Cameras

Oprema Jena Adds the 58mm f2 Biotar as a Bundle Option With the 75mm f1.8

Chris Gampat
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08/23/2017
2 Mins read
Oprema-Jena-Biotar-58mm-f2-lens

Last Updated on 08/23/2017 by Chris Gampat

Oprema Optik announced earlier on that they’re planning on bringing back the legendary 75mm f1.8 Jena Biotar lens; but now they’ve got news of adding the 58mm f2 Biotar to the lineup. In an update, the company is announcing pre-production 58mm f2 Biotar lenses that will be added as a bundle option. The 58mm is also quite legendary and some versions had 13 aperture blades while others even had 17. This focal length has also been coming back into style in the past few years as many not-quite-50mm lenses are seeing a rise due to being better for portraiture but still not as long as an 85mm lens.

Zeiss’ old 58mm f2 had anywhere from 13 to 17 aperture blades depending on which version you got your hands on.

This news is primarily being outed via a Kickstarter update that the company made. It states specifically:

“The Biotar 75 is a great lens, deriving from a great family. As we told you, our technical engineers Wolf-Dieter Prenzel and André de Winter have already plans to revive the famous Biotar 58 mm and the Flektogon lenses.

With the 58mm becoming available as prototype very soon, we want you to get the chance to get your hands on the Biotar 58mm already at an early stage. Therefore we have added a pledge which includes the Biotar 58mm and the Biotar 75mm as a bundle. “

We can assume that these lenses are going to be made of metal and will have something of a special bokeh.

I’m a former owner of the original Zeiss 58mm f2 Jena Biotar lens and they were incredible. Bellamy Hunter tells me that most of the lenses are known to have bubbles because of the lack of quality control–but if you happen to get your hands on one that doesn’t have bubbles, then you’re in luck. My buddy Horatio Tan recently played with a 75mm f1.8 Biotar without bubbles, and it’s images super sharp and gorgeous. The original 75mm f1.8 Biotar lenses are going for a lot of money.

Below are images shot with my original Jena Biotar 58mm f2–hopefully the lens will be up to standard; and I’m sure it will be.

Shot at F2
Shot at F2.

You can check out more of a report at Photo Rumors.

58mm f2 Biotar 75mm f1.8 Biotar kickstarter lenses Oprema Jena portraiture pre-production quality vintage zeiss
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.