1950 Jupiter-3

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This is a question directed to Brian or anyone else with some insight in these early FSU lenses. I have a 1950 Jupiter-3 in Kiev/Contax RF mount. The rear element has a ring with a number on the outside of it - 189098. This does not correspond with the lens number which is 5002142. I have never seen this on other early Sonnar copies. I have a pre-war 5cm Sonnar f1.5 which is similar with a number at the rear element of 83408 and the lens serial number is 1983408; in the Zeiss case there is a relationship between the numbers. I guess my question is whether the FSU lens was made from Zeiss parts? By the way, the lens is in great shape - one of the sharpest 50's that I have used. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Mike McCurdy
 
The early J-3's definitely have German parts in them. I'm not sure if they were spares, left-overs, or "seconds". My ZK Sonnar from 1949 has the same SN markings in the rear fixture. The early KMZ J-3's had uncoated rear triplets that are perfect fits in the pre-war lenses. The Wartime German lenses had coated rear triplets.

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This would be a "272" block part.

My 1949 ZK 5cm f1.5 has a rear fixture from 1943 an earlier serial number that my SN285 block lens.

"189098", I would guess was left-over from the SN218 block of lenses, which is ~1937 or so. Left-Over or a Second? Hard to tell.
 
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This lens appears to have a coated rear element with a magenta cast. By "block" do you mean the optics or the ring itself?

Mike
 
By block- Zeiss assigned serial numbers in blocks to production orders for lenses. so an order for 1000 lenses might start in the SN218xxxxx block. Zeiss used one series of numbers, assigned in ascending order, to their products. This is not like the Russian system where each product line -J8, J-3, J-12, etc had serial numbers designated by year, number, and company. So you might find a KMZ 560001 J-3 and a ZOMZ 560001 J-3.

The coated rear element: I am guessing it is German in origin. I have worked on a 1950 J-3 and a 1951 J-3 with major issues- neither could form an image correctly. The optical fixture was too long for the optics in them. I fixed the 1951 lens by putting the optics in a later fixture. My opinion- KMZ was supplanting German parts with some that they made, and had not hit their stride.
 
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