Odd LTM Sonnar on eBay

Hello
I just bought this one a week ago.
The late number is 287509.
Maybe only the cap is good.
The Leica is us Exchange army service.
Delivered on 11/15/45
When do you thinkIMG_20230122_161913_resized_20230122_043005681.jpgIMG_20230122_181800_resized_20230122_062021857.jpgIMG_20230122_181813_resized_20230122_062021462.jpgIMG_20230122_181910_resized_20230122_062021676.jpgIMG_20230122_182643_resized_20230122_062707928.jpg
 
It looks like it was finished just after the War, mostly original pieces with some items such as the aperture ring being "irregular" production. I have one that looks just like it- more grooves in the aperture ring wings than regular production, and a "dot" instead of a line for the index.

Shoot with it- would like to see the results. I've seen several like this, all post 285x numbers that are not in Thiele. Some had internal SN on the parts of the inner mechanism that were consistent with original wartime production of LTM Sonnars.

Did it come with the "Stepper" Leica IIIc?
 
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Yes it came with the Leica IIIc "Stepper".
But not all immediately.
I bought the IIIC 10 months ago.
And the previous owner found the black case with the sonnar.
I bought it last week.
I'll post some pics as soon as the clouds clear.
 
This is an "irregular" production Sonnar, Tim Vanderweert's. Came out really nice after a complete CLA. The middle triplet was hot-mounted, meaning the elements were put into the barrel while hot, and the barrel provided alignment of the elements. Also means it is in there and will not come out. The helical had to be moved deeper into the mount to get infinity focus. Then- had to re-index the focus ring and the aperture.
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Here is a little preview with a lousy weather.
Except for the interior with artificial lighting.
With sony A7 II and Techart AF adapter

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That looks good to me. The lens was used with the Leica- I would be surprised if the focus was off when using the rangefinder. Focus with the Mirrorless camera- as long as it can reach infinity, you are fine.
 
I have found a realy strange one!

www.ebay.de

Zeiss Ikon Contax II Chrome With Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 50mm F1,5 | eBay

The item pictured is the actual item for sale. Range finder have good contrast, works smooth and vertically is fine aligned.
www.ebay.de

It seems the body is an unpainted Sonnar 5cm F1.5 Nickel F11 (about 1932) lens. BUT
  • the black paint is missing
  • the filter ring is wrong since it is knurled and not smooth, looks like an east german Sonnar filter ring
  • the name ring is wrong since the serial number 60055 is to small for 1932 lenses and Zeiss-Opton never used the 60k batch for Sonnar 1.5 lenses
Quite difficult to say what has happened with this lens. It might be that the original 1932 lens broke and someone tried to repair it with a lot of spare parts from other Sonnars. But it is more likely that between or after the war someone found this spare body and created this fake Sonnar with a fake serial number.
 
Räuber said:
I have found a realy strange one!

www.ebay.de

Zeiss Ikon Contax II Chrome With Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 50mm F1,5 | eBay

The item pictured is the actual item for sale. Range finder have good contrast, works smooth and vertically is fine aligned.
www.ebay.de

It seems the body is an unpainted Sonnar 5cm F1.5 Nickel F11 (about 1932) lens. BUT
  • the black paint is missing
  • the filter ring is wrong since it is knurled and not smooth, looks like an east german Sonnar filter ring
  • the name ring is wrong since the serial number 60055 is to small for 1932 lenses and Zeiss-Opton never used the 60k batch for Sonnar 1.5 lenses
Quite difficult to say what has happened with this lens. It might be that the original 1932 lens broke and someone tried to repair it with a lot of spare parts from other Sonnars. But it is more likely that between or after the war someone found this spare body and created this fake Sonnar with a fake serial number.
Click to expand...
The size is off as well. It's much, much too big for a 5cm Sonnar.
This is likely one of these 5.8cm Sonnars labeled as 5cm. There is a thread in this very sub-forum about these. Paging @Sonnar Brian

And the Serial number, as you already pointed out, is completely and I must say ... hilariously ...wrong.

Edit: I should add - to anyone reading. Do NOT buy this lens!

... unless $450 is acceptable for you to spend on what is a completely un-usable curiosity. Unlike their Leica 5.8cm brethren this is in Contax internal mount which assumes a 52.4mm focal length. As do all adapters. So the lens can be set to meet rangefinder-focus at exactly one distance (I would assume infinity) - everything else will be increasingly out of focus.
 
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I've never seen one like that before- and the Serial Number is crazy. It looks like it would be in the Zeiss Opton range, but marked Jena. Optics are "just wrong" for a standard 5cm F1.5 Sonnar. It looks like the 5.8cm size, and I "guess" of you made a custom barrel you could space out the groups for a 5cm lens- "but" crazy!.
 
With regard to Rauber's post #27, that is truly a strange lens. Serial number makes no sense, the opton range of serials is 6 digits, this one has only 5.
 
I own a 5-digit Zeiss Opton 50mm F1.5, SN 90xxx. I've worked on earlier ones, SN in the range of the lens shown.
 
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