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Carl Zeiss Camera Lens Division
Contents
120 Years of Lenses
from Carl Zeiss 2
30 years of “BILLY” 5
Fire shapes in the
cold and dark 6
Rediscovering the
Amber Road 9
Dr. Hubert Nasse
about „Bokeh“ 14
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 2
Camera Lens News No 35
They’ve been to space; they’re
Hollywood favorites; and they’ve
been the constant companions
of demanding photographers
around the globe for 120 years –
Carl Zeiss lenses.
The first photo lenses came on the
market at the end of March 1890. On
the occasion of its 120th anniversary,
renowned German optics manufac-
turer Carl Zeiss, with key locations
in Jena and Oberkochen, can reflect
on a rich history and look to the
future with confidence. Throughout
the anniversary year, the company
will be celebrating its breakthroughs
in photographic technology with
activities for both customers and the
public. “Carl Zeiss lenses helped write
photographic history. They have truly
stood the test of time,” says Winfried
Scherle, head of the Camera Lens
Division.
ZEISS lenses come into play when-
ever extremely high image quality,
reliability and excellent results are
required. The shots of the 1969
moon landing were taken with Carl
Zeiss lenses, as were numerous
Oscar-acclaimed films, such as Barry
Lyndon, The Lord of the Rings trilogy
and Slumdog Millionaire. One of
Germany’s best-known cameramen,
Michael Ballhaus, has been working
exclusively with ZEISS lenses for years.
“Carl Zeiss’ latest cameras and lenses
allow me to see on screen exactly
what the eye sees,” says Ballhaus.
Several breakthroughs in optical
systems were the work of physicist
and mathematician Ernst Abbe. His
discoveries are still the standard for
today’s modern high-performance
optics. Abbe’s “sine condition”, for
example, has to be fulfilled by all
high-performance lenses and optical
systems. It is in this tradition that
Carl Zeiss has continuously perfected
its calculation methods, making it the
world’s leading company in optics
design.
Carl Zeiss was founded in 1846 in
Jena as a workshop for precision
mechanics and optics. In its early
years, it manufactured microscopes
almost exclusively. Ernst Abbe, a Carl
Zeiss shareholder at that stage, later
began to expand the product port-
folio by developing photo lenses and
binoculars. In the 1880s, Otto Schott
had begun producing new types of
glass with much-improved optical
qualities. This innovation opened up
new possibilities for Carl Zeiss and
it started to develop lens types with
hitherto unheard-of light gathering
power.
Milestones in lens development
In 1896 Carl Zeiss presented its Planar
lens. This lens type is still found in
many professional optical tools for
photography on Earth and in space.
The Planar is the foundation for a
variety of Carl Zeiss high-performance
lenses with impressive color correc-
tion, speed, image flatness and low
image distortion.
Lenses make History 120 years ago Carl Zeiss produced its first camera lenses
When image quality and reliability is essential there is only one possible choice: Lenses by Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss: Optics manufacturer with tradition
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 3
Camera Lens News No 35
In 1902, Carl Zeiss submitted a patent
for what would eventually become
the most famous photo lens of all
time: the Tessar. This lens was charac-
terized by a relatively high speed and,
for the first time, could take extremely
sharp pictures with very little optical
effort. It paved the way for camera
design miniaturization, a trend that
continues today. Millions of lenses
in contemporary, high-quality photo
cameras and mobile telephones follo-
wed the Tessar’s example with its
outstanding image quality.
In 1935, Carl Zeiss followed with
another breakthrough invention
that opened up new possibilities for
brilliant imaging: This anti-reflex
coating is denoted by the symbol T*
on today’s lenses. This vacuum-
deposited coating on the lens’s glass
surfaces reduces bothersome reflec-
tions and stray light in the image,
and paved the way for today’s highly
complex optical systems.
In 1943, Carl Zeiss also developed
a procedure to measure lens image
quality with so-called “MTF” curves
(modulation transfer function), which
numerous manufacturers today use
for quality control.
Carl Zeiss even played a pioneering
role in computer aided lens design.
The introduction of CAD-supported
lens development in 1961 replaced
lens design by hand and has enabled
a far more complex construction
and improved interaction between
lens elements ever since.
Still today, the Planar lens design is the base of many optical tools.
Developments by Carl Zeiss shaped todays technology.
