Uncommon, Rare, and Collector's Delights.

[wlewisiii]

The Minolta lenses are uncommon outside of Japan, and not that many made. There are two versions of this lens, the earliest use 40.5mm filters. I have both, a very good lens. Very close to the Summitar, but uses air-spaced doublets rather than cemented pairs. When you see some describe this lens as a 7 element in 4 group lens, it is correct. Just two of the groups are air-spaced.

Good to know. I like the f/2 enough I won't go out of my way to get one. I might get one of the 45mm lenses 😉

 

[former member]

"The First and the Last" of my version 1 German Glass Jupiter-3 lenses.
Both have perfect glass, the 1950 lens required moving out the rear triplet to get the focal length correct. It has German SN on the rear fixture. The 1956 J-3 is the latest v1 that I've handled. I have later SN KMZ J-3's, but they are v2 with Russian Glass.

 

[Miles.]

Here's another oddity in the Contax RF world... Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm f2 (f22 aperture) in it's original rigid chrome mount. Folks over at Zeiss Historica never conclusively figured out why... but CZJ produced a few of these rigid chrome 5cm f2 lenses using the standard 5cm f1.5 chrome barrel. Stefan Baumgartner posted a serial # list of these some time ago and it seems that this example is one of at least 23 known. They seem to have been produced in at least (4) different batches but this example from the #186 batch is the most common with at least (14) coming from this batch.

 

[former member]

I have the more common black ring version, 173 block. An adapter is used to screw the F2 barrel into the F1.5 mount. But- the barrel is extended, and the front element is much more inset than the collapsible. A lot of work for a few lenses!



I like the Black Ring mounts- I have two 5cm F1.5 Sonnars from the 1607 block, one black ring the other chrome, sn about 100 apart.

 

[dexdog]

Milescl, I have the same type of lens marked to f22, mine is 1866644. So there must be at least 24 of them now! I also have a 166 series lens in an identical mount, but it is only stops down to f11, and is marked as such. Oddly enough, the serial number for my 166 series f2 lens is grouped in with a batch of 1000 f1.5 Sonnars completed in May 1935, according to Thiele's book of CZJ lenses. It makes sense that the 166 series lens only stops down to f11 because it was not until some time in 1935 that the 5cm/f1.5 Sonnar had aperture decreased to f16. Lastly, I have a 165 series lens with a black band with minimum aperture of f22, similar to Sonnar Brian's lens

 

[Miles.]

Milescl, I have the same type of lens marked to f22, mine is 1866644. So there must be at least 24 of them now! I also have a 166 series lens in an identical mount, but it is only stops down to f11, and is marked as such. The production date in Thiele for the 165 lens is given as March 1935. It makes sense that the 166 series lens only stops down to f11 because it was not until some time in 1935 that the 5cm/f1.5 Sonnar had aperture decreased to f16. Lastly, I have a 165 series lens with a black band similar to Sonnar Brian's lens

Ah, excellent! I've added your 186 lens to my own amateur serial # list. I'm excited to see if anyone else on the forum has an example. Would you mind sharing photos of your 186 and 166 examples? Very curious to see the 166 batch as that would be the first known all chrome for that batch (to my knowledge).

 

[dexdog]

milescl, I am an idiot, my 166 series lens is f1.5, not f2...too many lenses and i did not look closely enough! That said, here are a couple of crappy pics of 1866644. You can even see from the pic that it is f2!

 

[peterm1]

A Dallmeyer Dalrac, 135mm f4.5
These lenses seem to go for "silly money" (though I must admit it turns in very nice images - better I would say than the equivalent Hector lens). It is said to be rare and eBay prices tend to run to $400 / $500 US up to several thousand (asking price - not many sold). I got mine for about $150 AUD (around say $100 US). I think this was for the Reid Camera or just as an alternative lens to a Leitz. And I guess this qualifies as relatively rare.

 

[JakobN]

Here's another oddity in the Contax RF world... Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm f2 (f22 aperture) in it's original rigid chrome mount. Folks over at Zeiss Historica never conclusively figured out why... but CZJ produced a few of these rigid chrome 5cm f2 lenses using the standard 5cm f1.5 chrome barrel. Stefan Baumgartner posted a serial # list of these some time ago and it seems that this example is one of at least 23 known. They seem to have been produced in at least (4) different batches but this example from the #186 batch is the most common with at least (14) coming from this batch.



View attachment 4817911

View attachment 4817912

Actually it is the collapsible type that is the "oddity". The first design in 1932-33 and the black ring design in 1935 are alike for f2 and f1.5, only in 1934 they differ. In the german language Contax catalogs from september 36 and october 37 you had the choice between the rigid type and the collapsible one (same price). In the catalog from 1938 the rigid type is no longer listed. I guess the collapsible was the most popular so they discontinued the rigid type.
My recorded numbers:
1659167
1730715 837 839 908 998
1731649 694 735
1755287 415 427 505 525
1865297
1866251 270 297 376 379 391 409 424 434 485 501 514 528 532 544 551 560 577 582 606 615 635 644 657 659

 

[former member]

Just a delight, the pre-production Bertele Sonnar 5cm F2. Next to my "perfect glass" 1934 5cm f2 Sonnar that it is based on. The Bertele is a Labor of Respect and Appreciation on the part of Skyllaney.

