Uncommon, Rare, and Collector's Delights.

Sonnar Brian

Sonnar Brian

Product of the Fifties
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The Foton shown on the Amotal thread inspired this.

Collect camera equipment for over 50 years and you find some very unusual pieces of equipment. I blame Jason Schneider for this obsession. It was the Camera with C02 Film Advance that did me in. I've not found one of those. but have found some unusual cameras and lenses over the many years of doing this. I've walked into Antique Stores and walked out with a $30 Nikon M with 5005 series 5cm F1.4 on it. That's the fun of collecting. Walk into the Library at work and let them know the computer manual in the archive is obsolete because the computer has been in the Smithsonian since 1959, and the Head of the Library gives the manual to you. That was cool.

This one is very rare. I used to hit all the camera shows in the area, and many antique shows and stores. Some rare stuff popped up, mostly before Ebay.



A standard Tessina shown next to the Electric Motor version of the Tessina. Some limited special order modification from the company 50 years ago.

I'll be adding some other selections from the collection over time. Somehow I ended up with Three Questar Modified Nikon F's. Mirror-up release added to flip the mirror before tripping the shutter. Nikon should have done that,

Feel free to add pictures of anything you have that you find unusual.
 
The 74th Simlar 5cm F1.5.

simlar.jpg


This is a Double-Gauss 7 element in 4 group design, an uncommon 1-3-2-1 configuration. The Canon 85/1.5 is also a 1-3-2-1 formula lens. The Simlar 5cm F1.5 was computed before WW-II in 1937, same year as the Nikkor 5cm F1.5. Neither lens made it to regular production until after the war. This lens - would consider pre-production. Internally scribed with "10" on parts, the internal screws had to be put back into the same holes they came out of. A real one-off workmanship about it.

simlar-mount2.jpg


When received on a Canon III, the focus was frozen from dried grease. 4 days of soaking in alcohol. This lens takes 39mm filters. Later ones take 40.5mm filters.
 


APO-Lanthar next to the Pentax 85/4.5.

You can buy the Lanthar for ~$1000 today, in 2022. IN 1970, you would need to add about another $500 to that to get the Pentax lens.
No idea how many were made, about 40 known to exist today. The Pentax is corrected for UV through Infrared, 4 wavelengths- not just 3.
 
This Minolta 3.5cm F3.5 in Leica mount is a 4 element in 3 group Tessar design, like the Nikkor 3.5cm F3.5 and Elmar 3.5cm F3.5.
This lens is double-coated on each surface. Made for a short time end of 1956, into 1957- most were made in Minolta Super-A mount.

Minolta_Chiyoko_Collection by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Minolta_Chiyoko_Collection by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Unique rear lens cap. Maybe a few hundred made. Was slow, and expensive.

Minolta_Chiyoko_Collection by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

And the most difficult to find to complete this lens set.
 
A very early Minolta 5cm F2- uses 40.5mm filters rather than 43mm filters. I believe this is the 127th made. This one had inner haze, was cheap, and I wanted to take one apart anyway. Optical formula appears unchanged from the later lenses, coatings and fixtures are different.



The Minolta 5cm F2 is listed as being a 7 element in 4 group design. Other people more recently call it a 7 element in 6 group design. Depends on how you define a group.
Air-spaced elements are also called groups. You have air-spaced elements that form a group, and cemented elements that form a group.

This haze saved me a lot of money...



Air Spaced Group.





The main difference between the Minolta and the Summitar, the Minolta uses air-spaced groups where the Summitar uses cemented groups. Otherwise- the layout is very much the same.



Swirls like a Summitar. That's kind of like Shake it like a Polaroid.
 
OK, I do not have anything near as exotic as Brian, but will play the game anyway. The lowest number 5cm/1.5 Sonnar on record according to the Thiele book on CZJ lenses. I bought this lens on eBay in 2009 for about $600.


I donated this lens to the Zeiss archives in Jena in 2018.
 
My theory on the FIRST EVER MADE 5cm F1.5 Sonnar being coated, "Hey Guys, try the Vacuum Deposition Gear on this old one here before we mess up a new one"....

I'm happy to be getting one from the same batch... and will be posting back to this thread. According to Thiele, the first batch of 5cm F1.5 Sonnars was completed in 8 days. 8 Days a Week. Sounds like an inspiration for the Beatles.

I've borrowed the early LTM Sonnar: The side of the mount is filed down, my theory- so someone could use it on an M3. I also have a 1949 8.5cm F2 Nikkor filed down at the same location. Later Nikkor 8.5cm F2 LTM lenses were redesigned to fit an M3.
 
Not that rare, but hard to get and somewhat desirable is my Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.8 Ultron in M42 mount. My dad bought a Zeiss Icarex 35S new in about 1971. 4 years later I bought the camera from him with the Ultron for about $100. I revived the Ultron recently (It was in good condition, but needed some cleaning/lubing, which I sent out to have done). The lens is mounted on an earlier 35S I bought recently. The original camera body is in the background, and completely out of focus. The shutter stopped working years ago.


Zeiss Icarex 35S by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr
 
Something that few people have ever seen in real life, an original lens hood for the Canon 50/0.95


I got this hood and about 30 other mostly Canon RF hoods and filters on ebay in 2008 or so as part of a "big box o' camera junk" for about $75. I was the only bidder. Those were the good old days on ebay where most things were still auctioned and you would come across things that the sellers did not know what they had. I have the leather case for this hood, too
 
[QUOTE The side of the mount is filed down, my theory- so someone could use it on an M3.[/QUOTE]

Concerning the filed off knurling on my LTM Sonnar, I have often wondered how this lens got mangled, I shoulda guessed it a leica user 🙄
 
dexdog said:
Another old CZJ lens, likely one of the first produced by CZJ in LTM. Pretty sure I bought this one off an RFF member about 10 or 12 years ago.


Click to expand...

That's a gorgeous lens, even with the stupid (Leica induced) filing down of the lens mount area. The focus throw seems unusually long - even for the period. I guess Zeiss' engineers didn't really trust the Barnacks' rangefinder to be up to the task.
 
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