Carl Zeiss from Jena

In 1846 Mr. Carl Zeiss, aged 30, opened his own workshop of optical at Neugasse along the road to Jena. Mainly it produced microscopes.

All the work of Carl Zeiss was based on the empirical method; that is to say, "trial and error". It was obvious that this method of production involved the waste of large amounts of material. Zeiss was convinced early on that he needed serious scientific studies, to obtain products more accurately, in less time and with less waste. In 1866 Zeiss accidentally found what he was looking for; he met prof. Ernst Abbe of the Jena University.

Abbe was immediately taken into the workshop Zeiss as Research Director for optical products. In 1872, after six years of work applied to the production of new types of optical glass, laboratory Zeiss invented a "compound microscope", a microscope superior to any other existing at that time.

As a reward for his efforts, in 1876 Carl Zeiss Abbe appointed as a partner in his business. In 1879, the third member of the team that created the company Carl Zeiss, he was invited to join him by Abbe and Zeiss continued effort to improve the microscope. Friedrich Otto Schott studied the use of lithium in a new type of optical glass, and wrote to Dr. Abbe describing his progress.

In 1888 Carl Zeiss died. He thus (ironically) never saw any of the famous objectives that bring his name.

1889, on the initiative of Abbe, Carl Zeiss founded the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation) based in Jena which will play a decisive role in the world history of photography. The son of Zeiss, sole heir, he sold all the shares inherited at Abbe.

In 1890 the company expanded more and more. The sector lenses for photographic use is assigned successfully to the direction of Mr. Paul Rudolph (1859-1935). Begins production of camera lens:

Anastigmat - Protar (1890) (lens scheme)

Unar (1899) (lens scheme)

Planar (1896) (lens scheme)

Tessar (1902) (lens scheme)

In order to consider the importance of the Paul Rudolph’s work, it is necessary to say that all camera lenses descended from only 4 ancestor lenses: Double Gauss (1888); Anastigmat - Protar (1890), Cooke Triplet (1893) and Tessar (1902).

Well two of these four lenses (Protar and Tessar) were invented by Paul Rudolph for Carl Zeiss, while a third (Planar 1896) is the improvement of the Double Gauss, again by Paul Rudolph for Carl Zeiss. In other words Zeiss has contributed to ¾ the universal history of photographic optics. The lens "Protar" was, at birth (1890) christened "Anastigmat". However, this name was not registered, by the will of Ernst Abbe, who argued that "science belongs to all." The competitors of the Carl Zeiss named their lenses with the name "Anastigmat", thereby engendering consumers in the mistaken belief that the quality of their lenses, was similar to that of the Zeiss. The result was a rapid decline of the prestige of the name "Anastigmat". Carl Zeiss reacted by changing name to its lens, called, since then until now, "Protar", from greek proto (first) to which was added the suffix “ar”. So Zeiss wanted to proudly remember their birthright in the invention of such important lens. As for the fourth and last ancestor (Cooke Triplet) Ing. Ludwig Bertele of Carl Zeiss, developed in 1929 the Zeiss Sonnar, which is the best lens of the family of the Triplet.

The Planar, invented in 1896 by Paul Rudolph, was not exploited commercially by Zeiss until 1957, because the number of passages air / glass (eight) created an over-refraction, so that the image quality was not good because little engraved. This problem could be solved just after the discovery of the anti-reflective treatment of the lenses (1938). In addition, the number of lenses (six) raised the price of production. So the Planar remained a rough diamond for 61 long years. However it was a real diamond. In fact, the brightest camera lens ever is the Planar 50 / 0.7 (lens scheme). In 1966 NASA commissioned to Zeiss a lens brighter than ever, in order to photograph the surface of the Moon, to decide which was the best place to land on the Moon. This ‘mystic’ lens (only 10 pieces produced) was used only twice: by NASA and by the film director Stanley Cubrick for the movie "Barry Lyndon." Link

Seventy years before NASA, however, in 1896, the Planar lens was a commercial disaster: it was expensive to produce and not very sharp. Carl Zeiss lost much money by cause of Paul Rudolph, and now he had to invent something of very popular, a lens that represents the exact opposite of Planar: cheap to build (only 4 lenses in 3 groups), spartan, by the superb engraving, low brightness, to be sold at low prices and available for all.
This is the exact description of the Tessar. The real name of the Tessar is "the opposite of Planar". The Tessar (and all its imitations) is probably the best-selling lens ever. Rudolph proved to Carl Zeiss Jena that he was able to design both an optical elitist as the Planar, and a hugely popular one as the Tessar.

Note that the Tessar, contrary to what many believe, despite having three lens groups, does not follow from the Triplet, but from the four lenses of Protar. More precisely, Tessar takes the two front lenses from “Unar” (ditto invented by Paul Rudolph) and the posterior group from “Protar” (photo). For this reason, the Tessar did not descend from one of the other three ancestor lenses, but constitutes itself a fourth one. The descendants from Tessar lens are innumerable, because it's a lens easy and cheap to build. It is not very bright but has an exceptional definition. Tessar is “the perfect lens” for every camera with low-end price.

1891 When Abbe and Schott died, they left their shares to the Carl Zeiss Foundation, which became the sole owner of all the Carl Zeiss companies.

