Carl Zeiss LTM Finally! ~ I bought a "wartime" 1943 CZJ Sonnar T f1.5/50 in LTM

[jojo]

Hello again on this forum.

I read with great attention this thread on the sonnars.
I bought in the city of Paris this sonnar N 2810969
Brass body, apparently on a support of leitz elmar?
The lenses are superb without fog
A little info?

 

[TenEleven]

Testing if I can reply to this thread at all as it seems to be a bit bugged out.

I recently managed to get my hands on both a wartime Biogon 3,5cm f/2.8 and two wartime Sonnars 5cm f/1.5 one in LTM mount the other in Contax mount.
All appear to be genuine, and I'll post pictures shortly, but I still have a couple of questions. First off the serial numbers for our list:

LTM Sonnar 5cm f/1.5 serial number: 2725912, reflected as 725912 on the rear mount
Contax Sonnar 5cm f/1.5 serial number: 2725343, reflected as 725343 on the rear mount
LTM Biogon 3,5cm f/2.8 serial number: 2843380, reflected as 843380 on the collar around the rear element

All are aluminium and are very light, this includes the contax mount version whose aluminium case looks similar but not identical to the early Contax mount Jupiter-3 lenses.

The LTM Sonnar has a serial number stamped on the two helicals, but it is not the lens number: 1767 - however the lens number (again last digits) appears to be scratched inside the "sheathing" that mounts the lens. Since this (and the rear mount) isn't visible without disassembly. Furthermore it has the thick (and two doubled up) screws in the focus ring so I am assuming it is genuine.

Another curiosity is that the LTM Sonnar focuses a bit beyond 1m (according to the lens barrel) whereas the Biogon pretty much stops dead short at about 1m. (I checked with the RF and it seems that the distance scale is off on the Sonnar)

Has anyone any experience how those LTM Sonnars behave on LTM bodies?
Do they focus correctly or are they more akin to the Jupiter (3/8) and need adjustments made?

 

[TenEleven]

A couple of other observations:
-The dot/comma thing seems to be a red herring. Both my genuine (uncoated) prewar and postwar (opton) Sonnar and other lenses have a comma as the aperture separator, this is also reflected on the lens bodies.
-The coating color for all three lenses is very similar with the LTM version shifting slightly towards a more yellowish tone.
-The LTM Sonnar has the aperture "wings" or whatever they're called
-The LTM Biogon is significantly smaller than the Jupiter-12
-The rear element protrudes less into the camera for the LTM Biogon than it does on the Jupiter-12

Contax Mount Wartime Sonnar: note the aluminium case and the crude-ish red-painted latch for the Contax bayonet mount. I haven't managed to get inside this one despite undoing the rear gub screw. Any tips?

Wartime LTM Sonnar in kinda rough-shape externally. I actually re-filled the distance markings on the focus ring with a sharpie that's why they look different. Internally it is very nicely finished, looks better than a Jupiter to me internally.

Wartime LTM Biogon Glass is a bit scratched but overall in decent shape. Note the completely different shape of the aperture ring scalloping which is also much deeper recessed than on the Jupiter-12.

I'm sorry about the wildly varying image quality, I'm phone/work-posting so there isn't much I can do.

 

[raid]

This thread has caused many such lenses to be purchased by many RFF members who were subjected to GAS-gas here!

 

[TenEleven]

This thread has caused many such lenses to be purchased by many RFF members who were subjected to GAS-gas here!

Yeah. This very thread actually caused me to retry getting a genuine LTM wartime Sonnar after two failures. Armed with fresh GAS and fresh knowledge I decided to go at it again. Sigh

 

[raid]

Me too! I am searching for some 5cm that is special somehow.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Meh, I own two already. A pre-war Sonnar shoe-horned into a Jupiter-3 mount.
And genuine wartime one.

I have slightly more love for my regular J-3 though.

 

[TenEleven]

Meh, I own two already. A pre-war Sonnar shoe-horned into a Jupiter-3 mount.
And genuine wartime one.

I have slightly more love for my regular J-3 though.

Slight off-topic:
I like my Contax-mount J3, but I couldn't find one that would reliably track focus on my LTM bodies and thus gave up.
I guess if Brian Sweeney were still around he could adjust it.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Brian Sweeney (member here) was a great help sorting out my J-3 focus and lubrication issues.
I got that J-3-Sonnar hybrid from him as well.

 

[menos]

Slight off-topic:
I like my Contax-mount J3, but I couldn't find one that would reliably track focus on my LTM bodies and thus gave up.
I guess if Brian Sweeney were still around he could adjust it.

What happened to Brian 😱

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Pretty sure he's still around, recently saw posts by him over at Photo.net as well.

 

[menos]

That's good to know.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I kinda lost track of him myself after the LeicaPlace forum got merged with Cameraderie one last year. 😉

 

[robert blu]

Maybe I "need" to try one of this lenses as well 🙂
robert

 

[raid]

Brian Sweeney (member here) was a great help sorting out my J-3 focus and lubrication issues.
I got that J-3-Sonnar hybrid from him as well.

Yes, Brian played a major role in the dissemination of such lenses among RFF members. I was very fortunate to get from Brian so many amazing lenses.

 

[raid]

Robert: Brian's creations are superb and unique in many ways. I have more than once asked him to "put together" for me a lens from two non-working lenses, and he in the end sends me a sharp and unique lens where front or rear elements would be a mix from the the two dead lenses.

 

[Bingley]

I posted the photo below over on the Sonnar thread, but it also belongs here. This was taken with a 1943 Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5cm f1.5 LTM, on XP2, with a Leica IIIc. The person who sold it to me last year told me it had belonged to LeicaTom, and had since been serviced by DAG. It's a lovely optic. I'll post a photo of the lens itself in the next few days. In the meantime, giving this thread a bump...
Laurel by bingley0522, on Flickr

 

[fbf]

haven't been here for a while. Also see Brian hasn't been here since 2009? That's a shame... he helped me with my czj sonnar and many other lenses. Just took out my ltm lenses that i collected over the years.

 

[Bingley]

Bumping this thread. The two photos below were taken with the Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5cm f1.5 LTM (serial no. 2724622) mentioned in post 615 above. The picture of the rose was taken at f1.5. The other photo was taken with a Leica IIIc on Tri-X exposed at iso 250.

Sonnar lens by bingley0522, on Flickr

Listening by bingley0522, on Flickr