Leica LTM Anybody has experience with Zunow 50 1.1?

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
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Searching through google only lead me through specs and history about this lens, but no sample images. This is a rare and expensive lens and I am wondering how it compares to the current available lenses.

Somebody is selling me this item for a good price, so I just wanted to get some user feedback if anybody in the forum has one.
 
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Ditoy

It's Japanese made. 🙂 It should be as good as the other Japanese made high-speed lenses from Canon or Nikon from the 1950s. Expect it to be good in terms of what was good in the 1950s 😀 but then again, what was 'good' then is still often good now.


BTW, who's selling it? I was offered one years ago, attached to a Showa Leotax Leica copy. I got the camera, but chose not to get the lens.

Jay
 
I have tried out the Nikkor 50/1.1, and I found it to be a good lens for its time. Maybe the Zunow is a Nikkor copy.

Raid
 
The Zunow came out a couple of years before the Nikkor 1.1 -- It helped inspire Nippon Kogaku and others to pursue faster optics.

Here's a note from the Nikon corporate Website:
ZUNOW 5cm f/1.1
This lens first appeared in 1953, developed by Mr. HAMANO, Michisaburo, who had come to Nippon Kogaku K.K. from the navy and would later move on to Teikoku Optical Industries.
The ZUNOW 5cm f/1.1 has five (5) groups and nine (9) lenses, with a Sonnar-type M39 mount (39mm diameter, 1/26-inch thread screw) and Nikon "S" mount.

In 1955, Mr. KUNIMI, Kenji who had come from Nippon Kogaku K.K., and Mr. FUJIOKA, Yoshisato, who had come from Yashima Kogaku K.K., improved upon this design using new optical glass in a four (4)-group, nine (9)-lens structure. Subsequent revisions yielded the 5cm f/1.3 lens.

Full article on the Nikkor 1.1 is at:
http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/portfolio/about/history/nikkor/n07_e.htm
 
Nikon site also states:

" ...the ZUNOW 5cm f/1.1 was an extension of the Sonnar type lens."

The Nikon site then goes into considerable detail about how the Nikkor 1.1 difers in design philosophy and uses newly available high-refractive glass. There is an implication that it outperforms the Zunow and was created specifically to beat the Zunow's performance. But I have never seen a photograph taken by a Zunow, and the Zunow is a noticeably smaller design than the Nikkor 1.1.

I've seen elsewhere that the Zunow was phenomenally expensive ... $450 or so in 1953. The Nikkor 1.1, once it appeared in '56, sold for $300, and that was extremely expensive for a camera lens.
 
Vince: Thanks for the information.I did some reading on Zunow; this seems to be a neat company with excellent products. I have yet to see a Zunow lens.

Raid
 
This Zunow 50/1.1 just finished on eBay. It is Contax mount:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-Zunow-50mm...ryZ30062QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Search other completed listings on eBay for some more impressive Zunow lenses. Apparently Photo-Arsenal (Germany) has the Zunow market about cornered.

Zunow apparently has a sort of mythos among collectors -- their relative obscurity contributes to that. I gather not too much is known about the company except that they were exceedingly good craftsman and were very innovative. They made a system SLR similar to the Nikon F in the late 50's that is extremely rare. It was hand-built. I think certain examples of this SLR have appeared recently that were previously unknown (to the excitement of collectors).
 
On the Japanese blog, the Zunow looks to be fairly soft with a lot of coma or highlight flare or whatever the correct optical term is. If that's so, the Nikon site is correct that the Zunow pushed the Sonnar formula to the edge.
 
Yeah looks like it, so it's high value is more as a collectible rather than a stellar performer I guess...
 
bokeh

bokeh

Looking at the photos on the Japanese site posted, the Zunow seems to have smoother out of focus areas than the Noctilux. The bokeh has that fine Sonnar-type quality. It may just be me, though.

It has other problems that make it undesirable, mostly it's very soft wide open. I would only buy it if I saw it at a garage sale.

With modern glass and multicoating types, a similar design could be a Noct killer. Very compact for an f1.1, and constantly good bokeh compared to the hit or miss of the Noct.
 
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I can't understand Photo-Arsenal's business model.

Their prices are 3-4 times higher than the usual market rate, usually outlandish.

Yet, they list hundreds of items per week (astronomical eBay fees).

Do they just sit on a huge inventory and hope to rope in the occassional sucker or desperate collector who "has to have" something at any price?

It's mind boggling, but usually when you search eBay for some rare item you'll encounter dozens of their listings.

What's the story?
 
What's the story?
Click to expand...

Probably a lotta consignments.

Interseting read about the Zunow 1.1 in one of the old NHS(Nikon Historical Society) journals covering the Nikkor 1.1
According to the article the Zunow 1.1 was originally designed with the "C" mount for 8mm movie cameras of the time such as Revere and Bolex and thus covering the smaller format of those cameras, with the fast growing camera industry in Japan and the "mine's faster" lens race going on at the same time the folks at Zunow modified the mount to fit the popular 35mm cameras of the time but without modifying the lens itself,as a result the lens is available in LTM,Contax and Nikon mounts with the latter two being engraved a C or N in the rear of the lens barrel to identify the mount,but because of the smaller format the lens has considerable Light fall-off at the edges and generally is not known to be a great performer.
All that being said, anything Zunow has turned into great collectibles with examples selling anywhere from $1500 up to $3500

Hope this helps,
Kiu
 
movie lens?

movie lens?

That's interesting Kiu.

I shoot super 8, and would really like to be able to get a speed prime in C-mount, and put it on a Beaulieu. Since fast film for super 8 is ASA 100, it would be nice to have an F0.7 lens. 12mm is standard focal length for super 8.

There are not any super speeds for super 8 in C mount. The Zunow is a f1.1, which is more of a f2 lens on 8mm, and it's focal length of 50mm is like a 200mm telephoto. The super 8 frame is about 1/8 the size of the 35mm frame, so it does not seem quite right? More likely it was a 35mm movie lens.
 
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