Biogon is the brand name of Carl Zeiss for a series of photographic camera lenses , first introduced in 1934. Biogons are typically wide-angle lenses .
34-526: The first Biogon lens (2.8 / 3.5 cm, an asymmetric design featuring seven elements in four groups) was designed in 1934 by Ludwig Bertele while he was working for Zeiss, as a modification of his earlier Sonnar design (1929). The Biogon was assigned to Zeiss Ikon Dresden and marketed with the Contax rangefinder camera. It was produced by Carl Zeiss starting in approximately 1937, first in Jena , then
68-518: A basis for considerable part of the optical designs used today. Ludwig Jakob Bertele was born 25 December 1900 in Munich , to an architect's family. In 1916, Bertele was employed as the assistant of an optics designer at Rodenstock in Munich. In 1919, he moved to Dresden to work at Ernemann Company (Krupp-Ernemann Kinoapparate AG) [ de ] under the supervision of August Klughardt, as
102-522: A designer of optics. In the same year, Bertele would begin the development of the Ernostar [ de ] design. Its basis was the optical scheme of the Ultrastigmat cinema lens, a modified Cooke triplet , which had been developed by Charles C. Minor in 1916 and produced by Gundlach Company . The main purpose of Bertele's developmental work was to increase the light-gathering power of
136-546: A great number of prizes and merited general recognition. In the same year, Bertele computed new optical designs for Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen , resulting in a Biogon lens with a 90° viewing-angle in 1954. This new design was the basis of a number of ultra wide-angle lenses, such as the Biogon f/4.5 21 mm (1954) for Contax; the Biogon f/4.5 38 mm (1954) for Hasselblad ; the Biogon f/4.5 53 mm (1955) and
170-549: A large angular coverage. The following year, in 1951, Bertele designed a new Biogon with a 90° angle of view (Super Wide Angle). The Biogon has been characterized as a simpler Aviogon . Compared to the Aviogon , the Biogon removed a meniscus element and simplified the group ahead of the aperture. The first regular production Biogon lenses were produced from 1954 as the 4.5 / 21 mm for Contax, in 1954, 4.5 / 38 mm for Hasselblad Super Wide, and from 1955 to 1956 as
204-690: A lens as well as diminishing optical aberration . In 1923, after four years of development, Bertele patented his first ultra high-aperture [objective?], the Ernostar f /2 , with successive versions following in the years up to 1926. The lens was fitted to the Ermanox camera, which was specially developed for photo reportage . The Ermanox with Ernostar f /2 was the first camera with sufficient speed and image quality for successful candid photography in natural or otherwise unaltered light conditions. The pictures of prominent political figures taken using
238-617: A redesigned version was built in Oberkochen . Bertele would go on to reuse the design for the Wild Aviotar . After World War II, KMZ also reused the Biogon design for the Jupiter-12 . Symmetric wide-angle lenses with meniscus elements facing the object and image had been developed in the 1930s, including the Schneider Kreuznach Angulon (Tronnier, 1930) with two outer negative menisci, derived from
272-461: A single positive element in front of it, followed by a thick negative meniscus-shaped component, with a positive element behind. In 1931, the first example of such lenses appeared. It received the name Sonnar , derived from the German word sonne ("sun"). This lens consisted of seven elements in three groups, with a maximum aperture of f/2. The main difference from the previous Ernostar lens
306-536: A strong negative meniscus front element to the Biogon design, showing influences from earlier fisheye lens designs, including the AEG Weitwinkelobjektiv (1932) and Zeiss Sphaerogon (1935, Willy Merté [ de ] ), and the Angénieux retrofocus (1950). Since their introduction, lenses branded Biogon are usually approximately symmetrical ("semi-symmetrical") wide-angle design with
340-502: A usable angle of view of 90° or more. At 90° the focal length is approximately half as long as the format's diagonal. Well known camera manufacturers like Hasselblad have or had Biogon derived lenses to offer. Several companies developed and sold highly symmetric super-wide angle lenses similar to the Biogon , including: Günter Klemt patented the Super-Angulon for Schneider in 1954, citing Roosinov's 1946 patent; neither
374-590: Is an ultra wide-angle f= 15mm f / 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 camera were poor and the Zeiss Ikon company itself was going bankrupt, an additional 225 lenses were made in Leica M mount and released for sale in 1972 as
