I picked up this lens back in the 1990's at a camera show. It was old even then. I do not know what camera system it was intended for, but it was sometime between the late 1940's and the 1960's I believe.

Lens is marked Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar, specs are f:4 and 13.5 cm length, focus from 8 feet to infinity. Mount is compatible with Universal Screwmount 42mm. Body is heavy chrome, glass is well coated. Settings are all manual, no extra couplings to camera body.

Damage to the front retainer ring is due to me. The brass of the threading was seized up and I went to heroic means to extract the ring for internal cleaning. I was able to clean some surfaces, but not all, and a light haze deposit remains inside on some of the glass.

Jena is in East Germany near Dresden. Local sand deposits are of a quality and clarity to allow for the manufacturing of lens glass of unsurpassed quality.

Using an adapter for m42 screwmount to Pentax P/K body mount, I was able to couple the lens to a Pentax *ist D digital body for testing. Camera body was set to Aperture Priority for metering, focus and aperture were set by me manually. I tested the subject matter at various apertures, hand held with available light. The 135 mm lens length translated to the equivalent of about a 200 mm lens in 35mm film terms. I think the lens performed very well at all apertures, especially despite the aforementioned internal fogging. I was quite happy with results, and would use this lens again.

The set was captured here at home in our gardens with late season flowers and foliage. Lens length and focus range allowed for some pretty close work. All of the flowers seen are tiny, mostly about fingernail size or smaller.

Please click on thumbnails to see enlarged.
All images are ©2018 E.J.Kowalski.
Thanks! Ed