Over the last 15 years, joint ventures
with Sony and Nokia have allowed
Carl Zeiss lenses to spread widely.
Sony has been using ZEISS lenses
in its compact cameras and cam-
corders since 1996. Since 2005,
Nokia smartphone and mobile phone
users have been taking photographs
with integrated ZEISS lenses.
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 4
Camera Lens News No 35
Who isn’t familiar with IKEA’s BILLY
bookcase? Regardless of age, profes-
sion and gender, millions of people
have chosen BILLY as the home for
their books, CDs and other bits and
pieces. Last year, the world’s best-
selling bookcase turned 30. For its
biography “BILLY – 30 years old. BIL-
LY – 30 years young” (ZWEITAUSEN-
DEINS, 2009), Martin Grothmaak and
Tom Ziora embarked on a photogra-
phic journey through the history of
this world famous piece of furniture.
Their luggage included a Nikon D3,
the Planar T* 1,4/50 and the Distagon
T* 2,8/25 by Carl Zeiss.
So what is this photographic
journey about?
The biography presents the history
of the BILLY bookcase and how
various generations have used it. The
chapters are dedicated to various
topics, such as “Rebellion”, “Love”
and “Lateral thinkers”. Our task was
to visualise the topic of “Humility”
in association with the bookcase.
First, we chose a number of people
from different generations, social and
professional groups. 30 people, one
for each year. Then we visited them,
set up an empty BILLY bookcase
at home for them, and then pho-
tographed two faces – one of the
person, and the other of the book-
case. The bookcase was like a white
canvas, a carrier for the owner’s
thoughts that were then expressed
by the arrangement of the objects
on the bookcase. We photographed
the same bookcase 30 times, but we
showed 30 different worlds.
What were the challenges
that faced you in your task?
When we did the portrait shots, the
light was one of the biggest chal-
lenges. We wanted to photograph
the people in the same rooms as the
bookcase. And we wanted them to
look as natural as possible, which
is why we decided to work without
artificial light. But we never knew
in advance what to expect or how
much light we would have for the
shoot. We photographed our subjects
in completely different places and at
different times of day; sometimes we
were in the midday sun, others times
it was twilight, and sometimes we
used studio lighting. You need very a
fast lens for “available light” photo-
graphy.
And apart from the speed?
The optical performance of the lens
was particularly important in the
shots of the bookcase. After all, we
didn’t just want to take pictures of
the bookcase; we also wanted to
30 years of “BILLY”Pictures of a famous bookcase
The versatile all-round lens: Planar T* 1,4/50 ZF
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 5
Camera Lens News No 35
Martin Grothmaak is a
co-founder and partner at
the Stuttgart Design Studio
Projekttriangle
(www.projekttriangle.com).
Tom Ziora is a freelance
photographer. Both studied
visual design at the FH Schwäbisch
Gmünd, and to both of them
the picture is the most decisive
medium in design. They have
been working together for several
years, creating projects such
as the “Kochbuch der verpönten
Küche” by Wolfram Siebeck
(Edition Braus im Wachter
Verlag, 2008).
show something of the room it was
in. There wasn’t always much room,
so we had to use a wide-angle lens.
But we usually tried to avoid doing
that, because most wide angles tend
to distort the pictures.
This was the first time you
had experienced ZEISS lenses
in digital photography.
Well, in the medium format range,
we have had excellent results with
ZEISS lenses for Hasselblad. Now
we wanted to see just what we could
do with it in digital photography.
We were really impressed with the
Distagon T* 2,8/25. Despite the wide
angle distortion is minimal, and the
clarity is brilliant. The Distagon T*
1,4/50 was also the right choice.
Although it is not typically used in
portrait photography, it did enable
us to create the style we wanted –
realistic, natural portraits. Its speed
in particular made it ideal for our
purposes. With both lenses, you
can see and feel the quality on the
outside. They are beautifully made,
and are equally appealing in extreme
or unusual situations.
What is the most important
aspect of a lens for you?
Whether a camera or a lens, the
equipment has to work brilliantly and
do exactly what the photographer
wants. But ultimately, what matters
most is the person behind the
camera, his motif, and what he
does with it.
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 6
Camera Lens News No 35
Light artists Jan Leonardo
Wöllert and Jörg Miedza of
Wuppertal in Germany design
and photograph performances
with lasers and fire. The challen-
ges for the camera and lenses
are tremendous.
