Canon LTM How about a Serenar thread?

Canon M39 M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
I must check my Canon 85mm 1.5. I think, it is a "Canon" and not a "Serenar". The Serenar lenses are equal to non-Serenar Canon lenses.
 
So far as I know, the 85/1.5 is not a Serenar. The 85mm Serenars were the f/2 and the slightly improved f/1.9. Again so far as I know, the lenses that Canon made immediately after they dropped the "Serenar" name were optically identical though with different mechanics. I have not seen a Serenar not made of heavy brass.
 
It does seem that after Canon dropped the "Serenar" name the lenses eventually changed over from Brass/Chrome to Black Aluminum. There are a good amount of middle ground Brass/Chrome "Canon" lenses. I have a Canon 50/1.5 that's labeled "Canon".

All three came from the Serenar 50/1.8









The lens has been sitting ever since I discovered a little bit of rust on one of the aperture blades. I'll start using it again after I send it out for cleaning.
 
The name of the lenses (between Canon and Serenar) has nothing to do with the material they are made of : it's just a question of date.
Once, Canon considered that they had to call their lenses 'Canon lens' instead of 'Serenar'
because a 'Serenar' lens on a Canon body was not clear enough. At least they considered it was not.

So many Serenar lenses went back to Canon, they changed the front ring with the letters,
they did some strange things with the serial numbers (see Peter Kitchingman's book)
and then they started to call all their new lenses 'Canon lens'.

Several months or years after that, the all chrome versions of the Canon LTM lenses
were replaced by black and chrome versions. Some lenses construction changed : Canon 35mm f/2.8 for example (same formula, not same size).
Some did not : Canon 50mm f/1.8 for example (same formula, same size, only the external aspect changed).
Many chrome lenses were stopped : Canon 35mm f/3.5, Canon 50mm f/1.5, Canon 85mm f/1.9...
Many black and chrome lenses were created : Canon 35mm f/2, Canon 35mm f/1.8, Canon 35mm f/1.5, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 50mm f/1.2, Canon 50mm f/0.95, etc.

And some black and chrome lenses replaced 'old' lenses for other reasons.
For example, the Canon 50mm f/1.4 (Planar formula, always black and chrome)
replaced the Canon 50mm f/1.5 (Sonnar formula, always all chrome)
because Nikon had released a Nikkor-S.C. 50mm f/1.4 (Sonnar formula, by the way).
See : http://www.dantestella.com/technical/nikoleic.html

So again : the name on the lens has nothing to do directly with the external aspect.

PS : I really like the BW rendition and the sharpness of the three last pics posted here.
 
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I concur with the above post by Koni. Though I'm no scholar of Canon lenses, most companies did change their lens names over time, often without touching the formula (but sometimes so). It's all about marketing. Every so often you have to come up with a new name. Or a new material for the outside. And occasionally a new formula for the glass. Note the trend? "New" sells. Other examples: Velostigmat --> Raptar, Kodak Anastigmat --> Ektar, etc.
 
Thanks, Koni! I have seen those photos, but didn't remember where they were. They aren't tagged, so they don't show up if I click on the "Canon Serenar 50mm f1.9 LTM" tag on the front page of the pool, unfortunately.

BTW, the photos look very nice!
 
Jerevan said:
Thanks, Koni! I have seen those photos, but didn't remember where they were. They aren't tagged, so they don't show up if I click on the "Canon Serenar 50mm f1.9 LTM" tag on the front page of the pool, unfortunately.

BTW, the photos look very nice!
Click to expand...

Thanks Jerevan.

All my pics are tagged on Flickr. To me it's not a 'Canon' lens : it's a 'Serenar'.

My tag is 'Serenar 50mm f/1.9 LTM'. I'm the only Flickr user to use it until now... 😛
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=serenar+50mm+f/1.9+LTM&m=tags

EDIT : Ok then... I repaired my error and registered one more tag "Canon Serenar 50mm f1.9 LTM" with 'Canon' and no slash behind the 'f'... Long live Serenar ! I'm selling mine.
 
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Yep, they may be tagged, but as they are not tagged on Flickr as "Canon Serenar 50mm f1.9 LTM", with the quotes, they don't show up correctly in this particular Canon Rangefinder (RF) Lenses group.
 
Looks like I must apologise for putting "Serenar" in the thread's heading. For all practical purposes there is no difference between the R/F lenses made by Canon. The name Serenar takes us back several years, that's all.
 
I just purchased a Serenar 50mm 1.8 lens. Would someone please explain the function of the infinity lock. When this is engaged it seems like the rangefinder view goes slightly out of focus at infinity.

Thanks

Joe
 
ironhorse said:
I just purchased a Serenar 50mm 1.8 lens. Would someone please explain the function of the infinity lock. When this is engaged it seems like the rangefinder view goes slightly out of focus at infinity.

Thanks

Joe
Click to expand...

If the camera and lens are both calibrated properly, when locked at infinity the patch should be in focus at infinity. So it can be the lens, the camera or both.
 
I made recently some photographs with a Canon Serenar 85/1.9 on the Leica M8. My lens has some focusing issues, but I like the way it draws. If I can get the focusing to work anywhere near reasonably (it's really bad right now), I will be using this lens quite a bit.

Here's a sample, you can find the rest on http://softerrelease.blogspot.com/2010/09/subdued-colours-of-summer.html.

dry-reed.jpg
 
FYI: THe 85 Serenar does not RESOLVE to the degree of the 90 Summicron, but (when I don't miss focus) it is sharp wide open AND less contrasty than the Summicron, and makes a very nice portrait lens, as it is forgiving on skin.
 
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