Classic Series

Classic Industrial Lenses

Proven optical design in a sturdy metal housing.

In addition to precise focus and aperture fixing, the ZEISS Classic lens family offers exceptional image quality with high contrast for technical and industrial applications. The exterior design features a full metal body as well as a focus ring that allows precise manual focusing.

The lenses cover line sensors up to 43 mm (4k to 8k) or full-frame area sensors with 24 × 36 mm² (up to 42 Mpixel). They are available with F mount and M42 × 1 mount (45.5 mm flange focal length) for more stability. The lens family consists of five lenses from 25 mm to 85 mm focal length. This range is rounded off by the lenses of the ZEISS Interlock family.

ZEISS lenses for technical applications are key components in complex production processes (Machine Vision) as well as in optical metrology, medical applications, traffic surveillance, quality assurance, sports and many other applications. Here they prove their outstanding image performance and reliability. Thanks to the precise manual adjustment of the helical focus mount, you achieve significantly better results than with comparable lenses.

Distagon / Planar

• F Mount, Industrial Version
• M42 Mount, Industrial Version

F Mount, Industrial Version

M42 Mount, Industrial Version

Biogon / C-Sonnar (M42 Mount)

These lenses were developed for industrial cameras with sensor sizes of up to 24 × 36 mm² or 43 mm line sensors and are available with an M42 × 1 mount (26.8 mm flange focal length).

Classic SLR Lenses

Proven optical design with a legendary bokeh in a sturdy metal barrel.

• Full Frame
• Manual Focus
• Canon EF Mount
• Nikon F Mount

Outstanding image quality

The range of ZEISS T*® lenses offers the highest possible standards in terms of performance, reliability and of course image quality. They are simply superior in every way. For example, you can rely on a highly developed stray light control for razor-sharp and brilliant images. Virtually no geometric distortion ensures precise accuracy when reproducing shapes – particularly useful when photographing products and architecture.

Ideal aperture with nine blades

Photographers want to guide the viewer through the image. Minimum depth of field is often used as a design element. This intentionally leaves the background out of focus to draw the viewer's attention to the main subject. This different representation of the blurred areas as well as the quality of the transition is called the bokeh of a lens. The finely tuned features of the optical design of the ZEISS SLR lenses ensure a particularly harmonious effect in the blurred image areas. The nine aperture blades and the resulting almost circular aperture opening on ZEISS SLR lenses are crucial for the good reproduction of highlights in the foreground and background.

ZEISS Classic lenses – Excellence from tradition

The ZEISS Classic lenses have enjoyed an excellent reputation among photographers all over the world for many years – and rightly so. The solid all-metal mount ensures constant functionality and image performance, regardless of the number of photos taken. The manual focus promotes creativity in the composition of the picture.

ZEISS T* anti-reflective coating

The optical elements of the ZEISS lenses have a T*® anti-reflective coating on all surfaces and an optical design that guarantees images of outstanding brilliance at all times, even in unfavorable lighting conditions. The anti-reflective coating is applied to the lens surface by evaporating wafer-thin, transparent layers onto the glass. Special substances are vaporized with extremely high energy in a high-vacuum environment and then successively deposited as layers with precisely controlled thicknesses on the glass surfaces in order to achieve the desired reduction in reflective properties. The first coating processes were used by ZEISS back in the 1930s.

Precise manual focus

Focusing a lens manually means controlling the resulting image with your fingertips. A good ergonomic design makes the difference. ZEISS lenses are characterized by their large angle of rotation, which enables precise focusing. Changes are immediately visible in the viewfinder. The high-quality focusing mechanism moves smoothly and without play, thus also supporting intuitive interaction with the focal plane. The precise engraving in meters and feet as well as the depth of field scale also support manual focusing.

The planar lens design is the most successful—and most copied—camera lens design of all time. Modifications of the proven six-lens basic type ensure that it achieves the high imaging quality of modern sensors. Lenses with a planar optical design enable consistent performance over a wide range of magnifications – the key requirement for general-purpose macro lenses.

EF Mount

F Mount