Ms-Optics C.Z TESS 35mm

Review and photo examples of MS-Optics C.Z TESS 35mm.

Gallery

The photo example was taken with a Leica M-P.

Review

The C.Z.TESS 35mm F3.5 is a lens that uses the Tessar format with 4 elements in 3 groups, which was featured in the Yashica T* (or Kyocera T*), a Kyocera compact camera from the film era.
The lens is made by Ms-optics (Miyazaki Optical), and the lens is taken out from the camera and transplanted to the Ms-optics common helicoid MS-35.
The MS-35 is designed to work with the Leica M camera rangefinder.

The images taken with this lens are very good, even in the digital age, with only slight vignetting.
However, when photographing a blue sky with the LEICA M-P TYP240, which has a slightly older sensor design, color cast may occur at the periphery of the image.
Peripheral light reduction is an unavoidable phenomenon due to the diameter of the lens, so it is necessary to take measures such as choosing a scene where the periphery is reduced by taking into account the lens that reduces the periphery.
If you drop the periphery, the problem of color cast will disappear, so it is a solution that kills two birds with one stone.
Additionally, color cast depends on the camera’s image sensor, so if you have a camera that doesn’t cast color, you only need to worry about vignetting.

This lens is very compact, and without the hood, it is 9mm thick and weighs 36g, which is an unthinkable size and weight for lenses from the 2020s.
The operational drawback is that the aperture cannot be changed when a filter is attached.
The aperture of F3.5 is a bit dark, but the images are sharp enough, so you’ll probably need to take some time to shoot only with a set aperture, like the Russian lenses Russar and Orion.

The nameplate of the lens varies depending on when it was modified, such as C.Z.TESS'' like this lens, orFOR TESSAR”. The lens barrel is available in silver and black, the silver one is an old one that was modified and has an L39 mount, and the black one is a recently modified one that has an M mount.

The Sonnar 35mm/F2.8 for CONTAX T3 is also on the used market as a transplanted lens from Ms-Optics’ compact camera, and I’m very interested in it, but the price has skyrocketed so I can’t afford it.

Specification

This lens was mounted on a 35mm film camera using the Tessar format with four elements in three groups.
The lens uses Ms-optics’ common helicoid MS-35 as its helicoid.

Item	Value	note
focal length(mm)	35
Maximum aperture	3.5
Minimum aperture	16
Lens configuration	3groups 4elements	Tessar Type
Minimum distance(m)	0.6	Works with the camera’s rangefinder from 0.8m to infinity.
Lens length(mm)	9
Lens max diameter(mm)	48.7
Filter diameter(mm)	34
Weight(g)	36