 | |
| Introduced in | 1932 |
|---|---|
| Author | Ludwig Bertele |
| Construction | 7 elements in 3 groups |
| Aperture | f/1.5 (1932) |
The Zeiss Sonnar is a photographic lens originally designed by Dr. Ludwig Bertele in 1929 [1] and patented by Zeiss Ikon. [2] It was notable for its relatively light weight, simple design and fast aperture.
The name "Sonnar" is derived from the German word "Sonne", meaning sun. It was originally a tradename owned by Nettel Camerawerke in Sontheim am Neckar for a f/4.5 Tessar-like lens.[ citation needed ] Sontheim's coat of arms includes a symbol of the sun. Nettel merged with August Nagel's Contessa Camerawerke in 1919. The resulting Contessa-Nettel AG in Stuttgart was one of the companies that merged to form the Zeiss Ikon AG in 1926.
When the modern Zeiss lens was designed by Bertele, Zeiss re-used the old Nettel tradename in order to build on the sun association to emphasize on the lens' large aperture (f/2.0), which was much greater than many other lenses available at the time.
The Cooke triplet anastigmat, designed by Dennis Taylor and patented in 1893, was modified in 1916 by Charles C. Minor, who added a positive meniscus element to increase the maximum aperture to f/1.9, which was marketed as the Gundlach Ultrastigmat. [9] : 110 In parallel, Bertele designed the f/2.0Ernostar lens, which was released in 1919 with the Ermanox camera. [9] : 111 Bertele's Ernostar used two cemented doublets in lieu of the two positive elements in Minor's Ultrastigmat, [9] : 111–112 but this was later simplified to two positive elements in the 1924 German Ernostar patent. [6] In 1926, the Ernemann Company was acquired by Zeiss-Ikon and Bertele continued developing his designs under Zeiss. [9] : 111–112
The first Zeiss Sonnar, patented in 1929, was a f/2.0 50 mm lens with six elements in three groups and released with the Zeiss Contax I rangefinder camera in 1932. In 1931, Bertele reformulated the Sonnar with seven elements in three groups, allowing a maximum aperture of f/1.5. [9] : 112
Compared to Planar designs the Sonnar had more aberrations, but with fewer glass-to-air surfaces it had better contrast and less flare. Though compared to the earlier Tessar design, its faster aperture and lower chromatic aberration was a significant improvement.
Although initially developed as a normal lens with a focal length approximately the same as the frame diagonal, the Sonnar design has been extended to longer and shorter focal lengths. For example, the first Zeiss Biogon , a wide-angle lens for rangefinder cameras with a focal length of 35 mm, was derived by Bertele in 1934 [10] from the improved 1932 Sonnar. [9] : 128 However, the Sonnar design is incompatible with Single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs) due to the space taken up by an SLR's mirror. [11] For this reason it has been used most commonly in the portrait lens class, starting with the "Olympia" Sonnar of 1936, built as a 2.8/180 mm lens for the Contax rangefinder cameras. [12]
For 35mm film cameras, the portrait lens focal lengths span the range approximately from 85 to 180 mm (1.5–4× the "normal lens" focal length). [13] [14] [15] [16] Sonnar portrait lenses have been released for the 35mm format for both SLR cameras and rangefinders, such as the Sonnar T* 2.8/90 for Contax G cameras. [17] Sonnar portrait lenses also are supplied for larger cameras, most notably the 150 mm and 250 mm lenses for the medium format Hasselblad V-system. [18] [19] Some portrait Sonnar lenses also were made for large format cameras, typically found on technical and press cameras made by Linhof – e.g., Sonnar 1:5.6 250 mm for 9×12 cm (4×5") format. Though these lenses were quite heavy (> 2 kg) and large, they were optimised for working on a full aperture with the same sharpness and contrast as on smaller apertures. The coverage of these lenses was also not as good as many similar focal length lenses which limited the use of camera movements, although movements are not generally too important for portrait work. [20] : 13–17
The Sonnar design has been extensively copied by other lens manufacturers, due to its excellent sharpness, low production cost and fast speed. For example, the Soviet factory KMZ produced several lenses that used the Sonnar formula: The KMZ Jupiter 3, Jupiter-8, and Jupiter-9 are direct copies of the Zeiss Sonnar 1:1.5 50 mm, 1:2.0 50 mm, and 1:2.0 85 mm, respectively. Some early rangefinder lenses manufactured by Nikon also used the Sonnar design, including the Nikkor-H·C 5 cm f/2 (1946), [21] Nikkor-S·C 8.5 cm f/1.5 (1952), [22] Nikkor-P·C 8.5 cm f/2 (1948), [23] Nikkor-P·C 10.5 cm f/2.5 (1949), [24] and Nikkor-Q·C 13.5 cm f/4 (1946); [25] the 10.5 and 13.5 cm lenses later were slightly modified for the Nikon F mount SLR cameras. [24]
A zoom lens derivative of the Sonnar, the Vario-Sonnar also exists, in which a number of lens groups are replaced with floating pairs of lens groups.