1925 Ernst Leitz Wetzlar surprises the world by introducing the Leica, the first 35mm camera.

1926 The Carl Zeiss Foundation reacted by deciding to produce cameras. Takes four German industries: Optische Anstalt CP Goerz (Berlin), Countess Nettel (Stuttgart), ICA (Dresden) and Ernemann (Dresden), merges them together and created the Zeiss Ikon AG company, based in Dresden.

The Zeiss Ikon policy was to continue to produce the same cameras of the absorbed manufacturers, but providing them with Zeiss lenses. It was imposed on the use of the shutter "Compur" (the cheaper cameras had shutter "Klio") another company of the Carl Zeiss group.

So Zeiss Ikon had to buy exclusively from Carl Zeiss Jena to equip their cameras lenses. However Carl Zeiss Jena was free to provide their own lenses to other camera manufacturers.

We should mention the commercial policy of Carl Zeiss.

Carl Zeiss was a firm manufacturing highly successful, world leader in optics and one of the largest industries in Germany. After the First World War the economy of the Weimar Republic had suffered serious crisis, on account of the costs of post-war reconstruction, and the weight of compensation for war damages that were inflicted on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.

The high inflation in Germany has led millions of people to poverty. In this crisis situation, the acquisitions of competitors (at very low prices) by Carl Zeiss, not only were not hindered by the central government for the protection of the market (antitrust), but these were encouraged.

This explains how it was possible for Carl Zeiss, becoming the almost absolute monopoly of the entire sector of optics and photography. This monopoly included not only the production of lenses, but also of glass and camera bodies.

At the same time the commercial policy of the Carl Zeiss was determined by the property (Carl Zeiss Foundation) which continued to implementing the philanthropic ideas of founder Mr. Ernst Abbe. When Carl Zeiss (Company) acquired an industry competitor, Carl Zeiss (Foundation) required that nobody worker was fired. Factories, formerly competitors but now placed in the same group, continued to market products that were essentially identical. The result of this policy led Zeiss Ikon to simultaneously produces up to 220 "different" models of cameras. Obviously, many of these 220 models were very similar to each other. It was an uneconomic production. Waste which involved such duplication of product lines, within the same group, were covered by the monopoly profits. The very high standard of production quality of the optics department, generated profits can keep up departments at a loss. Zeiss Ikon, which was the cameras department of Carl Zeiss, was at the same time a giant (the world's largest camera producer), but sick of inefficiency for not cutting waste. That was the status quo when, in 1926, the top managment of the Zeiss Ikon AG decided to enter in the market of 35 mm (absolute monopoly of Leica) by creating a new brand ad hoc: the Contax, intended to represent the diamond of the Zeiss camera production.

The project was entrusted to a team composed of the best engineers Zeiss, coordinated by Ing. Heinz Küppenbender. At the same time Carl Zeiss Jena was in charge of designing the best lenses for this camera body. The goal was to adapt the best Carl Zeiss lenses to 35 mm format and making them Contax bayonet.

But Carl Zeiss wanted to go beyond that: for the Contax put into production two lenses exceptional completely new, patented in 1929 but not yet placed on the market: the Sonnar 50/2.0 (6 elements in 3 groups) and especially the legendary Sonnar 50/1.5 (7 elements in 3 groups), considered the best lens "normal" (ie 50 mm) ever built for a 35 mm camera.

To be fair the Sonnar had a great ancestor:

In 1923 the Ing. Ludwig Bertele (1900-1985) created, for Ernemann factory in Dresden, the lens Ernostar 105/1.8 (1923), descending from Cook Triplet, which was fitted on the camera (6x4.5) Ermanox. It was a revolutionary camera (thanks to the outstanding brightness of the lens Ernostar 1.8), because it allowed professionals to shoot without a tripod. The camera therefore marked the birth of the photojournalist as we understand it today, that is the one who takes the scene by surprise, without asking the subject being recorded to pose. Erich Salomon, known as the "the king of the indiscreet" was the founder of this new type of photojournalist; He worked especially during the international summits. He was famous for his shots "stolen" by which caught prime ministers and foreign ministers in informal poses. Sometimes informal a lot. In 1928 he photographed the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact entered the room and sat down in the empty seat of the Polish delegate. When, in 1926, Carl Zeiss acquired the factory Ernemann (which along with other went to form the Zeiss Ikon), Bertele found himself to be an employee Zeiss. For Carl Zeiss Bertele developed its own Ernostar lens and created the Sonnar 50 mm f 2.0 and f 1.5 for 35 mm cameras.

No doubt the Sonnar lens is the best of the family descended from the ancestor Cook Triplet.

In 1932 it was placed on the market the Contax I, immediately accompanied with six excellent Carl Zeiss optics: four "normal" (50 mm): Tessar 50/3.5; Tessar 50/2.8; Sonnar 50/2.0; Sonnar 50/1.5 and two telephoto lenses: Triotar 85/4 and Sonnar 135/4. The following year the optics for Contax had become ten: adding the Tessar 28/8, the Biotar 40/2, the Sonnar 85/2 and the Tele-Tessar 180/6.3. No other camera in the world, of any kind, could boast ten lenses. What surprised most was however the exceptional (for the period) of the optical brightness.

Four years later, in 1937, the lenses available had become fifteen. Between these, two lenses renowned sublime: the Biogon 35/2.8 and the '(Olympia) Sonnar' 180/2.8, in addition to Orthometar 35/4.5, Tele-Tessar 300/8 and Telephoto 500/8.