Re: Vs: [Leica] OT Rollei advice sought

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 09:43 PM 5/3/2001 +0200, Raimo Korhonen wrote:
>The 2.8 Tessar is universally regarded as the worst Rollei lens ever.
There is even a rumour - unsubstantiated - that these were recalled by the
factory. This lens tells that it is the Rolleiflex 2.8A manufactured from
December 1949 to August 1951 - right after the WW II - in relatively small
numbers - approx. 10.000 in total. The serial number belongs to the first
batch of 7.870 units made until February 1951. I have no personal
experience of it, though.
>

This is bunk.  There is no "universal regard" nor "unsubstantiated rumors"
of any sort -- the history of the 2.8/8cm Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar as used on
the Rolleiflex 2.8A and on the Prewar Ikoflex III is quite well known and
there are no remaining unresolved questions.  I am shocked and disappointed
by Raimo's firm mis-statements on the facts of this rather interesting saga.

In 1936, Zeiss Ikon decided to trump Franke & Heidecke by producing a 6cm
by 6cm TLR;  this was in response to the "Baby Black" Rolleiflex, with its
2.8/6cm CZJ Tessar using VP (127) film.  Zeiss Ikon contacted its sister
company, the Carl Zeiss lensworks, for an appropriate lens, and Wandersleb
had his boys whump up the fine 2.8/8cm CZJ Tessar.  The camera was
introduced at the Leipzig-Meße in April, 1939, with deliveries from June of
that year.  Obviously, the production run was most brief, due to the War.
However, a number of lenses had been produced by Carl Zeiss Jena, and these
were stored during the War years.

In 1947, when Franke & Heidecke decided to design and produce the
Rolleiflex 2.8A, they contacted Carl Zeiss -- not yet differentiated into
its East German and West German branches! -- and were advised that Carl
Zeiss Jena could supply the remaining Tessars produced for the 853/16
Ikoflex III and could, in addition, coat them.  Unfortunately, either in
the course of storage or in the course of the coating process, some of the
lenses became mixed between production batch and production batch, with the
result that a portion of the lenses supplied to Franke & Heidecke proved
unacceptably soft in use.  Recent research indicates that approximately 1/2
of the first batch of Rolleiflex 2.8A's had CZJ Tessar T lenses and that
around 1/3 of these had defective lenses.  The remainder of the 2.8A
production run had 2.8/8cm Tessar T lenses produced and supplied by the new
West German Carl Zeiss lensworks at Oberkochen, then using the
"Zeiss-Opton" trademark, the "Opton" being a contraction of "OPTische-werke
OberkocheN".  (Clever, these Germans!).

Franke & Heidecke began to receive customer complaints about lens
performance and quietly recalled those cameras equipped with the CZJ
Tessars and replaced them with Zeiss-Opton Tessar T's.  It is important to
note that a number of the CZJ lenses were perfectly adequate performers and
that the majority of the 2.8A cameras produced had the solid Zeiss-Opton
Tessar.  But the damage had been done, and Franke & Heidecke quickly killed
production of the camera after the 1951 run -- the factory produced 7,870
cameras in the first run between 12/49 and 2/51 and 2,000 more in the
second run between 4/51 and 8/51.

Obviously, Franke & Heidecke was not too upset with Carl Zeiss Jena, as the
replacement camera -- the excruciatingly rare 2.8B, of which only 1,250
were made between 2/52 and 3/53 -- had a CZJ 2.8/8cm Biometar T.  Recent
revelations indicate that this Biometar was not identical to the Carl Zeiss
(Oberkochen) 2.8/80 Planar introduced with the 2.8C in 1954.  

The Franke & Heidecke company, with a reputation for quality, was
embarrassed by this imbroglio, and the recall was conducted as quietly as
was the recall conducted by Hasselblad in the 1980's of lenses with
defective Prontor shutters.  Claus Prochnow, the company historian, doesn't
even mention the presence of the CZJ lens on the 2.8A.  But such
embarrassment and reticence really doesn't make this recall a mysterious
matter -- none of us broadcast our mistakes.

The collector's angle on this is that the choice items are the 2.8B or a
2.8A with the original CZJ Tessar T.  From the user's angle, a 2.8C to the
current 2.8GX is the way to go.

But there never was anything wrong with the basic 2.8/8cm Tessar design nor
is there any great mystery about the factory recall to replace the CZJ lens
with the Zeiss-Opton ones.

Marc


msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
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