FA 35/2: Planar? Tessar?

I know that the DA limiteds are Tessar designs while the FA limiteds are planar designs. But what about the FA 35/2? Is it a Planar, a Tessar, or something else entirely? Might any lens guru out there know?

I thought the definition of a Tessar was 4 elements hence its name, as far as I'm aware the DA ltds have different numbers of elements in different numbers of groups.

The DA Limited lenses are not Tessar lenses. Tessar lenses are four element designs that build upon the Triotar (three element) design with a cemented doublet as the rear group.

Planar lenses are older still and are five or six element designs with wider apertures than the Tessar.

Sonnar lenses are telephoto designs, probably five elements.

Then we have the wide angle Biogons, Distagons, etc.

Many lens designs may well start off with the basic concept of one of these designs, particularly symmetrical designs, but computer design and new glasses have moved things along very considerably.

My impression was that the DA limiteds were based on Tessar designs, while the FA limiteds were based on planar designs. Admittedly, this might have just me being confused by reading this thread:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/125952-planar-vs-t...

Sorry about the bother!

There are currently no true Tessar designs in the Pentax range (the last being the M50/4 macro). The only lens that conforms to a Planar design is the FA50/1.4 (although I'm not sure if that counts as lens currently in production or not?).

None of the DA or FA Limiteds conform to a Zeiss patent, although the DA40 is similar to the offspring of a Tessar and a Heliar.

Most of what is posted in the thread you've linked to could be reasonably be filed under "total guff".

isn't FA43 sharing it's optical layout with FA50?
and 77ltd doesn't seem to be too far off either... I'm not saying they are exactly the same but they all have the same number of elements with very similar layout. Sure 77ltd has FREE design but still seems to be derived from the same formula as 43/50(1.4 and 1.2 versions)

the DA40 is derivate of tessar. There is one more element at the end of it but the origins are pretty sure...

my 2p

The 77mm was based on the 85mm. There is a very good PDF file by the lens designer (Jun Hirakawa) about the design of the LTD lenses. Sorry I haven't the link handy.

Edit: Found it link
Set of 10 pages English pages towards the back.