good. Distortion is not a problem. Contrast is strong. You could say the same about practically all 50mm lenses. But I like this particular lens very much.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens (£12 on eBay) on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera. The cheapest route to a lens with 'Carl Zeiss' on it. Manufactured between 1952 and 1978, thus there is plenty of choice on the secondhand market. The moment I had it in my hand, I loved the feel of it and the smooth focus and aperture adjustment. Using it on a crop sensor digital camera avoids the criticism that it is soft at the corners: I'm using only the best part of the simple optics. Nevertheless, optimum performance is f/8 - f/11 where contrast is best; otherwise post-processing will improve your efforts. F/2.8 is slow, but these days we're all used to levels of ISO which were unimaginable when this lens was in production, and so only photographers chasing depth-of-field will be bothered by the slowness. Close focus is about twelve inches - it's practically macro! And the long focus throw provides plenty of scope for tiny adjustments. The front element is well recessed: no need for a lens hood, nor a protective filter for that matter (but I disdain protective filters anyway. Like extended warranties, they exist to improve dealers' profit margins). Not as good as the 55mm f/3.5 Micro-Nikkor, which is hard to beat by any lens, but much cheaper, and fun to use. Colour rendition isn't bad, either.

A close-up of the plinth which supports the columns for Benjamin Carter's sphinx in the grounds of Lacock Abbey. Only weathered carved stone, but exquisite. A photograph of this stone including paper is at www.ipernity.com/doc/341635/40044040 - as yet, no image includes the missing scissors. One day, perhaps. Canon EOS 40D +Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8.

It is out-of-focus. It was not supposed to be out-of-focus. However, I think it is probably more interesting than it would have been had it been sharp.

I used the plinth which supports the columns for Benjamin Carter's sphinx for this shot. The portrait on this page of the book is by Evelyn Hofer, and is entitled 'Portrait in Windowlight'. It was made in 1969. Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

A vintage Nikkor-S Auto 35mm f/2.8 lens photographed using a Canon EOS 30D camera with an old M42-era Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens. In the background is a photograph by Evelyn Hofer of the artist Kiki Kogelnick in her studio.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera. The portrait on this page of the book is by Evelyn Hofer, and is entitled 'Portrait in Windowlight'. It was made in 1969.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera.

I've lost count of the number of attempts I've made to photograph this subject, an C18 brass sundial in the grounds of Lacock Abbey, made by Thomas Wright. Paradoxically, this study made with a cheap screw-thread Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens on a Canon EOS 40D digital camera has given me the greatest satisfaction ... so far.