I bought this Sonnar on RFF several months ago, and recently picked up a J-3 off Ebay from a US seller at a good price. The latter was used on a mirrorless camera- needed work, the innermost helical was misthreaded and the stop screw was missing. I fixed it. The focus mount was made my KMZ, the barrel was a later ZOMZ. The KMZ focus mounts are the best, smooth, no focus backlash on most, the guide screws are matched to the slots they travel in.
So it ended up as a Sonnar for the Leica and a Jupiter for the Contax.
The "267" Sonnars are fully coated, but use soft coatings for the inner surfaces. Lubricant outgassing tends to infiltrate the surface behind the aperture. This is the second 267 series Sonnar that I've owned, the first- coating was bad enough to require removing. This one- some of the coating is gone, but what remain is functional. Best to leave alone. The Sonnar 5cm F1.5 of this generation is made of an alloy, and has hidden set screws holding the Name ring in place, and the rear triplet in place. Never try to remove the namering of a Sonnar "T" without removing the aperture ring and checking for the set screw. You will destroy the namering trying to remove it if the set screw is in place.
The optical formula is improved over the prior generation Sonnar. Less field curvature, and a bit sharper. The later Sonnars starting around block 272xxxx seem to have improved inner coatings. I've not seen damage to the surface after the aperture as in the 267 series.
test shots, wide-open.
So it ended up as a Sonnar for the Leica and a Jupiter for the Contax.
The "267" Sonnars are fully coated, but use soft coatings for the inner surfaces. Lubricant outgassing tends to infiltrate the surface behind the aperture. This is the second 267 series Sonnar that I've owned, the first- coating was bad enough to require removing. This one- some of the coating is gone, but what remain is functional. Best to leave alone. The Sonnar 5cm F1.5 of this generation is made of an alloy, and has hidden set screws holding the Name ring in place, and the rear triplet in place. Never try to remove the namering of a Sonnar "T" without removing the aperture ring and checking for the set screw. You will destroy the namering trying to remove it if the set screw is in place.
The optical formula is improved over the prior generation Sonnar. Less field curvature, and a bit sharper. The later Sonnars starting around block 272xxxx seem to have improved inner coatings. I've not seen damage to the surface after the aperture as in the 267 series.
test shots, wide-open.
