Contax I with a seiki kogaku serenar 50 1.5 lens?

[nhchen]

I found this interesting item while browsing the other day. On the bay item No. 231533142338
The lens number is 4511 so would be on of the very early lenses made by seiki kogaku/canon.
Since it would have probably been made for a early canon camera would I be right in assuming that it shouldnt focus properly on a contax?

Nathan

 

[Corran]

Interesting! I posted recently about a lens I found, a Canon but Contax-mount lens (28mm f/3.5). From what I had researched, that's the only Contax-mount lens they had made. But, perhaps they also experimented with a normal lens! But I thought it was later in the production cycle that they tried a C-mount lens...

Very strange.

 

[nhchen]

From what I've read before I thought these lenses were usually made for X-ray cameras.

 

[Mackinaw]

Sure looks like an X-ray lens. Looking at Peter Kitchingman’s Canon Rangefinder lens book, early 50/1.5 X-ray lenses had the letter “R” in front of the word Serenar, that meant “Regno.” Most of these X-ray lenses didn’t have an aperture mechanism and most were numbered 3XXX, 4XXX range.

Just guessing, this particular lens might have been modified to a Contax-mount.

Perhaps Peter will see this and chime in.

Jim B.

 

[nhchen]

Well it just sold for almost $700! I'm surprised at how much these seem to go for.

nathan

 

[Mackinaw]

The lens was a true rarity. From everything I read, Canon never made this lens in a Contax mount. For that matter, being that it was primarily an X-ray lens, most Serenar 50/1.5’s left the factory with no aperture mechanism. Somebody went to considerable expense to modify this lens so it would fit a Contax as well as to include an aperture mechanism. Most likely, a collector won the bid.

Jim B.

 

[Corran]

I watched it but didn't bid.

Are you sure they added an aperture? I didn't see any markings or other indications of that. Probably a custom job?

 

[nhchen]

I didn't see any aperture markings on the pictures either. Didn't the very early canon cameras have a lens mount similar to the contax one? so maybe the modification wasn't too difficult.

 

[Corran]

Are you thinking about the Nikon rangefinder? Same physical mount as the Contax, but slightly different in execution. The early Hansa Canon J-mount I think was more like the Leica M39?

 

[nhchen]

I was thinking of Hansa mount cameras. Like the ones shown on this website:
http://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/canon/hansa/hansa.htm

 

[Corran]

Oh, I see. My mistake. I had not realized that the earlier model had a pseudo-Contax mount. Cool.

What do the other Canon x-ray lenses use for their mount?