The Vario-Sonnar is a Carl Zeiss photographic lens design named in relation to the Zeiss Sonnar. This lens type has a variable focal length which can replace a series of lenses for a certain picture format.
A single-lens reflex camera (SLR) is a camera that typically uses a mirror and prism system that permits the photographer to view through the lens and see exactly what will be captured. With twin lens reflex and rangefinder cameras, the viewed image could be significantly different from the final image. When the shutter button is pressed on most SLRs, the mirror flips out of the light path, allowing light to pass through to the light receptor and the image to be captured.
A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder, typically a split-image rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus. Most varieties of rangefinder show two images of the same subject, one of which moves when a calibrated wheel is turned; when the two images coincide and fuse into one, the distance can be read off the wheel. Older, non-coupled rangefinder cameras display the focusing distance and require the photographer to transfer the value to the lens focus ring; cameras without built-in rangefinders could have an external rangefinder fitted into the accessory shoe. Earlier cameras of this type had separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows; later the rangefinder was incorporated into the viewfinder. More modern designs have rangefinders coupled to the focusing mechanism so that the lens is focused correctly when the rangefinder images fuse; compare with the focusing screen in non-autofocus SLRs.
The Angénieux retrofocus photographic lens is a wide-angle lens design that uses an inverted telephoto configuration. The popularity of this lens design made the name retrofocus synonymous with this type of lens. The Angénieux retrofocus for still cameras was introduced in France in 1950 by Pierre Angénieux.
Carl Zeiss AG, branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott he laid the foundation for today's multi-national company. The current company emerged from a reunification of Carl Zeiss companies in East and West Germany with a consolidation phase in the 1990s. ZEISS is active in four business segments with approximately equal revenue in almost 50 countries, has 30 production sites and around 25 development sites worldwide.
The Tessar is a photographic lens design conceived by the German physicist Paul Rudolph in 1902 while he worked at the Zeiss optical company and patented by Zeiss in Germany; the lens type is usually known as the Zeiss Tessar.
Praktica was a brand of camera manufactured by Pentacon in Dresden in eastern Germany, within the GDR between 1949 and the German reunification in 1990. The firm Pentacon was divided in mainly two parts and sold after German reunification. Schneider Kreuznach and Noble bought parts of it. Pentacon is a Dresden-based company in the optical and precision engineering industry, which was at times a major manufacturer of photo cameras. The name Pentacon is derived on the one hand from the Contax brand of the Dresden Zeiss Ikon Kamerawerke and Pentagon, because a pentaprism for SLR cameras developed for the first time in Dresden has this shape in cross section. Today's PENTACON GmbH Foto- und Feinwerktechnik is still based in Dresden. It is part of the Schneider Group, Bad Kreuznach. Pentacon is the modern-day successor to Dresden camera firms such as Zeiss Ikon; for many years Dresden was the world's largest producer of cameras. Previous brands of the predecessor firms included Praktica, Exa, Pentacon, Zeiss Ikon, Contax, Ica, Ernemann, Exakta, Praktiflex, and many more.
Contax began as a German camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Zeiss interchangeable lenses. The final products under the Contax name were a line of 35 mm, medium format, and digital cameras engineered and manufactured by Japanese multinational Kyocera, and featuring modern Zeiss optics. In 2005, Kyocera announced that it would no longer produce Contax cameras. The rights to the brand are currently part of Carl Zeiss AG, but no Contax cameras are currently in production, and the brand is considered dormant.
The double Gauss lens is a compound lens used mostly in camera lenses that reduces optical aberrations over a large focal plane.
Yashica was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, originally active from 1949 until 2005 when its then-owner, Kyocera, ceased production.
The Contax G camera line consists of two cameras, the G1 and G2, interchangeable-lens cameras sold by Kyocera under the Contax brand in competition with the Leica M7, Cosina Voigtländer Bessa-R, and Konica Hexar RF. The G1 was introduced in 1994 with the G2 joining it in 1996. In 2005, Kyocera retreated from the camera business and announced it would cease all activity related to the manufacture of Contax cameras at the end of the year, effectively spelling the end of the G system.