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#1732798424417408-619: Is derived from the Greek words holos , meaning "everything" or "complete", and gonia , meaning "angle"; gonia contributed the final syllable -gon, which had been used in preceding Zeiss wide-angle lens designs such as the Zeiss Distagon and Biogon . As built, the symmetrical design for the Hologon 8/15mm by Glatzel provided excellent correction of coma , spherical and chromatic aberration , astigmatism , and curvature of field ;
442-574: The Biogon f/4.5 75 mm (1955) for Linhof . NASA used the Hasselblad Biogon to document Project Gemini (1965/66) and later the Apollo program (1968–72). In addition, Bertele developed objectives for Schacht, where he was assigned for the computation of ocular lenses, as well as the development of a number of other specialist products. Bertele left the firm in 1956, continuing his own research and giving consultations. In 1958, he
476-587: The Super Angulon design for Schneider, added citations to Bertele's patents. Wild continued to refine the Aviogon and filed for a patent on a simplified design in 1952; that patent, in turn, was cited by Drs. Erhard Glatzel and Hans Schulz in their 1966 patent for the Hologon . Ludwig Bertele Ludwig Jakob Bertele (25 December 1900 – 16 November 1985) was a German optics constructor. His developments received universal recognition and serve as
510-463: The 4.5 / 53 mm and 4.5 / 75 mm for Linhof . The original patent spanned three different variants, each with a different maximum aperture: f / 6.3, f / 4.5, and f / 3.4 lenses. The advent of the Biogon opened the way to more extreme wide-angle lenses. Bertele continued to develop his design, patenting an asymmetric wide-angle lens in 1952 that covered an astonishing 120° angle of view "and beyond, practically distortion free", by adding
544-464: The G Hologon 8/16mm also simplified assembly of the lens, as the cemented groups were easier to manufacture than the hemispherical front and rear elements of the Contarex and M Hologon 8/15mm. Although nominally listed as a 16 mm lens, the focal length of the G Hologon 8/16mm is actually 16.5 mm and it provides coverage of 106° on the frame diagonal. The G Hologon 8/16mm was the only lens for
578-657: The Goerz Dagor ( Emil von Höegh , 1892); and the Zeiss Topogon (Richter, 1933) with two outer positive menisci, derived from the Goerz Hypergon (1900). These concepts were combined in a symmetric super-wide angle lens design using mirrored inverted telephoto lenses , as patented by Roosinov in 1946. In 1950, Bertele designed the Wild Aviogon as a similar highly-symmetric wide-angle lens with
612-538: The M Hologon 8/15mm range from 225 to 1,000. The M Hologon 8/15mm gained a focusing helicoid compared to the Contarex Hologon 8/15mm, and could now be focused down to 0.2 m (7.9 in). Because of the low production numbers and unique focal length, some lenses have been separated from the Contarex Hologon and adapted to Leica mount. The G Hologon 8/16mm was announced with the Contax G1 in 1994;
646-675: The Wild or Zeiss patents by Bertele were cited; The Super Angulon design shares the same six-element, four-group construction with inner cemented doublets flanked by large negative meniscus elements with the Roosinov patent, diverging significantly from Bertele's Aviogon / Biogon designs. The Super-Angulon bears more similarities to the prior Angulon , designed by Albrecht Tronnier for Schneider in 1930 as another highly symmetric wide-angle lens with two cemented triplets. A later 1957 patent by Klemt in collaboration with Karl Heinrich Macher, refining
680-481: The Zeiss Ikon Contarex Hologon. In this version, the lens is fixed focus and aperture; the size of the aperture is set by the incised notch in the second element. Depth of field ranged from 0.5 m (20 in) to infinity. A bubble level is fitted to the top of the (non-reflex) viewfinder. Typically, a pistol grip is affixed to the Hologon camera to avoid inadvertently taking pictures of
714-705: The design of the f /1.5 Sonnar lens as a base, created the first wide-angle lens, the Biogon , with a 60° viewing angle; the original Biogon design was reused for the Wild Aviotar . In 1935, Bertele developed the Sonnar 180mm/2.8, named the "Olympia Sonnar", after the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin . The lens produced high-quality images with bokeh . Between 1943 and 1945, Bertele worked at Steinheil [ de ] in Munich and Lustenau . The firm
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#1732798424417748-537: The field of photogrammetry and geodesic devices. In 1950, he created an aerial 90° viewing-angle f/4.5 lens, the Aviogon , which was free from optical aberrations; distortion was less than 10 μm at any point of the image field, and the lens produced high- resolution images. The new lens quickly replaced the Topogon and Metrogon as the standard lens for aerial photography and photogrammetry. This lens, as well as 120° Super Aviogon , which appeared in 1956, won
