Overview of all Zeiss Sonnar 5cm f/1.5 aka 50mm f/1.5 versions

[Sonnar Brian]

Serial number 2,552,240

Carl Zeiss 5 cm 50mm f1.5 Sonnar Contax Rangefinder Lens, pre-war, Excellent | eBay

Pre-War Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar, Contax rangefinder mount. Excellent, both cosmetic and optical. SN 2552240.

www.ebay.com

I bought this one on ebay and just got it. Outside of what looks like a few air bubbles inside the lens, its in good shape. I just wanted a 1.5 because i do have a collapsible f2 that is numbers matching to the contax ii, but its got quite a bit of cleaning marks on it. Not bad, but not perfect.

I should be getting my contax ii back from oleg soon.

That was a really good price- lens looks good. I have a coated and an uncoated Sonnar from this same batch. Note the unmarked F16 setting, my two are the same as this.

 

[aw614]

May have had some GAS 🙄 and I ended up with another one on ebay. Seller had it up for a while and the price kept getting lower and I made an offer he took.

Nr 1892013 from 1936. Same year as my Contax II body

Pardon Our Interruption...

This one had some haze on the rear element and the element in front of the aperture blades, I guess from the oil, but the glass cleaned up nicely and wasn't etched in.

 

[boojum]

May have had some GAS 🙄 and I ended up with another one on ebay. Seller had it up for a while and the price kept getting lower and I made an offer he took.

Nr 1892013 from 1936. Same year as my Contax II body.

Pardon Our Interruption...

This one had some haze on the rear element and the element in front of the aperture blades, I guess from the oil, but the glass cleaned up nicely and wasn't etched in.

You had to buy it. That's the law. ;o}

 

[Miles.]

May have had some GAS 🙄 and I ended up with another one on ebay. Seller had it up for a while and the price kept getting lower and I made an offer he took.

Nr 1892013 from 1936. Same year as my Contax II body

Pardon Our Interruption...

This one had some haze on the rear element and the element in front of the aperture blades, I guess from the oil, but the glass cleaned up nicely and wasn't etched in.

Born on June 27, 1936.. it's a summer baby!

 

[Räuber]

A small update to the guide.

• added black and Nickel Leica thread mount version
• added new images of postwar M2.9 version
• added some images of highest Carl Zeiss Contax Sonnar yet

@dexdog Could you please look into the description of the LTM Sonnar if I missed something? And can you please tell me the weight and maybe size of it? Thank you.

 

[TenEleven]

I've recently encountered the Fujinon 50mm f1.2 in Contax mount (marked with a capital 'C' on the lens tube)

I considered getting it but the price was a bit much, also the shop forbade me to take test pictures with a lens they ask 5000 dollars for(!!), so eh. Yeah no thanks!
Two things I would still be curious about. If f=52.4mm as required for Contax internal mount lenses.

And if so, this should slightly improve the lens astigmatism (of which it has some) and other behaviors since lengthening the focal length generally reduces the severity of aberrations. (You can easily see this in tele lenses which require fewer elements for full correction than similar speed wide angles.)

Also the lens is notably lighter than its LTM cousin (no surprises there, really) - it also has no click stops for the aperture.