East German Lenses

[matty]

I was going through my latest car boot find yesterday, a box with a Praktica PL Nova 1 with a Meyer Optik Domiplan 2.8/50 (the camera and lens that I wanted) a Praktica LTL with the Pentacon 1.8/50 (already got one) and at the bottom another Pentacon 50 and a Carl Zeiss Jena 2.8/50 and started thinking about brands in the former DDR. My real question is what difference is there between the different brands seeing as they were all made by state factories? I know Meyer Optik became part of the Pentacon group in the late 60's and their lens were then branded as Pentacon but how independent was the Zeiss factory from Pentacon and were the lenses any better? I've always been happy with the results from my Pentacons, I haven't tried the Meyer Optik 50 yet but like the results I had from my 29mm and 135mm. I've spent a lot of time looking for a working Zeiss (I finally managed to find a couple over the last year)now I've tried them I'm not sure I can really see that there is much difference.
Hope someone can answer my question.
Matty

[Stephen]

There's nothing wrong with the East German lenses from CZ, the Meyer were also good, but they made to simpler types and lower costs. None of the old makers were at any stage independent, they were under central party control, but smaller makers had leeway to prove if they could survive on their own, when they got into trouble, they were pushed into Pentacon.
The price reflects the quality generally on East German items. The Domiplan 2.8 50mm was an economy lens, cheaper to make than a Tessar, but they usually work well, slight fall of in light at the corners at full aperture, where they are a bit soft, but by F8 they behave like a Tessar.
Some telephoto Meyers at fast apertures are as good as Zeiss.
Stephen

[daveh]

The Domiplan is a 3 element lens, as against the 4 elements of the Tessar. I had a Meyer Oreston on the Praktica LLC: a much better lens altogether than the Domiplan. The more expensive option was the Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar lens. Both these lenses are 6-elements in four groups. The Oreston focusses down to just over twelve inches, while the Domiplan can't get much closer than about two and a half feet. I used that Oreston lens and the LLC a lot in the early 1970s.

[daveh]

edit: duplicate post. Proboards said there was a problem posting my reply, so I sent it again, only to then find it was there twice.