The Zeiss Hologon 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 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.
9-506: 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; 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,
18-545: 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; the revised G Hologon 8/16mm retained the name from the earlier Contarex and M Hologon 8/15mm, but
27-728: The Bilagon, was sold at auction in 2010 for €28800 . The name "Hologon" 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 ;
36-413: 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 the G Hologon 8/16mm also simplified assembly of the lens, as the cemented groups were easier to manufacture than
45-456: The first and third hemispherical elements are made of optical glass with the same refractive index . At least one prototype Hologon 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
54-681: 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 the Contax G that was manufactured in Germany. Like the earlier Contarex 8/15mm Hologon, the G Hologon 8/16mm also has been adapted unofficially to Leica M mount. Erhard Glatzel Too Many Requests If you report this error to
63-494: 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 the photographer's fingers. Approximately 1,400 Contarex Hologon cameras were made; production continued through 1975 in small batches. In 1971,
72-467: 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 the M Hologon 8/15mm range from 225 to 1,000. The M Hologon 8/15mm gained
81-518: 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, the Zeiss Ikon Contarex Hologon. In this version,
#250749