Collectors value

Just a short reminder for all collectors out there that what you might buying today gone through a lot of hands. Sellers might rip bundles apart to sell the stuff separate or create new bundles. Let me show you a case.

www.ebay.com

ROBOT ROYAL 36 CHROME MOD.III RANGEFINDER CAMERA +ZEISS SONNAR 50MM F2 LENS | eBay

50mm Sonnar lens serial #1526512. -Zeiss 50mm Sonnar f2 lens. -Original Zeiss lens cap. -Viewfinder has a little haze. -This is the desirable Royal 36 MOD. III TOP OF THE LINE 36mm x 24mm film format version that shoots 36 exposures in that film format.
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www.ebay.de

Robot Royal 36 Rangefinder 35mm camera w. Zeiss Sonnar 2/50mm full working boxe | eBay

Entdecken Sie Robot Royal 36 Rangefinder 35mm camera w. Zeiss Sonnar 2/50mm full working boxe in der groÃen Auswahl bei eBay. Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!
www.ebay.de
  • Robot Royal 36 with Sonnar 50mm f2
    • offer A: camera = Z-138697 + lens = 1526512
    • offer A papers: camera = Z-151308 + lens = 1746087
    • offer B: camera = Z-141203 + lens = 1746087
As you can see cameras and lenses get swapped and accessory is added to different bundles.
 
Here is another tale from Ebay.

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Contax II Rangefinder Camera w/Zeiss 50mm Sonnar AS-IS, FOR PARTS | eBay

The shutter hangs up, the viewfinder is dim and impossible to focus.
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Sonnar 5cm f/1,5 Nickel with black belt, serial 1628334 sold for $140 in January

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EARLY BLACK/NICKEL CARL ZEISS SONNAR 5CM F1.5 CONTAX II III RANGEFINDER LENS F11 | eBay

Early f11 aperture! RARE EARLY BLACK/NICKEL VERSION! BOTH GLASSES ARE IN AMAZING SHAPE FOR THEIR AGE! MICROSCOPIC TO NO MARKS ON THE GLASSES. NO VISIBLE HAZE!
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Sonnar 5cm f/1,5 Nickel with black belt, serial 1628334 on offer for $1000 in March

The same lens going from $140 to $1000 in 2 month. Don't get me wrong. The lens is worth the higher price. The first seller made a mistake to let it go for so cheap. But it was clear that the buyer did not buy it for his collection but to get a big bonus in selling it for an appropriate price.
 
@Räuber
The black ring and chrome mounts must have run concurrently, and this one is like mine- engraved "Made In Germany". Now I wonder if the Black Ring mounts like-wise engraved were used at a slower pace and those lenses made for export. I have a 1607xxx lens in chrome mount, not engraved "Made in Germany".

I missed that Contax with the Sonnar, but cannot complain too much. I paid $67 for mine years ago, also "parts" status. Cleaned up perfectly.
 
I do.

Fun fact: when I bought it I had no idea that this lens was rare or that it was original. But the price was very reasonable (about $150) so I thought "Eh, why not?". However I would advise folks against paying a lot for this lens. At least in mine the focus mount is welded (by aluminum corrosion) to the front part of the lens. This means I can change the grease on the focus mount, but if the grease ever creeps into the aperture itself it's game over for this lens.

Optically it's decent -a typical 3million Sonnar. Not my preferred version, but alas.

It might just be my copy, but at least from what I seen other Jena LTM lenses seem a lot more serviceable.
 
www.ebay.de

Contax 2a mit Sonnar 1:1,5:50mm unf faltgegenlichtblende | eBay.de

Entdecke Contax 2a mit Sonnar 1:1,5:50mm unf faltgegenlichtblende in groÃer Auswahl â Vergleichen Angebote und Preise â Online kaufen bei eBay.de â Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!
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Here we have a full chrome Sonnar 5cm f/1,5 with a red T mark. So it is single coated. Most of you should already know that it is no fake. Those early Sonnars were coated AFTER the war. Owners could send in their Sonnar lens and get the missing coating applied to it. CZJ engraved those lenses with the red T too. Those copies are quite rare so maybe someone would like to get their hands on this one... 🙂
 
I'm sure this is a regular chrome Sonnar 5cm f1,5 but with added coating. The funky look comes from a collapsible lens hood with screw in lens cap.
 