Our motifs disappear in moments –
we sculpt from light. The work is
created under time exposure at the
moment of the performance. Light
Art Performance Photography –
LAPP – is a symbiosis between the
performance of light art, and the
technical execution of a photograph.
For the performance, that is to say
the performance itself and the repre-
sentation, the steps and movement
need to be planned and implemented
with absolute precision – just like
the choreography for a dance. This
dynamism creates its very own pic-
ture language under time exposure.
We light artists and photographers
work both in front of and behind the
camera. We stage the most diverse
kinds of light in an impressive setting.
The results are entirely innovative and
unique motifs and exceptional photo-
graphs with the ultimate precision in
the design. A specialist photography
magazine once summed it up thus:
“The dance with light – the results
are images that delight and enchant
the eye and are a magnificent additi-
on to the language of photography.”
Extensive lighting equipment is no
less important than the skills of the
performance. It doesn’t have to be
expensive – lots of lighting equip-
ment is bought from “pound shops”,
DIY and end-of-line outlets. We buy
our pyrotechnics, fire, lasers and
special lighting tools from specialists.
Quite often, we combine the most
Fire shapes in the cold and dark From the Weser to the Matterhorn – light art under extreme conditions
Masterpieces using long-time exposure: Light Art Performance Photography
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 7
Camera Lens News No 35
diverse products to create entirely
new lighting tools. LED lights are par-
ticularly useful for LAPP. Focused light
is extremely important. Only a few
manufacturers such as Led Lenser are
able to bundle LED light and create
an intensive ray. Their patented focus
system enables us to control the light
in the scene with absolute precision.
And the new Carl Zeiss lenses on the
Canon 5D MII are the perfect partners
in our often extremely challenging
endeavours. In Light Art Performance
Photography, we subject the lenses
and camera to the most extreme
conditions and loads. Whether direct
lighting into the lens with intensive
pyrotechnics and a strong, focused
LED light or the projection of lasers,
we demand and expect the utmost
of our photographic equipment. We
often travel far for our light perfor-
mances in order to embed the event
into the appropriate setting. We have
to be able to rely completely on our
photographic technology.
We usually photograph under
extreme weather conditions. They
range from the high humidity of a
stalactite cave in China and the
oppressive heat on the south China
coast to freezing temperatures as
low as -20°C or winter storms on
the Little Matterhorn. ZEISS lenses
Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE and Distagon T*
2,8/21 ZE appealed to us on several
counts, and particularly for their very
high, extremely detailed reproduction
and unbeatable clarity. They proved
astonishingly resilient in extreme cold.
Whereas all the other lenses we have
tried and used froze and iced over at
some point, the Carl Zeiss Distagon T*
3,5/18 ZE never let us down.
On the Matterhorn in Switzerland
at an altitude of 3800 m and 20°C
below freezing, the combination
of Canon 5D MKII and Carl Zeiss
Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE performed
superbly and without failure. Under
these extreme conditions there was
already a coating of ice on both
items, but the camera and the lens
provided excellent results. The lens
didn’t even mist over or develop ice!
On another occasion on the Weser,
ice crystals formed on Canon, Nikon
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 8
Camera Lens News No 35
and Leica lenses at temperatures
of -16°C, but the 18mm Distagon
remained clear all through the night.
Carl Zeiss lenses offer us tremendous
freedom in creativity. Not just because
they are reliable partners in almost
any weather, but also because they
enable us to photograph extreme
perspectives and picture composi-
tions. There are only a few lenses on
the market that enable us to record
images to such depths under these
lighting, weather and mechanical
effects. We often have multi-layered
picture compositions, and use per-
spective linearities in combination
with the light performance to create
multi-dimensional spaces. Marginal
sharpness is extremely important,
and on the Distagon T* 3,5/18 ZE,
for instance, reaches the farthest
corners even with large apertures.
We cannot and will not be without
ZEISS’s new Distagon lenses any
more. Hardly any other lens is so
well attuned to our work and com-
pletes our picture designs in quite
the same way. In order to facilitate
even more extreme perspectives in
the future, we would be delighted
Carl Zeiss Lenses: Even under extreme conditions the perfect fit for your application
if Carl Zeiss were to add a 14-mm
ultra wide angle to its range.