Finding an F2 Sonnar with perfect glass is difficult, they use soft glass for the front element. Mine- bought 20+ years ago is the best I've seen after going through many, at least 50 of them. I'll be posting more on this unique lens in the next couple of weeks.

 

[dexdog]

Pretty cool, even has your name on the name ring! I would buy one of those lenses if they ever get produced

 

[former member]

Pretty cool, even has your name on the name ring! I would buy one of those lenses if they ever get produced

They will make it into production...

 

[Miles.]

Actually it is the collapsible type that is the "oddity". The first design in 1932-33 and the black ring design in 1935 are alike for f2 and f1.5, only in 1934 they differ. In the german language Contax catalogs from september 36 and october 37 you had the choice between the rigid type and the collapsible one (same price). In the catalog from 1938 the rigid type is no longer listed. I guess the collapsible was the most popular so they discontinued the rigid type.
My recorded numbers:
1659167
1730715 837 839 908 998
1731649 694 735
1755287 415 427 505 525
1865297
1866251 270 297 376 379 391 409 424 434 485 501 514 528 532 544 551 560 577 582 606 615 635 644 657 659View attachment 4818168

Thanks for posting yours and your data. I've compiled the known lists so far and will place it below for posterity:

All Chrome Rigid CZJ 5cm f2 - 55 known as of 3/15/23

- 1658660
- 1659167
- 1659704
- 1730715
- 1730726
- 1730837
- 1730839
- 1730908
- 1730998
- 1755220
- 1755287
- 1755408
- 1755415
- 1755427
- 1755505
- 1755525
- 1865297
- 1866251
- 1866270
- 1866280
- 1866287
- 1866292
- 1866297
- 1866376
- 1866379
- 1866385
- 1866391
- 1866409
- 1866424
- 1866434
- 1866446
- 1866452
- 1866453
- 1866485
- 1866501
- 1866514
- 1866528
- 1866532
- 1866544
- 1866551
- 1866560
- 1866577
- 1866582
- 1866603
- 1866606
- 1866615
- 1866635
- 1866637
- 1866643
- 1866644
- 1866657
- 1866659
- 1866644
- 1930850 (164g)
- 1930951 (modified mount)

 

[Rayt]

I had this LTM 5cm f/1.5 Taylor Hobson lens not the one preceding the Summarit but a seemingly rare one with a fat barrel. I didn’t use it much because it was purely a “character” lens so I sold it to a friend for a few hundred bucks. Years later at Lemon Camera in Tokyo I saw one advertised for 10,000,000 Yen. I felt really bad for about 30 seconds. I dug and dug but found nothing on it except an article about it being some famous Chinese artist’s favourite lens.

 

[dexdog]

Playing around with old lenses, waiting for spring flowers to appear soon. A 1951 Jupiter-9 in LTM. CZJ serial number on rear lens group.


The CZJ serial number (2)851104 appears in Harmut Thiele's book as part of a batch of 2,000 8.5cm/2 lenses completed February 6, 1946. I also have two CZJ 85/2 lenses in LTM from the same batch

 

[Bill Blackwell]

The MP-7 - one of a kind.

 

[markjwyatt]

Playing around with old lenses, waiting for spring flowers to appear soon. A 1951 Jupiter-9 in LTM. CZJ serial number on rear lens group.


The CZJ serial number (2)851104 appears in Harmut Thiele's book as part of a batch of 2,000 8.5cm/2 lenses completed February 6, 1946. I also have two CZJ 85/2 lenses in LTM from the same batch

I have Thiele's book, and that serial number range without the "2" in front is for a 15 cm f4.5 Tessar for the Zeiss Ikon Ideal (1928ish)- not consistent. Why do you think there is a 2,000,000 attached to this? For 2,851,104 I do see the 85mm f2 Sonnar. In your LTM 85/2s do they drop the "2" in front?

 

[former member]

I have Thiele's book, and that serial number range without the "2" in front is for a 15 cm f4.5 Tessar for the Zeiss Ikon Ideal (1928ish)- not consistent. Why do you think there is a 2,000,000 attached to this? For 2,851,104 I do see the 85mm f2 Sonnar. In your LTM 85/2s do they drop the "2" in front?

Zeiss did not stamp the entire SN in all of the fixtures, just the last digits. I've seen 4, 5, and 6 digits stamped in the inner fixtures.

"5cm F1.5 Sonnar Conversion 29". Did this one in 2012. I've done almost 60 of these.
Lots of Twos. Three Twos on the front ring, Two Twos on back.

 

[dexdog]

I have seen just the last 6 digits on rear lens groups. The dozen or so that I have successfully taken apart and reassembled have various numbers of digits stamped on the inner fixtures as Brian has noted.

 

[markjwyatt]

I guess it was "work-in-progress". Everyone knew where they were in terms of millions... On the lens front the full serial number is needed.