One of our RFF members bought a CZJ Sonnar 5cm F2 with a rear element from a Planar formula lens in it. Somebody made it look complete, it would not form an image. I replaced the rear element with that from a J-8, and it worked out nicely.
You could replace the rear module of the 1951 J-3, they are fairly interchangeable. Some shimming required. Do you still have the J-3?
Hi Brian,
Perhaps, it sounds rather odd, but in the past six months I bought something like six J-3 lenses from the 50's produced by 2 different manufacturers (Krasnogorsk and ZOMZ) in order to test them and prove to the fellow Sonnar shooters that Russian made glass is severely undervalued.
I hope it does not sound like a Jupiter acqusition syndrome...
My J-3s came from different places like Czechia, Ukraine and Russia. The fake one I bought from one very well-known seller from Prague (although he is Russian or Ukrainian...)
There is a broad misconception and most photographers think the Russian glass is of poor quality. This is not correct at least for the lenses from the 50's and early 60' when each lens (yes, each lens!) made by the above mentioned plants had to pass QC and was made up to strict specifications. I have a couple of lenses that still have the papers where lens specifications and the lens individual number are inked and confirmed by QC dept.!
The problem is not with the poor quality glass produced by "drunk" Russians, but with the poor quality of the cameras! I am sure that most of the lenses were later adjusted to the cameras and maybe numerous times. Since they are quite simple for disassembling many Russians in the Soviet times did calibration (or collimation) on their own. There were plenty of books those days explaining how to do it yourself.
To make things even worse some modern evilbay sellers started to make fake engravings on the front ring, and charge 5 times more for such crappy work.
To tell the fake from original J-3 made in the 50's one should check the color of the coating. Up to 57-58 it was light violet almost without blue notes like in the original Sonnar. Later the coating became more purple and bluish. I am sure you know what I'm talking about. I will post my findings in the next two weeks when I get some free time to finish the tests.
Sorry for writing the off topic. Re, Orion-15 - it's a great lens for the daytime if it has all its elements in place
😀 and it still keeps its value!
Cheers,
Vassily
