FrankS' Old Lens.

I've taken apart a couple of Post-War East German 5cm F1.5 Sonnars in Contax mount, and just acquired one with SN 305xxxx. The rear triplet is held in the optical fixture with a retaining ring, and is not in a separate fixture like the pre-war lenses and wartime lenses. My latest SN wartime lens is 285xxxx. Unscrew the retaining ring of the main optical fixture and the "bare" glass comes out. It is more like the post-1963 (or so) J-3's. I also cleaned a couple of custom mounted post-war Sonnars, also in LTM. These looked like specialty work, and were stamped with the companies name.

I would like to see a thread showing pictures of and with your lens.
 
I have to admit to catching the conversion bug from Brian. I have a 1935 f2 that I have converted to LTM with a 1950's J8 body. Results so far look really good, and the colour rendition from an uncoated lens is superb. I was lucky in that the glass is in good condition, although there was a deal of muck in front of the rear element, and some oil on the blades, it cleaned out nicely with a flush of Ronsonol. I'm just running my first B&W film through this one, and hope for results at least as good as the colour ones.

I also found an original wartime f 1.5 that is only 3 off one of Brian's best examples - again a great performer in colour, but not tried yet with B&W.

I'm now considering a Helios 103 to LTM conversion, but I seem to have bought the wrong focus mount, as there is not enough "meat" in the mount to accept the optic unit, even if I reduce the diameter of the optic casing by 2mm, it will still be too big 🙁 The diameter of the rear element is actually larger than the hole through the focus mount, which is unfortunate. I guess the mount will go in a drawer until I find another lens unit that needs the same sort of conversion (CZ Opton, perhaps, but I think the rear element is even larger).

This conversion lark is really catching, and I just love tinkering with them to get the focus just so. Thanks Brian, you have given me a new angle on GAS 😉

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Own conversion of f2 Sonnar, M4 and Fuji 400. Handheld f2 at 1/30
 
My post-war East German lens is 3051328! Just a few hundred before yours, and in Contax mount. I worked on a lens just like yours not long ago, cleaned optics. Very heavy, very well made. I just put new optics in a 5cm f2 LTM lens that looks very similar.
 
John- VERY NICE!

Lens that is three off from mine! If you ever take the helical apart, check the internal serial numbers on its parts. Should be three pieces all with matching numbers, deifferent numbers and format than the SN of the optics. Nikon also did this with early lenses, had a Sn for the optics and a SN for the focus mount.
 
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