Peter: my own opinion based on many Tessar samples, collected from a variety of different cameras/mounts, is that a Tessar is a Tessar. It is said the West German Tessar was recomputed and improved in the 1960's with the Contaflex Super cameras.
Unless you know the full history of your Automats, there are many factors that can affect the performance of the lens. E.g. alignment of the lens panel, mirror/focus screen/viewing lens adjustment, match in focal length between viewing/taking lenses, unknown "swaps" of viewing/taking lenses, unknown swaps of the front element of your taking lens, etc.
Peter J Nebergall wrote:
I've brought this up before -- w/o clear answers. I have an OS#2, and two Automats. All have "Tessars." The OS2's is uncoated, and smaller infront diameter than the Automats'... One Automat has a coated Opton. The other clearly has a piece of replacement glass, a much later "CarlZeiss Tessar." -- this is NOT a Jena lens, but one from later. Zeiss East and Zeiss West were both making Tessars. How identical were they? And the much later CZ Tessar -- was it the same, or was it animprovement?My cameras, the CZ blows the Opton away, but the lens is in better condition, so that, rather than design, might be the operant...Peter Nebergall ---Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
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