Identify this lens?

[Brad Bireley]

Can anyone tell me about this lens?
Thank you!
Brad

 

[ZeissFan]

Looks like the Soviet knock-off of the f/1.5 50mm Sonnar.

 

[jarski]

perhaps early Jupiter 3 ? cant explain the serial. it usually had first two digits indicating the year of production.

 

[xayraa33]

There are faked early J-3's, the ones that had real Zeiss glass in them.
That one might be real from the ears on the aperture ring, but the fake ones might even duplicate that feature.

 

[sevo]

Yep. I've run across one of them before on a FED, which makes it even more likely that it is a discreetly unlabelled export Jupiter-3. I'd lean towards a fake, though, as the ears show lots of wear while the front ring (which should be in a much worse state) is as new...

 

[tvagi]

at first sight i would say that it is a KMZ lens,seen by the logo.
this logo with the two digits at both sides where familiar to me.i had seen it somewhere else!early FED-ZORKI or something like that.
but why try at all?i opened the "Princelle's Guide"!p.144 first lens on top left!
made from 1948-1950(coated) on FED-ZORKI
there is also a Z.K. 2/5cm collapsible, "copy of,or relabeled Zeiss-Sonnar.....".
it is an early J-3.
the name J-3 was used for the same lens after 1951.

 

[dexdog]

I believe that the ZK stands for Sonnar Krasnogorsk, i.e., the Soviet-made copy of the Zeiss Sonnar, built in Krasnogorsk, a couple hours outside Moscow. Probably pretty nice lens. There is a cottage industry in FSU faking ZKs because they sell for a lot more money than a standard J-3

 

[Sonnar Brian]

It is probably a ZK as stated by Dexdog- Has German parts, but a transitional lens to the J-3. Only one way to really find out- and that is to take the optics module out of the focus mount and have a look at the material used. and while you are at it, take of the focus ring and look at the mechanism for the helical. The mechanism for the German LTM Sonnar, very early Russian, and J-3 is much different.

http://ziforums.com/showthread.php?t=224

I've recently taken on rebuilding Five "unusual" Sonnars. It's my guess that some are Russian assembled from German parts, and others are Russian copies from the German designs. One is just strange. I've posted two so far, will be putting up three more.
The ZK lenses are reputed to be very good. I had one 1950 J-3 that was just "wrong" optically. The mount was much too long, the focal length was off.

 

[dexdog]

I've recently taken on rebuilding Five "unusual" Sonnars. It's my guess that some are Russian assembled from German parts, and others are Russian copies from the German designs. One is just strange. I've posted two so far, will be putting up three more.
The ZK lenses are reputed to be very good. I had one 1950 J-3 that was just "wrong" optically. The mount was much too long, the focal length was off.

Brian, I have a Sonnar that looks a lot like the one you have described as czj2 in the ZIforum.

I took it apart to look at the guts, and posted pics on RFF- http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62428&page=2 . The consensus seems to be that my lens began life as a ZK assembled of Zeiss parts, but was rebadged as a war-time Sonnar.

Have you ever seen initials scratched into the inner workings of any of your lenses, like the "HF" scratched on the lens in #22 of the above RFF thread?

 

[raid]

Brian and Mark,
How can I tell whether a ZK is genuine or not without opening it up?