Early coated Jena lenses

[S.H.]

Hello,

I just bought a well worn Contax III as a DIY project (the camera looks functional but is very dirty so a partial disassembly is in order to clean it up; the meter is dead and was probably tampered with, the shutter looks more or less ok).



It came with a 1938 T coated sonnar collapsible, so I think it was a good deal as it is clean and not much scratched. Is there any detailed info on prewar factory coated Zeiss lenses, military or civilian? In Marc James Small's book about LTM lenses, it says a coated Orthometar was sold in the USA in 1938, so some did find their way in the commercial distribution system before 1940. It seems all wartime lenses were coated.

 

[ZeissFan]

Check with the Zeiss Ikon Collectors Group on Yahoo. They will be able to provide better information on this topic.

 

[S.H.]

Well, it seems nobody knows much... Here is a citation from Marc James Small :

So, Zeiss seems to have been
permitted to sell to hard-currency nations such
as the UK and the US during this time, and, so,
coated lenses were part of the deal, to increase
the income to the Reich. Your Contax III is
hauntingly close to mine in number, as is the
coated lens to that on my coated lens. Mine was
purchased at Roanoke Photo-Finishing in March of
1939 -- I have seen, but do not have, the
original sales receipt. Yours has a 2/5cm Sonnar
T and mine has the 1.5/5cm Sonnar T.

I bought this contax to clean it up (I won't touch the lens or the shutter), I did a small article about it : see here

 

[S.H.]

Working on it... http://www.ipernity.com/blog/291397/512373

Now I'm playing with a replacement cell (the old one have a very low output voltage).

 

[S.H.]

I tried with another cell, it gives realistic values! yay

http://www.ipernity.com/blog/291397/516593

 

[johannielscom]

Coating: I've seen it mentioned as a novelty in an article in a late-1938 or early-1939 issue of Focus, the Dutch magazine on photography. It was either due to a presentation at a photography fair or a press release though, it covered the novelty of coating and the process, but did not mention a specific model lens that was available with coating.

Maybe somebody from the fellow Dutch members still has magazines, I sold off a nearly complete collection of Focus almost two years ago.

 

[S.H.]

Thanks for the info. It would be nice to have some scans of it.

 

[Elmar Lang]

Hello,

after quite long a time, I've been successful to solve a setting problem that made impossible to me to post in this Forum.

Back to the topic, I have three CZJ Contax lenses from wartime, all "T" coated:

1) Sonnar 5cm./1,5 - serial no. 2520013 (belonged to my grandfather);
2) Sonnar 5cm./1,5 - serial no. 2554044;
2) Biogon 3,5cm./2,8 - serial no. 2673494.

All able to give excellent results.

Best wishes,

E.L.