The Contax II is a 35 mm rangefinder camera. It was released in 1936 and was the successor of the original Contax later called the Contax I. It was the first camera with a rangefinder and viewfinder combined in a single window. Its chief designer was Hubert Nerwin. The Nettax was meant to be a cheaper alternative, it was a derivative of the Super Nettel with a rigid body and interchangeable lenses with a specific bayonet and a very limited range of lenses.
The design of photographic lenses for use in still or cine cameras is intended to produce a lens that yields the most acceptable rendition of the subject being photographed within a range of constraints that include cost, weight and materials. For many other optical devices such as telescopes, microscopes and theodolites where the visual image is observed but often not recorded the design can often be significantly simpler than is the case in a camera where every image is captured on film or image sensor and can be subject to detailed scrutiny at a later stage. Photographic lenses also include those used in enlargers and projectors.
The Jupiter series of lenses are Russian camera lenses made by various manufacturers in the former Soviet Union. They were made to fit many camera types of the time, from pre-WWII rangefinders to almost modern SLRs. They are copied from Zeiss pre-WWII designs with incremental improvements, such as coatings, introduced during production. The majority of them are based on Zeiss Sonnar optical scheme, but that's not a rule.
During the 1930s, Zeiss Ikon (ZI) made a wide range of miniature cameras for the 35mm film format. Most cameras used the standard 24×36 mm frame size, like the Contax, Nettax and Super Nettel. However, the ability to take images in fast sequence was a popular marketing element at the time, and several fast-operating models were made. Among these were the Otto Berning's motor-driven Robot cameras as well as the ZI lever-operated Tenax I and Tenax II. These have the smaller square format of 24×24 mm, enhancing faster frame advance.
The Nikon S-mount is a type of interchangeable lens mount used by a series of Nikon 35mm rangefinder cameras. The lenses were sold under the name Nikkor.
The Leica copies originate from the Leica camera that was launched by Ernst Leitz, Wetzlar in 1925, using the Leica 39mm screw mount of 26 threads per inch, and the standard 35mm film. The design was carried out by Oskar Barnack, beginning in 1913 by building a camera for 24×36 mm negatives that by now is called the Ur-Leica; but Ernst Leitz did not decide to manufacture it until 1924. Once started, the Leica production volume doubled each year; in 1929, some 16.000 cameras were produced. In 1930, an improved model with interchangeable lens was introduced, followed a year later by the fully developed Leica II with standardized film to lens flange distance, and in 1932 the basic Leica Standard; the Leica concept was established. This camera's features are the basis for defining a Leica copy.
Biogon is the brand name of Carl Zeiss for a series of photographic camera lenses, first introduced in 1934. Biogons are typically wide-angle lenses.
Ludwig Jakob Bertele was a German optics constructor. His developments received universal recognition and serve as a basis for considerable part of the optical designs used today.
The invention of the camera in the early 19th century led to an array of lens designs intended for photography. The problems of photographic lens design, creating a lens for a task that would cover a large, flat image plane, were well known even before the invention of photography due to the development of lenses to work with the focal plane of the camera obscura.
The Zeiss Hologon is an ultra wide-angle f=15mm f/8 triplet lens, providing a 110° angle of view for 35mm format cameras. The Hologon was originally fitted to a dedicated camera, the Zeiss Ikon Contarex Hologon in the late 1960s; as sales of that camera were poor and the Zeiss Ikon company itself was going bankrupt, an additional 225 lenses were made in Leica M mount and released for sale in 1972 as the only Zeiss-branded lenses for Leica rangefinders until the ZM line was released in 2005. The Hologon name was revived in 1994 for a recomputed f=16mm f/8 lens fitted to the Contax G series of rangefinder cameras.
With the emergence of the single-lens reflex camera, the rivalry between the Sonnar-type lens and the [double] Gauss-type lens was finally resolved. As an asymmetrical optical system, the Sonnar-type lens simply could not ensure the back focus necessary for the operation of a quick-return mirror, and thus had to cede the mantle of standard large-diameter lens to the Gauss-type lens. Thus, as the single-lens reflex camera grew in popularity, the Gauss-type lens became the standard large-diameter lens, while the Sonnar-type lens found its niche as a large-diameter telephoto lens, a role for which its short overall length proved advantageous.
The only lenses that could be diverted as-is to use for F-mount cameras were those with a focal length greater than that of the 13.5cm f/3.5. [...] Back focus on the 8.5cm was lacking remarkably, so designers gave up on any thoughts of diversion to the F mount. However, if 10.5cm f/2.5 back focus could be increased by 1-1.5mm, it could be converted to the F mount. By reducing the thickness of the last lens element by 1.0mm, Wakimoto was able to preserve back focus and release the 10.5cm f/2.5 for F-mount cameras.