Biogon is the brand name of

Carl Zeiss Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practica ...

for a series of

photographic Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed i ...

camera lens A camera lens (also known as photographic lens or photographic objective) is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capab ...

es, first introduced in 1934. Biogons are typically

wide-angle lens In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens refers to a lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane. This type of lens allows more of the scene to be included in the pho ...

es.

History

The first lens branded Biogon (2.8 / 3.5 cm, unbalanced) was designed in 1934 by

Ludwig Bertele Ludwig Jakob Bertele (25 December 1900 – 16 November 1985) was a German optics constructor. His developments received universal recognition and serve as a basis for considerable part of the optical designs used today. Biography Ludwig Jakob Be ...

, then assigned to

Zeiss Ikon Carl Zeiss AG (), branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe (joined 1866) and Otto Schott (joined 1884) he laid the f ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, the

Contax Contax (stylised as CONTAX in the Kyocera era) began as a German camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Zeiss intercha ...

created as a modification of the then

Sonnar The Zeiss Sonnar is a photographic lens originally designed by Dr. Ludwig Bertele in 1929 and patented by Zeiss Ikon.Deutsche Patent 530843, 1929-08-14 It was notable for its relatively light weight, simple design and fast aperture. The name ...

. It was developed by Carl Zeiss in approximately 1937 and manufactured in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, then a redesign in

Oberkochen Oberkochen is a municipality (officially a town, despite its size) in the Ostalbkreis, in Baden-Württemberg, in Germany, central Europe. Name The name "Oberkochen" consists of the two German words "ober", meaning "above" or "upper", and "Koch ...

. In 1951, a new Biogon with a 90°

angle of view The angle of view is the decisive variable for the visual perception of the size or projection of the size of an object. Angle of view and perception of size The perceived size of an object depends on the size of the image projected onto the ...

(Super Wide Angle) was designed, also by

. The advent of the Biogon opened the way to extreme wide-angle lenses. The first examples were produced from 1954 as the 4.5 / 21 mm for Contax, in 1954, 4.5 / 38 mm for

Hasselblad Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium format cameras, photographic equipment and image scanners based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company originally became known for its classic analog medium-format cameras that used a waist- ...

Super Wide, and from 1955 to 1956 as the 4.5 / 53 mm and 4.5 / 75 mm for the Linhof. The original patent spanned three different variants, each with a different maximum aperture: 6.3, 4.5, and 3.4 lenses.

Examples

Since their introduction, lenses branded Biogon are usually approximately symmetrical ("semi-symmetrical") wide-angle design with a usable angle of view of 90° or more. At 90° the

focal length The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foca ...

is approximately half as long as the format's diagonal. Well known

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

manufacturers like

have or had Biogon derived lenses to offer. The lenses branded Super-Angulon (sold by

Schneider Kreuznach Schneider Kreuznach () is the abbreviated name of the company Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, which is sometimes also simply referred to as Schneider. They are a manufacturer of industrial and photographic optics. The company was founded on ...

and

Leica Camera Leica Camera AG () is a German company that manufactures cameras, optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, Telescopic sight, rifle scopes and microscopes. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869 (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar), in Wetz ...

) are based on the construction of the Biogon.
Biogon 1:2,8 ''f'' = 21 mm
90° angle (PDF-File; 65 kB)
Biogon 1:4,5 ''f'' = 21 mm, T* Classic
90° angle (PDF-File; 282 kB)
Biogon 1:2,8 ''f'' = 25 mm
82° angle (PDF-File; 292 kB)
Biogon 1:2,8 ''f'' = 28 mm
75° angle (PDF-File; 182 kB)
Biogon 1:2,0 ''f'' = 35 mm
63° angle (PDF-File; 266 kB)
Biogon 1:4,5 ''f'' = 38 mm CFi
for Hasselblad (

Medium Format Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format in photography and the related cameras and equipment that use film. Nowadays, the term applies to film and digital cameras that record images on media larger than the used in 35&nbs ...

; PDF-File; 166 kB) * Biogon 1:4,5 ''f'' = 53 mm, image diameter of 115 mm, for professional cameras up to the 6 × 9 cm
Biogon 1:5,6 ''f'' = 60 mm
for Hasselblad (

, including the Apollo moon mission, PDF file, 857 kB); PDF-File; 857 kB) * Biogon 1:4,5 ''f'' = 75 mm, image diameter of 153 mm, 92° angle, for

large-format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame o ...

professional cameras up to 4 × 5 inches Other Zeiss lenses include the

Triotar Carl Zeiss AG (), branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe (joined 1866) and Otto Schott (joined 1884) he laid the ...

, Biotar, Biometar,

Tessar The Tessar is a photographic lens design conceived by the German physicist Paul Rudolph in 1902 while he worked at the Zeiss optical company and patented by Zeiss in Germany; the lens type is usually known as the Zeiss Tessar. A Tessar com ...

Planar Planar is an adjective meaning "relating to a plane (geometry)". Planar may also refer to: Science and technology * Planar (computer graphics), computer graphics pixel information from several bitplanes * Planar (transmission line technologies), ...

, , ,

Hologon The Zeiss Hologon is an ultra wide-angle f=15mm 8 triplet lens, providing a 110° angle of view for 35mm format cameras. The Hologon was originally fitted to a dedicated camera, the Zeiss Ikon Contarex Hologon in the late 1960s; as sales of that ...

Topogon Topogon is a wide field (originally 100 degrees field of view), symmetrical photographic lens designed by Robert Richter in 1933 for Zeiss Carl FA. Lenses produced under the name Metrogon also cite the US patent of the Topogon design. The initial ...

, Kipronar, Prokinar.

References

Bibliography

External links

Detailed article about the history of super wide-angle lenses, starting with Hypergon (Italian)

Biogon wide-angle lens article on olypedia.de (German)

Historical Data sheets of Zeiss lenses (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biogon Photographic lens designs Zeiss lenses

History

Examples

See also

References

Bibliography

External links