Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f2.8 M42 Lens Review
Very rare lens not showing up more than 1x a year on Ebay. Very well built quality lens. Ideal for portraits and artistic photographs it has exceptional good out focus background effect “bokeh”. Produced around 1950-60 in limited quantity I saw with M42 and with Exakta mount. The 2,8/80 Biometar was developed in 1948. Mounted for Kine Exakta, then Contax (M42) and Rolleiflex.
Lens
Fact Sheet
Vendor name
Carl Zeiss Jena
Carl Zeiss Jena
Type
Biometar
Biometar
Product year
1948-1956
1948-1956
Focal Min(mm)
80
80
Focal Max(mm)
80
80
Focus Min(cm)
100
100
Aperture Max
2.8
2.8
Aperture Min.
22
22
Barrel length(mm)
N/A
N/A
Elements In Group
5 in 4
5 in 4
Diaphragm action
N/A
N/A
Weight (g)
235
235
Filter Size (mm)
49
49
Push on diameter (mm)
60
60
Angular field
30.4
30.4
Could be the same lens for Pentagon Six with different mount.
Excellent glass. Can be found in numerous incarnations for MF, where it is used as a normal lens, on Pentacon’s Six mount. A Zeiss design, the latest version the rubber one, build by Schneider-Kreuznach, optically identical with the original CZJ.
Also made in Praktina breech mount, probably in reasonably small volumes. I have one, aluminium, manual stop down, with pre-set ring. Pretty thing it is, too, like so many CZJ alloy lenses.
Also made in Praktina breech mount, probably in reasonably small volumes. I have one, aluminium, manual stop down, with pre-set ring. Pretty thing it is, too, like so many CZJ alloy lenses.