Lenses Make History

Even the first camera lenses made by ZEISS in the 1890s stood out thanks to their ability to correct spherical aberrations, outstanding color reproduction, and their minimal distortion. These anastigmatic and achromatic lenses, which also corrected field curvature and astigmatism in addition to offering comparatively good light transmission, owe their development to the achievements of the optical designers and the innovative glass developed by Otto Schott. He achieved this by combining high refractive power with low color dispersion (“heavy crown glass”).

In 1896, ZEISS introduced the Planar lens. Its minimal field curvature produces a flat image (“plan” in German), which gave the Planar lens its name. The Planar lens type remains the basis of professional optical tools for all photography on earth and in space today.

In 1902, ZEISS applied for a patent for an invention that would become the most famous and most copied camera lens of all time: the Tessar. It allowed the user to achieve a previously unattainable level of image sharpness with astonishingly little effort, while still being compact. With this model of lens, ZEISS paved the way for the miniaturization in camera design that continues to this day. Millions of lenses used in high-quality cameras and smartphones are modeled on the Tessar design. Today’s modern lenses also incorporate surfaces that are now mostly aspherical and therefore much more advanced, offering even greater image quality.

In the early 1930s, ZEISS developed Sonnar, the fastest light transmission lenses of their time, for the Contax 35 mm camera from Zeiss Ikon. This new standard of lenses significantly increased the 35 mm cameras’ range of uses.

Another groundbreaking process invented by ZEISS in 1935 allowed users to begin capturing images of unparalleled clarity: the antireflective coating, marked as T* on today’s lenses. A coating vapor-deposited onto the glass surface of the lens increases light transmission and reduces unwanted reflections and stray light in the camera. Thanks to this technology, optical systems today can be highly complex and extremely fast at the same time.

1937, ZEISS developed the Arriflex 35 movie camera in partnership with manufacturer of camera systems ARRI – a milestone in the history of film. For the first time ever in a cinema camera, it was possible to see the image in full quality and directly through the lens in the viewfinder while filming. Since then, countless films have been produced using ZEISS lenses, including many successful Hollywood blockbusters.

In 1943, ZEISS was the first lens manufacturer to develop a method for measuring a lenses’ image quality using MTF (modulation transfer function) curves. Numerous manufacturers still use this for quality control today. ZEISS also played a pioneering role in optical design using computer technology. CAD-supported lens development replaced manual design in 1961, and has since made it possible to achieve a much more complex structure and better interaction between the elements within the lens housing.

In 1950, a handshake between Victor Hasselblad, the founder of the company of the same name, and ZEISS’ head of research at the time, Dr. Hans Sauer, marked the beginning of a decades-long partnership to manufacture and develop professional lenses that have been used by generations of professional photographers. Among other products, this partnership led to the development of the Distagon lens model, which is still used today as the basis for high-performance lenses with impressive color correction, speed, image field flatness, and distortion correction.

On July 20, 1969, a dream became reality: humans landed on the moon for the first time. ZEISS played a key role in this ambitious project – camera lenses specially developed for space enabled the astronauts to capture images of this monumental event and many other missions. Further information on ZEISS’ contribution to the lunar missions is available at www.zeiss.com/moon.

At the end of the 1960s, advances in the design of camera lenses made it possible for ZEISS to create another family of state-of-the-art optical products: lithography optics for semiconductor production. Learn more at www.zeiss.com/smt.

In 1987, Hollywood honored ZEISS’ extremely fast camera lenses for the first time with one of the coveted Academy Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Science and Engineering category. Two more followed for the concept and optical design of the ZEISS/ARRIFLEX Variable Prime Lenses in 1999 and the ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime Lenses in 2012.

Over the past 25 years, partnerships with Sony and Nokia have led to the widespread use of ZEISS lenses. Sony has been installing them in its compact cameras and camcorders since 1996. This was followed by interchangeable Sony/ZEISS lenses produced for the Alpha series of cameras. ZEISS optics have also been available in Sony smartphones since 2020. Nokia smartphone users have been able to take pictures with built-in ZEISS lenses since 2005.