markjwyatt
Well-known
Playing around with old lenses, waiting for spring flowers to appear soon. A 1951 Jupiter-9 in LTM. CZJ serial number on rear lens group.
The CZJ serial number (2)851104 appears in Harmut Thiele's book as part of a batch of 2,000 8.5cm/2 lenses completed February 6, 1946. I also have two CZJ 85/2 lenses in LTM from the same batch
I have Thiele's book, and that serial number range without the "2" in front is for a 15 cm f4.5 Tessar for the Zeiss Ikon Ideal (1928ish)- not consistent. Why do you think there is a 2,000,000 attached to this? For 2,851,104 I do see the 85mm f2 Sonnar. In your LTM 85/2s do they drop the "2" in front?
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Zeiss did not stamp the entire SN in all of the fixtures, just the last digits. I've seen 4, 5, and 6 digits stamped in the inner fixtures.
"5cm F1.5 Sonnar Conversion 29". Did this one in 2012. I've done almost 60 of these.
Lots of Twos. Three Twos on the front ring, Two Twos on back.
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dexdog
Mentor
I have seen just the last 6 digits on rear lens groups. The dozen or so that I have successfully taken apart and reassembled have various numbers of digits stamped on the inner fixtures as Brian has noted.
markjwyatt
Well-known
I guess it was "work-in-progress". Everyone knew where they were in terms of millions... On the lens front the full serial number is needed.
The Serial Numbers stamped on inner fixtures are used to match the components of the lens. When the Russians completed assembly of the early Jupiters using Zeiss components, new name rings were made with the KMZ SN scheme. The inner serial numbers remained, out of sight. Disassembling the lens- having the inner serial number is good confirmation of Zeiss manufacture and gives the lot number.
dourbalistar
Buy more film
I'm not sure if this is actually rare, but I think it's uncommon. Perhaps the Head Bartender or a resident Cosina-Voigtlander expert could confirm or shed some light. Most other examples I have seen of the early 107-SW (aka Voigtlander Bessa-L) have the Cosina badge engraved on the front plate. My copy has no branding, only the model name - I don't think it's been altered. For what it's worth, I bought this off the Big Auction site from a seller in Mexico. An entry on the Camerapedia wiki notes that:
Cosina 107-SW aka Bessa L by dourbalistar, on Flickr
Cosina 107-SW aka Bessa L by dourbalistar, on Flickr
TenEleven
Well-known
For the record, in the camera stores in Tokyo as well as online I have seen many many "Bessa L" and some, much less, "Cosina 107-SW" - I have however never seen a body that omits the "Cosina" branding, so yes this is likely to be rare. And kind of cool.
I wonder if this might be a "tweener" camera where they were changing the branding to "Voigtlander" but had not yet decided on a name for the camera, yet...
I wonder if this might be a "tweener" camera where they were changing the branding to "Voigtlander" but had not yet decided on a name for the camera, yet...
TenEleven
Well-known
To add something of my own... or rather something I have spotted, but did not buy because frankly the asking price was outrageous. (Around $900) Insult to injury the card said it did not focus right, which did not surprise me at all since the lens is sat too far back in my view. It would have needed to go much closer to the film plane for a Sonnar.
I'd have considered seeing if I can fix this sick puppy, or rather complete the work of making it into a Leica lens, if the asking price was maybe 1/3rd or 1/4th of what it was. The glass was in nice condition...
If I had a guess I think the donor in this case was either a Summar or a Summitar.
The latter seems more likely, but I am not a Leitz expert.
None the less I thought it was interesting, it is sort of the "brother" version to my mounted in a Summarit shell CZ (post war) Sonnar 50/1.5. In both cases the DOF scale will be correct, which I guess is a nice touch. Here's some pictures so you can see how it was done.
I'd have considered seeing if I can fix this sick puppy, or rather complete the work of making it into a Leica lens, if the asking price was maybe 1/3rd or 1/4th of what it was. The glass was in nice condition...
If I had a guess I think the donor in this case was either a Summar or a Summitar.
The latter seems more likely, but I am not a Leitz expert.
None the less I thought it was interesting, it is sort of the "brother" version to my mounted in a Summarit shell CZ (post war) Sonnar 50/1.5. In both cases the DOF scale will be correct, which I guess is a nice touch. Here's some pictures so you can see how it was done.
JakobN
JakobN
Here are an uncommon and a very uncommon 5cm f2 Sonnar. I believe these lenses have been altered from Contaflex mount to Contax mount before leaving the factory, maybe due to less than expected demand for the Contaflex camera. I can not be sure as I do not have a Contaflex lens. These two types occur in batches with many regular Contaflex lenses, in the front they look the same. The first has the deep set front lens already seen in the last nickel version (and in the rigid chrome that milescl presented 10 days ago), the second looks like the common collapsible for Contax but the front lens and the bezel with the lettering are recessed in the mount. Of the lens on the left I have seen 34 copies in my 20+ years of searching for Sonnars, whereas of the variant on the right I have only seen two.
markjwyatt
Well-known
The one on the right (The one I can see the serial number for) is from a batch of 400 Contax lenses lenses that include some Contaflex lenses per Halmut Thiele. There were four batches of 3000 Contax lenses made in 1935, your lens was part of them. 600 were retractable, of the Of your batch of 400 and the first batch of 1000 for 1935, some Contaflex lenses were included. The Contax II was released in 1936. The Contaflex was produced in 1935.