I've handled about six 50/1.1 Zunows, 5 chrome and 1 black. None of them had any obvious indication of Contax or Nikon rangefinder mount.
Were Nikon mount 1.1 Zunows indeed produced? What identifies them as Nikon mount?
Stephen
Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s just about every Japanese Camera manufacturer was making goods that fit other manufacturers, including the major players like Nippon Kogaku, Seiki Kogaku and Kōgaku Seiki-sha.
Teikoku Kōgaku was a minor player at the time trying to survive by being innovative in lens design and manufacture, it is very much possible that they did re-mount their 1.1 lens designed for movie mount to accommodate the newly introduced Nippon Kogaku mount and the old Contax mount. Lets not forget this particular lens was introduced in early 1950s, much earlier than any other Japenese optical firm's super speed offering.
Most members of this site mount old lenses to new digital cameras like the M8 and the RD-1 via assorted adapters, I wonder if the old timers tried the same thing?
It is a fact that the New York retailers of the time advertised many different brands, most times mixed together to offer lower priced options, so in essence, people did buy lenses from Zunow offered with Contax or Screw-mount Leicas(with adapters to fit M mount Leicas).
All this caused more demand and I'm sure Teikoku Kōgaku(Zunow) made more to accommodate the NY stores, hence the later black lenses.
The most interesting fact is that after half a century, wondering Photographers can get super nice results from these old antique optics and post them for all to see.
Looks like light fall-off is gone by f2.8!!! A task not achieved by lots of lenses today, including some primes.
Kiu
