Determining age of Contax Lenses

[Rich Silfver]

Thanks to this post here on RFF I was able to find out the manufaturing dates of my Contax IIIa - now, does anyone know of a site that has information about how to determine the date of manufacturing for post-war Contax lenses?

The only site I've seen so far only deals with Contax lenses up to 1942: http://www.craigcamera.com/zeisslen.htm

 

[rover]

The reference books I have which list the body dates do not have info about the lenses.

Strange

 

[Meleica]

http://members.aol.com/dcolucci/zc.htm


Dan

 

[harry01562]

Check my note on the sticky about dating Contax bodies. I have information from the Thiele book on Carl Zeiss/Zeiss Opton lenses from the 50's available. I wish I could read German, to more fully utilize the book.

Anyone interested can just drop me a note on the forum, and I'll gladly help. Dates are very approximate.

Harry

 

[Rich Silfver]

I posted the same question over at pnet on the classic cameras forum and got some interesting answers - one being that the link I included in my first post here are for Carl Zeiss Jena lenses and should not be used to determining the age of other Zeiss lenses.

One poster on pnet approximated my lens to be from 1954 which would be around the same year as my Contax IIIa was made (1954-1955).

Harry, do you have any other info that would support a 1954 date for a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 lens with serial number 1170866 ?

 

[jano]

So.... have you taken any photos with it yet? I'm eagerly awaiting! I really like your photos, so hurry up!

 

[Rich Silfver]

jano, thanks. I still have the first roll in the Contax - maybe 20 frames or so into it..I'm a real slow shooter.. Hoping to finish it tomorrow and have a roll or two developed next week.

If nothing else I'll post some photo samples here: http://silfver.blogspot.com/ where I also posted my first impressions of the camera.

 

[harry01562]

http://www.pbase.com/rsilfverberg/image/60748090.jpg[/IMG]

Keesing wrote about this as the last variation of the 1.5: "though coated it has no red "T" marking and the makers name is changed to "Carl Zeiss". The minimum aperture is now f16. The first of these "CZ" marked lenses had serial numbers above 1,164,801."

It is also very late in a group of 10,000 numbers released by Oberkochen in 1951 for the 50/1.5. I'd say late 1953 or 1954 would be a very good date for the lens.
I've got a Zeiss Opton SN 1,162,978, that is from the same group of numbers, but mine is one of the earliest. They are excellent lenses, among the best fast 50's ever made, IMHO.

Harry

 

[harry01562]

I was wondering if you guys could provide a little info for me as well-
I have two 50 1.5's
one is a zeiss- Opton #1127xxx
other is a carl zeiss #1442xxx

I am curious about the second one. Is it a late procuction? East German? I have no idea and it would be interestiong to find out. thanks for any info you can provide.

Both lenses are West German, made at Oberkochen plant. 2nd lens is fairly late production, probably 1955-6. The numbers on both these lenses were released in groups in 1951, but, of course, really produced much later. Zeiss apparently was very precise about the numbering, and released large numbers for the various lens types, probably based on sales projections. Too bad they didn't have a more precise way of dating, but life is like that...

Harry

 

[harry01562]

Thiele book availability

Thiele book availability

I just found 2 of the Thiele book available on Peter Loy's website. He is in England, but I've ordered from him with fast service on a prior occasion. This is just for information, I have no relationship with the seller, except as a satisfied buyer. The site is: www.peterloy.com

Thiele, Hartmut Carl Zeiss Jena. Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II. Alle Photoobjektive, Prototypen, Spezialobjektive, Fertigungsnummern, Fertigungszeiten, Mengen und Lieferungen an die Kameraindustrie von 1927 bis 1991. Hartmut Thiele. 382 pages, 210x295mm, German text £35.95

Thiele, Hartmut Carl Zeiss Oberkochen. Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik III. Photoobjektive und Fertigungsnummern, Fertigungszeiten, Mengen und Lieferungen an die Kameraindustrie von 1948 bis 1996. Hartmut Thiele. 137 pages, 210x295mm, German text £24.95

I own the second volume listed (vol III), and it is of value to the collector. My interest is primarily in the later CZ lenses, or I would add the other volume to the library.

Harry