Uncommon, Rare, and Collector's Delights.

Retina II with Ektar, and another Retina II with the Xenon.

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4 6,
1946.
 
dexdog said:
Another CZJ lens less common outside of former Eastern Bloc countries, CZJ 35mm f 2.8 Biometar
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My copy of the Biometar 35/2.8 is a stellar performer. Sharp right into the corners at f/2.8 already. To get this performance you do give up the nice 3-dimensional effect of the Biogons, however. Shame that they are so rare.

Here's two relatively rare Contax lenses and a common one with a strange engraving.

A Tessar 28/8 - with a weird engraving that matches the font of wartime military engraved lenses. But I have no idea what it is or what it means. It says "Phi [SUB]3[/SUB]"
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The third "Orthometar" ever made. It is drip-coated. It still uses a Biogon shell as evidenced by the 2.8 on the aperture scale. Says "Made in Germany"
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A "Herar" for the Contax mount. Supposedly 400 made. Two groups in five elements make for only four air-to-glass surfaces, giving it amazing flare resistance despite not being coated. Shown on a very late war-time Contax II 'N'.

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CZJ Biotar 4 1/4cm F2. The front element on this lens is a bit hazy, but not as bad as it appears in this photo. I have been reluctant to take it apart to clean it, but have not gotten around to sending it out for professional service, either. The haze lowers contrast somewhat, but does not make the lens un-usable
 
My biggest and heaviest lens by far, the CZJ 18cm f2.8 Sonnar. Often referred to as the "Olympic Sonnar" due to its use at the 1936 Olympic games, my lens is part of a batch of 100 completed April, 1937. I had this lens cleaned last year and attached the Flektoscop to my Sony a7iii last summer, or the other way around given that the lens weighs several times what the camera does.
 
dexdog said:
CZJ Biotar 4 1/4cm F2. The front element on this lens is a bit hazy, but not as bad as it appears in this photo. I have been reluctant to take it apart to clean it, but have not gotten around to sending it out for professional service, either. The haze lowers contrast somewhat, but does not make the lens un-usable
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I've recently looked at a very clean one of these. Sadly the price was as breath-taking as its condition so I passed. I like the odd fluted design of them. Zeiss were clearly still figuring out how to make external mount wide-angles and only later settled on the more streamlined shape with the Biogon.

I believe the Biogons release is the reason why later ones are labelled 4 1/4cm opposed to 4cm. The field of view and optical formula is identical for both of them. However with a "proper" 3,5cm lens having a 4cm lens in the line-up seemed rather pointless - even with an extra stop of speed, so to emphasize its difference to the Biogon the full focal length was then engraved, slotting it neatly between the 3,5cm Biogon and the 5cm Sonnar/Tessar etc.
 
I am guessing that the front lens element might be easily removed from the Biotar, in that it has the spanner slots on the retaining ring, and no evidence of hidden set screws under the focus ring.
 
dexdog said:
I am guessing that the front lens element might be easily removed from the Biotar, in that it has the spanner slots on the retaining ring, and no evidence of hidden set screws under the focus ring.
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If I were you - I would not even put a spanner to it first. The spanner slots are most likely for the group. I'd try one of these rubber cups on the name ring, which in this era of Zeiss lenses usually retains the front lens. Worse come to worse it won't come off - and you will have do wipe off some grease/rubber marks of the lens.
 
Thanks, good point about taking off the name ring instead of unscrewing the retaining ring. Now, I just need to work up the courage.
 
Thanks, I'm fairly sure the black cap up front is a fake though 😉

Not in the photo are my somewhat rare 5cm f/2.5 Hektor, 2.8cm f/6.3 Hektor and 5cm f/1.5 Xenon.
 
TenEleven said:
If I were you - I would not even put a spanner to it first. The spanner slots are most likely for the group. I'd try one of these rubber cups on the name ring, which in this era of Zeiss lenses usually retains the front lens. Worse come to worse it won't come off - and you will have do wipe off some grease/rubber marks of the lens.
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TenEleven, I tried to remove the name ring with rubber cups as you suggested, ring was on too tight to move. The rubber cup did however remove the front lens group, without use of a spanner wrench. In any case, there was a fair amount of schmoo (hat tip to AvE) on the rear lens element and it cleaned up nicely. Cleaning this surface has cleared up front lens group significantly, and while there appears to be a bit of haze on the rear surface of the front lens element, the lens looks a lot better. Thanks for the tip! Took this pic a few minutes ago, better illumination than yesterday's photo helps show the lens off better.
 
BTW, the rear element of the front lens group is next to the aperture blades, and I was not surprised to see that the lens paper turned yellow as I wiped away the crud.
 
Shown before, my Sankyo Koki Komura lens collection in LTM. The rarest of the group is the 36mm/F1.8, produced only for about a year. Looked for many years for it and purchased it mounted on a Canon P. It wasn't cheap but no where near the price I have seen a couple go for. I know someone else on RFF also has this lens as I remember a photo from a number of years ago.
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