782-476: The lens by Erich Salomon are widely known. After the foundation of Zeiss Ikon in 1926, as a result of integration of companies ICA , ( Internationale Camera Actiengesellschaft ) Optische Anstalt CP Goerz , Contessa-Nettel and Ernemann-Werke [ de ] with Carl Zeiss , Bertele continued his work in Dresden except for a short trip to United States in 1929. An experimental optical workshop
816-402: The main fault was vignetting due to the cos law, which was corrected by supplying a graduated neutral density filter to make the exposure more even across the film frame. Although the lens consists of only three elements, manufacturing proved difficult. The original Hologon ( Contarex Hologon 8/15mm ) was first released in 1969 as a f=15 mm f / 8 lens affixed to a dedicated camera,
850-517: The most desirable optical products made in Soviet Russia. In comparison, the Zeiss branch of East and West Germany was tiny; Bertele was in absence at this time, but was known as the most significant optical designer of Soviet Russian optical products. In 1946, Bertele moved to Switzerland, where he founded an optical bureau and began working at Wild Heerbrugg Company (now Leica Geosystems ) in
884-451: The only Zeiss-branded lenses for Leica rangefinders until the ZM line was released in 2005. The Hologon name was revived in 1994 for a recomputed f=16mm f / 8 lens fitted to the Contax G series of rangefinder cameras. The Hologon was designed by Erhard Glatzel [ de ] and others at Zeiss in 1966 and patented in 1972. It is a largely symmetric triplet with a fixed aperture;
918-470: The original German patent application describes a lens with 120° angle of coverage and a f / 8 maximum aperture, while the US patent expands this to three related designs with different coverage angles and apertures (120° f / 8, 110° f / 5.6, and 90° f / 8). In each design, the first and third hemispherical elements are made of optical glass with the same refractive index . At least one prototype Hologon
952-546: The photographer's fingers. Approximately 1,400 Contarex Hologon cameras were made; production continued through 1975 in small batches. In 1971, the list price for the Hologon was US$ 825 (equivalent to $ 6,207 in 2023), marked up from the wholesale cost of US$ 550 (equivalent to $ 4,138 in 2023). The Contarex Hologon 8/15mm lens was later released as part of a set including a finder (with bubble level) and center graduated neutral density filter for Leica M cameras in 1972 ( M Hologon 8/15mm ). Estimates of production for
986-399: The revised G Hologon 8/16mm retained the name from the earlier Contarex and M Hologon 8/15mm, but the construction was completely different, using 5 elements in 3 groups. Zeiss claimed that contrast had been improved by moving the rear element closer to the film plane. The new G Hologon 8/16mm was also provided with a graduated filter to provide a more even exposure. The revised construction of
1020-543: Was a lesser number of optical groups, resulting in lesser light dispersion and a higher contrast . These lenses proved extraordinarily successful, and were appraised by specialists. In 1932, a Sonnar variant with a faster maximum aperture of f /1.5 was developed, which was fitted to Zeiss Ikon 's 35 mm Contax cameras. A number of versions of the Sonnar lens soon followed, with focal lengths from 50 to 300 mm developed until 1940. Around 1934, Bertele, using
1054-487: Was awarded the rank of Honorary Doctor of ETH Zurich . Bertele retired in 1973, but continued his work in optical development, receiving worldwide patents for lens designs as late as 1976-78 and applying for a German patent in 1983. Bertele resided in the small town of Wildhaus in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland in his later years. He died on 16 November 1985. Hologon The Zeiss Hologon
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1088-456: Was built in 1964 or 1965 as a large-format lens with a focal length of 110 mm. It has been shown via radiograph the large format Hologon 8/110mm uses a leaf shutter between the second and third elements, with adjustments to the first and third elements to accommodate it. The prototype Hologon, internally known as the Bilagon, was sold at auction in 2010 for €28800 . The name "Hologon"
1122-578: Was employed by German weapons manufacturers under the auspices of the German Ministry of Aviation. As Zeiss in Dresden and Jena had become part of the Soviet Zone of Occupation in 1945, they were required to transfer their designs, as well as their machinery and staff, for training in Russia and Ukraine , where Sonnars were produced in vast numbers under the "Jupiter" designation, as some of
1156-401: Was given at Bertele's disposal, where he would develop and produce all examples and prototypes from his own calculations. Every lens was given a unique five-cipher number, and the current number of the variant was often engraved upon lenses. In the late 1920s, Bertele began the development of a series of lenses based around the second Ernostar type, which was developed in 1924. Each lens had
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