A Biotar thread

[dexdog]

I recently took out my 1937 vintage uncoated CZJ 4.25cm f2 Biotar on a Contax II, using Portra 400 color print film. The Boitar design is not very common in RF lenses, but was used a lot in post-WW2 SLR cameras, such as CZJ 58mm f/2 in M42 and Exacta mounts, as well as the Helios 44 series produced in the USSR.

The obligatory close focus and wide open pic.

 

[dexdog]

Subject of this photographic outing was a historic farm in Fairfax, VA called Blenheim. It is on the US National Register of Historic Places. The farmhouse was built in 1860, just prior to the US Civil War, and being so close to Washington, D.C., was occupied by US troops in 1861 soon after hostilities began.


The house is well known for the grafitti that US soldiers left on the still un-cured plaster using pieces of charcoal. Most of the walls in the house are covered with it, and the attic, too.

 

[dexdog]

The interior of the house was pretty dark, but had bright light streaming in the south-facing windows. The lens is susceptible to flare as expected from an uncoated lens

The jug in the pic is marked H.C. Smithe, Alexa(ndria) and D.C.

 

[dexdog]

Image of a Civil War era medical kit, taken between a pair of south facing windows, flare is evident. The farmhouse was used as a hospital by Union army.

Some old bottles of medicines on mantelpiece in same room, including laudanum, alum and a couple of mercury compounds. Old-fashioned medicines are kinda scary

 

[Rayt]

That’s awesome. I would love to have a Rolleiflex 2.8B with the Biotar.

 

[dexdog]

Several generations of the Willcoxen family, owners of the farm before the site was acquired by Fairfax County in the 1960s, are buried on the site. Investigations conducted a number of years ago using ground penetrating radar suggest that the cemetery is larger than it appears, and may contain the graves of enslaved people.

 

[newst]

Taken back in 2015 using a Sony A6000 with a Zeiss 2/40 Biotar for a ROBOT camera.

Trooper

 

[newst]

A much later photograph of Trooper taken with a Leica IIf on Svema 64 using a Topcor 2/50, which is a Biotar design.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

P9022596 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr



I believe the 4cm F1.4 Biotar is the first F1.4 lens made, 1927. I picked this up in exchange for doing some lens repair, did not have a mount.
I ended up giving it to Chris at Skyllaney, figured he would have fun converting it to M-Mount and it would fetch some funds during Covid. He did, and it did.

 

[das]

Very cool to have that lens converted! What a treasure.