About LAPP
The Light Art Performance
Photography (briefly LAPP) is a
one-shot long time blub exposure
photography performed additio-
nally with a movement of light.
www.lapp-pro.de
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 9
Camera Lens News No 35
Rediscovering the Amber Road On foot from Venice to St. Petersburg
The Swiss actor, photographer
and writer Markus Zohner spent
nine months hiking the historical
Amber Road from Venice to
St. Petersburg. His 4000-km
journey took him through twelve
different countries at the heart
of Europe. In his luggage: Carl
Zeiss cameras and lenses.
It was not an easy decision to make.
But in view of the 4000-km hike
across Europe that lay ahead of me, I
inally decided to take a digital camera
with me. Despite my passion for
film, the advantages of digital camera
technology were overwhelming.
Saving weight was one considera-
tion – an important argument in an
undertaking where every gram of
weight, every single film reel, had to
be carried thousands of kilometres.
The second – no less important – was
logistics: did I really want to have
films sent to Breslau and then, a few
hundred kilometres later, to send
them to the lab from Kalisz, before
finally being able to check the scans
at an Internet café in Danzig? After
months of testing analogue and
digital materials, I opted for digital. I
packed a Nikon D700 and two fabu-
lous Carl Zeiss lenses: the Distagon T*
3,5/18 ZF as my wide-angle lens,
and the Planar T* 1,4/85 ZF as the
telephoto. To me, the combination
of this full-format camera with the
ZEISS lenses was technical perfection.
What appealed about the D700 was
the fabulous flexibility in setting the
sensitivity. The brightness, clarity and
light intensity meant that every look
through the viewfinder was a treat
for the eyes. I have rarely experienced
such incredible quality in reproduc-
tion and processing.
The dimensions of the world shift on
a hike. Every single step tells us our
limitations: five kilometres mean an
hour, and the after-effects of a day’s
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 10
Camera Lens News No 35
achievement of thirty kilometres are
still with us the next morning. Ano-
ther 75 kilometres to Danzig? That’s
three or four days. Of course, modern
technology – car or the train – would
have us there in an hour. But left to
our own devices – and strength – we
realise just how big the world really
is. We experience distances, rain,
hunger, weight and tiredness far more
intensively. Technology fools us into
thinking we can master the world – or
simply fade out its contradictions.
The technical details of a modern SLR
camera can leave us feeling dizzy.
Having a piece of equipment with me
that can think more quickly than I do
and that is able to shoot between five
and eight images a second filled me
with fear and dread in view of the
rhythm of my steps and the constant
and undeniable slowness of my
existence. One of my most personal
goals on this journey was also to
apply the deceleration of my physical
movement to my creative work, to
my writing and photography. Five
images a second is absolutely crazy.
That’s something you realise when
you can’t keep up with the sights,
sounds and smells of the woods and
forests and meadows, the towns
and villages. When the icy wind of
Hungary is whistling around your ears
and the hot Polish sun burning your
skin; when you are welcomed by the
people of the Czech Republic or an
elderly lady riding a bicycle shows
you the way to your accommodation.
You don’t then pull out a machine
gun to capture these impressions in
seconds and en masse and save them
digitally. You live differently; you live
analogously.
On a journey like this one, far more
happens inside you than you are able
to describe. You live so intensively
that you need a tool that is a match
for your own slowness, but also for
the development of your imagination.
One month in, after crossing Italy
and Slovenia, I sent the SLR back
to Lugano. I had the Zeiss Ikon in
our office sent to Hungary together
with two other treasures: the
Distagon T* 2,8/15 ZM and the
Sonnar T* 2/85 ZM.
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 11
Camera Lens News No 35
Now I was in my element. I had to,
was able to, create an image in my
inner eye before shooting it. At last
the camera was no longer faster than
me; at last the inflation of the mass
of shots no longer wiped out the
clarity of my pictorial search. Sure,
the boundaries were getting tighter:
the film inside the camera defined the
next 36 pictures. No quick change-
over to 12,400 ISO; no 25 shots of
the same motif. But it was also these
boundaries that helped me to see
again. To concentrate. In the same
way as the walking became a medi-
tation, the photography now became
a Zen exercise.
To open oneself up to the uniqueness
of the moment, but also to admit
and accept that many moments
would pass without being recorded.
