What is this this lens? (Sonnar 50/f2).

[Grytpype]

I'm fairly new to the intricacies of Carl Zeiss production, and this lens has me puzzled. According to the accepted list of Zeiss Jena serial numbers it is a 1941 lens. Did Zeiss make f2 coated Sonnars in a non-collapsible mount in 1941? Usually they seem to be the usual pre-war type collapsible. I think this mount looks like the f1.5 lens of the period. The optics barrel looks like plated brass, rather than the aluminium which I thought was used in the wartime lenses. The whole thing looks better finished than the Jupiter-8, so I don't think it is 1941 Zeiss optics in a Jupiter mount.

Is this a pukka lens, or a bitza?

Steve.

 

[raid]

Could you post some high resolution pics of the lens?

 

[xayraa33]

Looks to be a post war Jena made f2 Sonnar.
Remember that newly established West German Zeiss in near Stuttgart had trouble making Lenses to meet the demand for the new Contax IIa and IIIa and contracted out some of the supply of Sonnars to Jena Zeiss in East Germany to ease the demand, these were different than the pre war stuff and different to what was being made in the west.

 

[sparrow6224]

I have seen other pre-war and early war Carl Zeiss Jena f/2 Sonnars. I think the lens is exactly what its serial number says it is. The f/1.5 barrel is larger than the f/2 so f/2 elements would not, I think, fit workably in such a barrel.

 

[sparrow6224]

PS By the way if you really want expert testimony on this lens, join the Yahoo Group called ZICG, or Zeiss Ikon Contax... I dunno G series? Anyway those people really know this stuff.

 

[farlymac]

That's Zeiss Ikon Contax Group.

PF

 

[Grytpype]

Thanks for the replies.

I think the lens is exactly what its serial number says it is.

So did Zeiss make f2 Sonnars in non-collapsible mounts in 1941? All the others I've seen from the period are collapsibles.

It does look a lot like a post-war Sonnar, but I understood they lost the 'ears' on the aperture ring, and according to 'the list', 1945 Jena serial numbers started at 3 million.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but any time I think of joining the ZICG I read Yahoo's T & C and Privacy Policy first and decide I would rather not bother!

Steve.

 

[dexdog]

According to Thiele's book of CZJ lenses, your lens was part of a batch of 2000 completed December 7, 1942. According to John Keesing's book of Contax rangefinder lenses, CZJ made a couple versions of rigid f:2 sonnars in chromed brass in 1935 and 1936, including one where the barrel is identical to the f:1.5 sonnars. Keesing also notes that Zeiss started to produce T-coated f:2 lenses in 1938. If I had to guess, it would bet that the lens is legitimate. Given the war-time shortages probably reasonable to assume that CZJ was using all available barrels of whatever style to produce lenses.

BTW, ZICG = Zeiss-Ikon Collectors Group.

 

[Grytpype]

Thanks, dexdog, that looks like the answer to my questions!

I didn't bid on the camera, but I had never seen a lens quite like that before. Might have been a good buy, with the unusual lens.

Steve.