Pancolar
Pancolar is the brand for a lens series from VEB Carl Zeiss Jena .
The pancolar belongs to the large group of modern lenses based on the basic design of the Gaussian double lens . Lenses of this type were made for normal and short telephoto focal lengths and enjoy a very good reputation for their image quality.
The pancolar can be understood as a modification of the planar . In contrast to the planar, however, its structure is asymmetrical. The Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 1.8 / 50 (from 1965) and the Pancolar 2/50 (1962–1965) consist of 6 lenses in 5 groups. A special feature is the close focus limit of 35 cm, which is small compared to other contemporary lenses. The optical design was modified for the brightest variants Pancolar 1.4 / 55 (for the Pentacon Super, 1967–1972) and Prakticar 1.4 / 50 (for Praktica bayonet, 2 variants, 1978–1990); both are made up of 7 lenses in 6 groups . The Pancolar 1.4 / 75, which was also presented at the Pentacon Super, had a different structure - 7 lenses in 7 groups.
Carl Zeiss Jena manufactured these lenses for the M42 lens thread , the Praktina and Exakta bayonets. From 1978 pancolars were also manufactured for the bayonet connection of cameras of the Praktica -B series under the name "Carl Zeiss Jena Prakticar". Models intended for export to Western Europe bear the manufacturer's name instead of a reference to VEB Carl Zeiss, “from Jena”. The zoom lenses in this series are called "Vario-Pancolar".
