Auxillary lenses

[floydking]

Many years ago I was given a pair of Zykkor auxillary lenses, a wide angle and a telephoto. I've searched through the web, through books and magazines, but I cannot find out which brand of camera they would fit, or anything else about them. I've been able to discount Leica and Yashica myself. They are both made of black metal and have the 'usual' rangefinder arrangement behind the lens: (pencil, paper and imagination needed!) square window filled with glass to the left (looking front on), a half oval window (no glass) slightly right of center and an oblong widow (no glass) to the right. Both have a very prominent circle around the centre of the lens itself - this is fairly large, probably covering about 50% of the lenses surface area and is also made of black metal, it has two cuts made in it directly opposite one another. The wide angle has the following written around it's barrel: Aux. Wide Angle Lens Distance to Object 2M(6.5FT.) - 'symbol for infinity' MADE IN JAPAN. The telephoto has the same with the following differences: obviously 'Telephoto' where the other says 'Wide Angle'; and 2.5M (8.2FT) instead of the other's distance. The word Zykkor appears in white across the top of the structure behind the lens, exactly in the centre - just to the right of the square glass filled window and covering most of the half-oval window - Thinks - even though I use only the darkroom for photography, life would be a hell of a lot easier than this with a Linux friendly scanner!!!
Have any of you seen or heard of these before? They both come in small black plastic covered boxes that close with a popper - neither of these boxes feels very substantial, almost as though the black plastic were covering cardboard (which they probably are) and have MADE IN JAPAN etched out of the bottom.
Many thanks to all who have persevered this far! :bang:

 

[RML]

Floyd, it wouldn't hurt if you could post a few photos of the lenses, especially the of the mounts.

A quick google gave me this link: http://www.cdegroot.com/cgi-bin/photowiki/Zykkor . I would assume from the info that a company named Pacemark owns the name Zykkor. Whether they also make these lenses, I don't know. It seems these lenses are like the many Sigma lenses out there: available for many mounts and camera brands, and dirt cheap.

 

[floydking]

Rml

Rml

Hi RML!
I'd love to have been able to upload a scan, but I've left the vagaries of XP Pro and emigrated to virus/adaware free Suse Linux, which is excellent with the exception that it doesn't want to play with my old scanner!?* 🙁
I'm amazed that you managed to find the word 'Zykkor' on the net, I've been looking on and off for a couple of years with no result. From what it says it seems they should be for something Kyocera. As I've tried them unsuccessfully with my Yashicas, I think they must be for 🙂 Contax/Kiev rangefinders. I'm really pleased to have that information after wondering for so long. As they are only cheapos perhaps I'll buy a second hand Kiev to go with them, l realise they wouldn't be very good - but it's a good excuse to buy another bit of kit.
Whatever, it's great to have solved such a long standing mystery.
Thank you very much.

FK.