Dating a Culminar 85 -- and scampering

[payasam]

I've been trying for months to find out when my Steinheil Culminar 85/2.8 was made, but so far I haven't succeeded. It's 39 mm screw mount, serial 671841.

Now to scamper past that alley so I'm not caught and have my knuckles rapped. After getting a VIOOH, I have no use for a turret finder which is (a) described in a thread on RFF and (b) advertised on photo.net in the non-SLR section.

 

[OldNick]

I've got two Steinheil 85s, an LTM #594xxx and an Exacta #619xxx, and yours is a later number than either. If you search for Steinheil Lens Catalog with Google, you can find the company literature, but I can't find a date associated with it. My impression is they made various lenses from the 1940s until the 1970s. For the Culminars, I think they were made in the late 40s and early 50s.

Jim N.

 

[peterc]

From a brochure I ran across online after getting my Steinheil 85, I'd guess they date to the early 50s.

Peter

 

[rvaubel]

Dating a Culminar

Dating a Culminar

I dated a Culminar back in the mid 60's. She was really hot.

Rex (ex-hippy)
Berkeley

 

[Dougg]

Did you have to scamper, too, Rex? 🙂

 

[rvaubel]

Dating a Culminar

Dating a Culminar

Did you have to scamper, too, Rex? 🙂

That's back when I could scamper. Now I just take pictures of other people scampering.

Rex, a child of the 60's
Berkeley

 

[Trius]

Rex, if you can remember that time, I seriously doubt you're a child
of the 60s... 😛

Earl, scampering away

 

[payasam]

Jim and Peter, I've narrowed it down to the late 1940s or, more likely, the early 1950s. Much Googling to no effect. Rex, considering the place you name, should you not be speaking of 1968?

 

[peterc]

My Steinheil SN begins 626xxx. The case says "Made in Germany U.S. Zone".

Peter

 

[Sylvaticus]

.......The case says "Made in Germany U.S. Zone"

I stumbled rather than scampered into this thread while googling this lens for som other reason. U.S. zone should mean no later than 1948 or so, when the BRD was constituted, closely followed by the D.D.R. to the east. The Leica II was still being sold new in 1959, so the Leica version of the Culminar may have continued into the 1960s. When did the market for new Leica screw items dry up? The Leica look-alikes from other countries may have had a longer life and kept demand up for a while.

There's a lens list with the Exakta versions at www.ihagee.org (follow links through equipment and lens list). The dates given there are 1950 (8.5cm), 1951 (85mm) (both manual diaphragm), and 1955 (manual preset diaphragm, not relevant for a leice screw version). The next steps for Steinheil lenses in Exakta mount were auto-diaphragm (still polished chrome late 1950s), then black finish with "zebra-style" focusing ring (auto-diaphragm 1960s). The 85mm lens was never produced in these newer Exakta versions.

The Leica version might have preceded the Exakta version. Ihagee didn't really get going until 1949-50 (the new Kine II), the factory having been totally destroyed in the 1945 Dresden air raid. About 50 000 of the 1930s Kine I were produced in the few years up to 1949, allegedly from parts and tools salvaged from the ruins.

A lifespan, then, possibly from late 1940s, definitely throughout the 1950s, and maybe a few into the 1960s.