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aus JENA (Carl Zeiss) "S" (Sonnar) 135mm F3.5 | | | | Sharpness | | | Aberrations | | | Bokeh | | | Handling | | | Value | |
| | Reviews | Views | Date of last review | | 5 | 28,552 | Sat March 4, 2023 | |  | | Recommended By | Average Price | Average User Rating | | 100% of reviewers | $53.25 | 8.80 | | | | 
supersize
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| Author: | | New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 14 | | Review Date: September 2, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $38.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | really very sharp, stopped down at f 8 | | Cons: | very few CA's wide open, in bokeh sometimes visible | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: k200.k-x.mg.k2,MZ-10 sf-x etc.
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my lens is a few dusty in the interior. very similar to tele-tessar 4/135 of west german zeiss.
wide open sharpness 8, but stopped down to f8-11 sharpness 9, and with one of my macro tubes with integrated bi-convex achromate as focal reductor the sharpness is incredible 10+.
the optical base construction is 5/4. but my jena S has been improved by special fitting into a small M42 ring and using of an achromatic front lens of a binocular 8x30 to an excellent 7/5 element building. these achromates are very important for macro shootings. excellent results and 10 points !!!
I don't want to miss this lens. One of my best ones 135 mm.
| | | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: July, 2012 Location: Toowoomba, Australia Posts: 5,484 | | Review Date: March 4, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very sharp and renders beautifully. I would not be without it. | | Cons: | None really but half a stop slower than my FA135/f2 | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 5
Handling: 8
Value: 7
Camera Used: K10D
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I have a 135/f3.5 "S" lens. It renders beautifully and handles very well.
Most of the technical stuff has already been covered. But there is lot of heir-splitting here on markings, most of which is irrelevant - too many separate listings for the same lens. Some clarification:
"aus Jena" simply means "from Jena" - Jena being the city where the East German Zeiss factory was.
CZJ stands for Carl Zeiss Jena.
"S" on lenses stands for Sonnar. Because of copyright arguments/issues at times, the Jena factory could not alays use "Sonnar" even if it was the Sonnar lens optical formula. The same applies to B for Biotar or Biometar and T for Tessar for other lenses.
A small 1 inside a Q denotes export quality. However, there is no reason to assume that a lens without that mark will be of lower quality.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2014 Location: Paris Posts: 1,939 | | Review Date: November 2, 2014 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | IQ, IQ, IQ | | Cons: | MF | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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nice lens, IQ is top notch, the MF make this lens a "not to buy right now" for me
| | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2019 Posts: 15 | | Review Date: August 30, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Very good but not as good as some exaggerated reviews | | Cons: | Over-rated | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
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Mine was the black Sonnar "S" version with the "Aus" lettering in very good, not mint condition. Who knows what "Aus" means? Just added carl Zeiss jena lens confusion trying to identify what you are looking at or buying. Generally good all-round lens with nice mid-range f-stop quality. Not so good at low aperture numbers, nor at high numbers. Feels superb on a Pentax SP-type film SLR. Beautiful to use. Looks good.
As with many "cult" lenses that have linguistically-constructed mystique in many online reviews it just does not live up to the hype and the giddy cliché repetition that you often find online. A Takumar 135mm f3.5, despite not being the finest 135mm in the world, is just as good and it has a greater infinity focus and you can get one generally cheaper than this Carl Zeiss Jena. Sadly, as with today's digital technology-swamped crowd who paid a huge bomb for a camera and want to save a buck by buying cheap old lenses, a lot of people rate a lens as solely responsible for the quality of a picture when it's their sensor and processor and software systems that are actually producing the image in conjunction with the lens. Sharpness (a very dull term) and chromatic aberration and distortion are all influenced by the camera as well as the lens in digital photography. So some camera users give giddy reviews for this lens without realising how a digital camera works.
The bokeh is good. I would not recommend it for long distance or landscape photography. But that's often the case with these old used 135mm lenses as they are nothing like the superb mid-focal length telephoto or zoom digital lenses from the giants of the DSLR world. Good for mid-distance work, though. Close focus is lovely and it's superb how close you can get with this lens.
| | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076 | | Review Date: May 25, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Build, long throw, sharp, stop down lever, auto ... | | Cons: | Hefty, tendency to have sticky focus throws ... | |
Bonjour,
Picked up an decent copy of this "aus Jena" lens at Poitiers' swap and had to service a slightly stiff focus ring. This lens is exactly the same as a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135/3.5, since I have both and compared them together, only very minor exterior markings differences.
My CZ Sonnar developed a problem with its external stop down lever, so I dissembled both lens side by side to find the problem with the CZ Sonnar. Inside, both lens are identical mechanically and I repaired the CZ Sonnar thanks to the "aus Jena" copy; also cleaned up/out some minor haze/fungus upon the rear element block on the "aus Jena".
Some sample shots to come later ... quite happy with this acquisition.
Allez et salut, J
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