Not everything is possible, and the
value of things also lies in accepting
this limitation. Once I started using
the Zeiss Ikon camera, photography
once again became what I had been
dreaming of this journey becoming:
a clear, transparent, human tool
that, rather than being a highly
complex machine between my eye
and the people and the landscapes,
instead – consisting only of glass and
metal – became an almost invisible
extension of myself, a third eye, easy,
clear, simple. I began to read the light
again, to know the shutter and the
time before putting the camera to my
eye, to judge distances, to imagine
the way the film would respond to
the colours. A festival of seeing.
Photography.
Mostly I had the Distagon T* 2,8/15
ZM on the camera, the perfect lens
for landscapes and, if I got close en-
ough and used it carefully, for people
as well. The extreme light intensity
of the Sonnar T* 2/85 ZM made it
ideal for indoor portrait shots and
available light situations. I soon found
that the camera was a much lighter
range finder camera than the digital
SLR, which balanced out at least part
of the additional weight of the films.
The logistics problem was solvable.
And yes, it was good and right not
to see the pictures immediately, but
instead to hope that one had done
what one had done to the best of
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 12
Camera Lens News No 35
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 13
Camera Lens News No 35
one’s ability. Thus it was that the
scans that I viewed some weeks later
on a computer somewhere became
series with plenty of surprises.
In Poland I met an old man with a
wonderful face and deep, clear eyes.
I asked him if I could take a picture,
but I had finished the film. All I could
do was change it. We started to
talk. The act of rewinding, removing
the old and inserting the new film
became a bridge. We talked about
photography, about German camera
technology, which he believed was
still the best in the world. He then
asked to look at the camera, and
was delighted with the clarity that he
too was able to understand, admired
the quality of the lens. I can see this
warm and friendly contact on the
photo that I took of him. Contact
that was brought about by the
enforced slowness of the process
of changing the film.
The Zeiss Ikon camera and its clear
eye became a valuable companion
to me on this great hike, became
a friend who understood me. As I
understood it.
Markus Zohner’s book “Die Wieder-
entdeckung der Bernsteinstrasse”
with hundreds of black-and-white
and coloured photographs has just
been published and is available
from selected stores. His multimedia
talks delight audiences in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland.
“Die Wiederentdeckung
der Bernsteinstrasse”
FIZZO Photo Book Film
ISBN: 9788890456091
Available postage free from
bestellungen@fizzo.ch and
from bookstores.
For further information on
the project please go to
www.amberroad.ch
Carl Zeiss April 2010 Page 14
Camera Lens News No 35
not be bored reading this article.
We will show an unusual way of
how you can understand depth of
field using very little geometry.
Don’t worry - Aside from some simple
exceptions we will not be talking
about mathematical formulas at all.
Our goal is to understand the inter-
actions and introduce to you some
hands-on rules of thumb. Knowled-
geable facts and figures can be found
in some tables and illustrations.
After all this, it will only be a small
step to fully understand what hides
behind the mysterious term ‘bokeh’.
While the geometric theory of depth
of field looks at the topics from an
idealized point of view you have to
take the real characteristics of each
lens into consideration. This means
that you have to respect the minor
flaws of each lens in order to under-
stand the meaning of ‘bokeh’. The
iris itself is simply not enough – This
much can be said in advance.
For those who are not interested
in getting into too many details
regar-ding the camera technology
we provide some illustrations. Have
fun reading this article.
The complete article by
Dr. Hubert Nasse can be found on
our web site following this link:
www.zeiss.com/cln
You probably come across this
sentence quite a lot when reading
about new lenses. But what are the
technical characteristics behind this
phrase? And what has this got to
do with the iris?
We would like to answer these
questions in this issue of our Camera
Lens News. Since the topic ‘bokeh’
is closely connected to depth of field
we would like to start this article with
a link to the MTF article published in
issue 30 and 31. If you did not have
the chance to read it yet this might
be an interesting supplement to this
article.
Indeed, this topic has been discussed
several times and some of you might
think that this is unexciting topic.
But we are convinced that you will
‘Nine rounded iris blades guarantee images with a harmonic bokeh’
Camera Lens News
A newsletter for all who use, buy, sell,
like, report about and are interested in
Carl Zeiss camera lenses.
All information in Camera Lens News is
accurate to the best of our knowledge at
the time of publication.
Publisher:
Carl Zeiss AG
Camera Lens Division
Marketing
73446 Oberkochen
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 7364/20-6175
Email: photo@zeiss.de
Internet: www.zeiss.de/photo
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