Yes, there are a small number of Sonnar lenses with this blue coating. They do not have a red T engraved. They are equally spread around those early uncoated Sonnars like the ones with red T. There is no pattern to discover in both cases. It seems those are random lenses that got coated later. Both kind of later-coated lenses is equally rare.

A lot of people think that those blue coated Sonnars are examples of early coatings done by CZJ to test the lens coating process. I'm not convinced. Those coated Sonnars without red T have a blue coating. The typical CZJ T coating is brown-violett.

DSC03809.jpg
 
www.ebay.de

Zeiss Sonnar M 39 mit 50mm/ 1,5 lichtstärke mechanisch komplett serviciert | eBay.de

Entdecke Zeiss Sonnar M 39 mit 50mm/ 1,5 lichtstärke mechanisch komplett serviciert in großer Auswahl ✓ Vergleichen Angebote und Preise ✓ Online kaufen bei eBay.de ✓ Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!
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Another Sonnar 5,8cm f/1,5 here. This time again with the wrong engraving 5cm. I would call this a Sonnar 6cm f/1,5... Although the seller did not know what he is selling unfortunately the price tag is right. It is priced equally expensive as other copies of this kind of Sonnar. No steal here.

One of those mystery Sonnars that were not manufactured by CZJ (or Zeiss Oberkochen). The origin still is a secret. A lot has been written in threads here about those 5,8cm Sonnars.
 
I'm not really a Contax, well, 'addict', other than being the happy owner of two G1s, the Let's Pretend Contax but a fine camera, with five Zeiss Contax lenses, rebranded but all truly wonderful glass.

I cut my teeth in the early 1960s with a '30s Contax - unsure which model, but obviously a very early one, maybe even from the first production line - an uncle who owned it kindly let me play with it as he no longer used it. I made my first '35' negatives with it, which I still have. The uncle passed away 46 years ago and I never found out what happened to the camera - sadly I suspect my aunt (who died in 2011) threw it out. Also he had a prewar Rolleiflex with an uncoated Tessar, also long vanished, which I used in 1962 for one roll of 120 Kodak Verichrome Pan.

All this written, I've been following this thread from day one, and I've learned a lot from it. Also from a 1937 English catalogue put out by Contax, detailing all the cameras and lenses and the many matched accessories.

So a less than brief post to say to the OP, MANY THANKS for all the time and effort you have put into this. Greatly appreciated by me, and I'm sure certainly many others.
 
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That was my second thought when I started this thread to share some bits and bites of the complicated and interesting Sonnar story while trying to find a new home for some of the dispersed Sonnar lenses out there. 😄 I'm very glad that you like the read.
 
Räuber said:
That was my second thought when I started this thread to share some bits and bites of the complicated and interesting Sonnar story while trying to find a new home for some of the dispersed Sonnar lenses out there. 😄 I'm very glad that you like the read.
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Your scholarship and knowledge have made us all wiser, some more than others LOL, but all the better for your efforts. I surely value your work. Velleicht Opa hat es recht, "Arbeit macht das Leben suess."/Perhaps Grandpa had it right, "Work makes life sweet."

Thank you for your gifts to us.
 
Erik van Straten said:
Mine is not coated, but it is a great performer. It is like new. I use the lens on my Nikon S2. The lens has the color of nickel and has a black painted band.

gelatin silver print (zeiss pre war sonnar 50mm f1.5) nikon s2

Amsterdam, 2019
View attachment 4870909
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Love it!! This could have a place of honour on one of our walls. Just above the wine cabinet.
 
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