Cook & Perkins Adapted 5cm f1.5 Sonnar

[linglee]

Dear RFF users:

I have this lens in my collection for quite a while and I have been trying to locate information on this lens for the last little while. This lens originally came with a Reid I (One) camera (I still have the body but it was tucked away somewhere and it does not have any military markings).

The lens has aluminum exterior while the helicoid is made of very well machined brass and the focusing is first rated (seems to be as good as Leica). The focusing is right on (checked against my screw mount rangefinder camera). I have no doubt about its authenticity that this is made by C&P. I am more interested to know the followings:

a) Have any member seen this lens before?
b) When was this being adapted?
c) The source of the lens head (from original Contax lens or some other sources)?

Hope that this will bring up more interesting discussions.

With Regard,

Ling Lee

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I've seen oddball conversions, and have done my own conversions, but I have never seen one marked with the CP.

http://ziforums.com/showthread.php?t=224

http://ziforums.com/showthread.php?t=93

It looks silimar to a single-helical conversion that I worked on. I believe that particular lens was Russian in origin, but may never know.

 

[linglee]

Dear Brian:

Thanks for the information. It is very helpful especially the first set of pictures off the first thread you've provided. I've added some addtional pictures for your reference as you can see the engravings are so fine (even for the C&P logo) and the overall finsih is really nice (well, relatively speaking for lens of this age) on this lens.

I've taken the lens apart a while back and it does have matching number (last few digits) on the back too so I think the lens head is genuine (well as far as I know). I've seen quite a few Russian conversions and some so-called genuine Wartime Sonnar LTM and none of them have smooth focusing like this one (even with relube). The machining of the barrel is really first rated (brass cam actuator) and if it is a third party (not done by C&P), it's got to be done at a shop that has the skills and knowledge to do a focusing mount for leica lens.

By the way, the lens comes with a nice snap on alumimum len cap that seems to be from the same shop.

With Regard,

Ling

 

[furcafe]

a) I haven't.

b) From the mixture of materials (alloy instead of brass typical of WWII-era & early post-WWII), I would guess the 1940s. I have 1 of C&P's adapters for Contax RF-LTM & believe those were made in the 1950s.

c) No idea, but if genuine it's from 1941-2. You might want to check the serial # w/the folks tracking them on the Zeiss Ikon Collectors Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZICG/).

a) Have any member seen this lens before?
b) When was this being adapted?
c) The source of the lens head (from original Contax lens or some other sources)?

 

[dexdog]

c.) I checked the serial number with Thiele's book of CZJ lenses, and there is no data for this particular range of numbers, i.e. 27900XX. Serial numbers in the surrounding ranges fall in late 1942 and early 1943.

 

[BillBingham2]

Could that be the same Perkin from Perkin & Elmer fame? (not sure of spelling) They made some WAY COOL stuff for different skunk works, some of which has trickeled out into market (e.g. 600 & 450 Solid Cats under Vivitar Series 1 Name).

B2 (;->

 

[linglee]

Guys:

Thanks for all the information related to this lens. It is very informative and educational to me. As L39UK pointed out this lens barrel might have been adapted from mount for other lens. It seems to me the only C&P mount I've seen (at least with the C&P marking) are limited to lenses for Reid and some (maybe one or two) for hasselblad. The focusing mount here seem to have been machined for this particular 5cm f1.5 (maybe 5cm f2 but not sure) sonnar lens. The gap between the focusing ring and the lens head is very well matched and designed that I wonder how would another 5cm lens head be easily adapted to this mount.

As L39UK said it is like anything goes in the post WW2 Era that reusing all surpluses is prime. I would think that there might be quite a few of this lenses around as it is just not economical (maybe economical in those days) to make only a few. The setup time of the machine (lath and milling machine) will have made this lens rather costly.

I will see if I can take apart this lens this weekend and get more pictures of the assembly (that is if I can still remember this on the weekend). Moreover, I have another interestings lens (10.5cm(?) f4 Zeiss lens) that was adapted by some Italian company that is L39 registered and I should try to dig it up this weekend.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

With Regard,

Ling

 

[linglee]

Guys:

Here are some pictures I took over the weekend with the Lens head removed. You can see the rear element of the lens is also marked. The focusing mechanism is also very well made.

I will be posting some photos of another LTM lens soon which seems to be the Italian conversion of a Zeiss 105mm f 3.5 lens.

With Regard,

Ling

 

[historicist]

Even if this was a time consuming job, it may well still have been a one off. During the War a lot of production capacity had been built up which was suddenly left without anything to do. It may have been the case that an inefficient one off conversion was a more attractive option for an engineering works than doing nothing.

 

[linglee]

Dear Historicist:

It is interesting to see what the industry was willing tol do during the immediate post WW 2 years. I haven't seen another one of this and if this is one off, it will be quite interesting. A lot can be said about today's manfacturing, a one off like this today will definitely cost an arm and a leg.

With Regard,

Ling

 

[Bar8barian]

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[enasniearth]

Adapted sonnar

Adapted sonnar

Nice , perhaps you have seen sonnar s adapted in aluminum mount marked hall- barkin , I have had an 85 sonnar and 50f2 sonnar done by them . Could never find any information written about them . Perhaps you have come across them . The mount was very nicely made .

 

[Jacques M.]

By Thiele researches, your lens comes from a series of 1000 1,5/5cm originally made for Contax.
Of course, he does not say anything about the Cook and Perkin LTM barrel... And nothing too about the date of delivery.
I have a lens of that series on my late Contax II, O series (the last made in Dresden).

Jacques.

 

[Bar8barian]

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[rfaspen]

I saw this lens on the auction site too. It sold for more than I'm able to spend on one of these. I'd still like to find myself a real Sonnar one of these days (yeah, yeah, I know about my Jupiter-8, I'm talking about a "real" Sonnar).

I'm always amazed at all the odd treasures out there. Its this kind of stuff that keeps me rummaging through "old and vintage" stores. Some day I'll find something like this. People have been "busy" over the years.