why is my elmar 90 unmarked?

[jonasv]

Question for folks more knowledgeable than me, I have an elmar 90/4, LTM, black barrel with two chrome rings, the old f/stop sequence (f/4, f/4.5, f/6.3, ... f/36), markings in feet (3.5 ft till 300 plus infinity).

It has the f/stop marking, the distance marking plus 'Feet' and 'Germany', and the DOF scale. Other than that there are no markings: no serial number that I can find, no 'leitz', 'elmar', '9 cm', '90mm', 'f/4', ... None of that. Somebody inscribed (handwritten, sloppily) #3127 on the mount and in between filter ring and glass, now I know that can't be a serial number...It doesn't look as if it has been painted or anything other than inscribing that number, so I'm just wondering why it doesn't have any markings? