Another irregular production Sonnar

Yes, you are both right. It is no genuine Zeiss Sonnar. Most of the details are wrong. Even the name ring is fake. The serial belongs to a range of lenses that all share the same non-Zeiss origin. German black-market made.
 
Another odd-ball irregular production Sonnar. Looks like a war-time barrel with Zeiss West style of engraving as Rauber has pointed out on other lenses. Serial number does not appear in the 2023 version of Thiele's book of CZJ lenses. Whaddya think?
US $418.00

Wow. I guess my Mint condition, authentic wartime Sonnar in LTM would fetch a lot more these days than what I paid for it.
 
It sold for less than I thought it would. At the same time, I realize that the number of people interested in antique, potentially historic lenses is decreasing as time passes.
 
It sold for less than I thought it would. At the same time, I realize that the number of people interested in antique, potentially historic lenses is decreasing as time passes.
Some day they will all end up with one person? Draw Straws for it?
 
Another Mystery Sonnar- and part of the mystery solved.

I picked up this 276xxxx 5cm f1.5 Sonnar some 15 years ago, off Ebay- ~$65 or so. Glass is heavily scratched, but bought it as it was "just different".
The front of the lens looks like a typical wartime lens. BUT the rear group and fixture is different. Decided to compare with the Post-War 5cm F1.5 Sonnar. The fixture is different, but the rear group is the same.

Prototype? Scrounge for Parts? The rear group is obviously the same as the post-war production lens.

Rear group is not standard wartime production, different diameter and fixture.
View attachment 4834644View attachment 4834645View attachment 4834646View attachment 4834647

The rear group is the same as the post-war CZJ Sonnar.
View attachment 4834648View attachment 4834649View attachment 4834650View attachment 4834651
I was sent another Sonnar T transition lens to work on- and made me realize my "276xxxx" lens is mis-engraved, and should be "286". It is nearly identical to the one I just took apart. Some of the 286 batch of lenses ended up as Jupiter-3's, including my perfect glass 1950 lens. That lens is identical to wartime 5cm F1.5 Sonnars, and has the SN in the rear fixture to show it.

The transition lenses - my "276" and the just cleaned 286: the rear triplet is the same as the post-war CZJ Sonnar T 5cm F1.5 lenses. The latter- different body, barrel, and fixtures. BUT- the rear triplet is the same.

Compared with my KMZ J-3, the diameter of the rear triplet of the transition lens is smaller.
RIMG0320.jpgRIMG0321.jpgRIMG0322.jpgRIMG0323.jpg


And that barrel?
RIMG0324.jpgRIMG0326.jpg

No retaining ring for the aperture- the barrel screws directly into the mount with TWO SETS of threads.


Rear Triplet- matches the later East German CZJ SOnnar,
RIMG0337.jpgRIMG0338.jpgRIMG0339.jpgRIMG0343.jpg

Number of grooves in the Aperture matches my lens.
RIMG0335.jpg
 
I have a 298 series Sonnar f1.5 with a rear element like the above. I also have a 286 series Sonnar with the standard WW2-era type rear element. Looks like CZJ was using several different configurations when they were scrambling/struggling to recover from the destruction of the war.
 
I believe the middle triplet is the same- at least I've interchanged them before. The front element, and retaining rings for the middle triplet and front element are also the same.
The rear triplet- reduced in diameter to conserve glass?
 
Back
Top Bottom