Unusual Zeiss Wartime 50/1.5 Contax Mount

CameraQuest

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Has anyone seen another lens like this?

Carl Zeiss Jena
Red T

zeiss_wt_50_15_2708346_01.jpg


zeiss_wt_50_15_2708346_02.jpg
 
I recall having seen a similar lens with this gold trim, Stephen. It was (maybe) a prototype lens or a transition period lens.
 
Sonnar

Sonnar

The cross knurling is unusual for Zeiss , could be a wartime lens block mounted postwar . The lens lock with the 't' shaped reinforcement may not have locked into the contax spring clip or mounted properly .
If I remember Leica tom posted a sonnar in Leica mount with similar knurling on the barrel , it was chrome plated brass mount . It looked to be a one-off ,
Does it have infinity focus when mounted ? Ie sharp image at film plane .
 
It looks like one of those lenses made from the late 1945 to the early 1947, when the Zeiss plants were occupied first by the allies, then by the soviets. It is known that the workers continued to assemble lenses and -possibly- cameras with remaining parts or newly-made mounts. Mostly, to trade with food, clothes, etc.
Actually, this piece doesn't look like one of the known, infamous copies/fakes coming from Eastern Europe.
 
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