Originally posted by TKH My pleasure to show the simple pics.
OK. Now I´m on the right way, the Planar is the older one. I misunderstood your term "
Tessar lenses are old-reliable pals".
I think we must be thankful that we are blessed to choose in our camera system between Tessar and Planar lenses.
Sorry I actually had my facts wrong... planar lenses are the older design. I'll correct my original post.
Wikipedia:
Tessar:
Early Tessar designs by Paul Rudolph allowed a maximum aperture of f/6.3. Later development allowed an aperture of f/4.5 by 1917. In 1930, Ernst Wanderslab and Willy Merté of Carl Zeiss developed Tessar lenses with apertures of f/3.5 and f/2.8.
Tessar are frequently found in mid-range cameras, as they can provide a very good optical performance at a reasonable price, and are often quite compact. They are also frequently used in photographic enlargers, as they provide more contrast than many competing lens designs due to the limited number of air-to-glass surfaces.
Planar:
The Zeiss Planar is a photographic lens designed by Paul Rudolph at Carl Zeiss in 1896. Rudolph's original was a six-element symmetrical design.
While very sharp, the lens suffered from flare due to its many air-to-glass surfaces. Before the introduction of lens coating technology the four-element Tessar, with slightly inferior image quality, was preferred due to its better contrast. In the 1950s, when effective anti-reflective lens coatings became available, coated Planars were produced with much-improved flare. These lenses performed very well as normal and medium-long focus lenses for small and medium format cameras. One of the most notable Planar lenses is the high-speed f/2.0/110 mm lens for the 2000- and 200-series medium.
Note that tessar lenses had the upper hand in many circumstances prior to the development of good lens coatings. Nowadays, planar lenses tend to have the upper hand overall. In my experience, however, you can still see a little of the flare resistance and improved contrast at work when you compare a modern-coated tessar with a modern-coated planar. The question is whether these attributes win over the larger aperture and increased sharpness seen in planar designs.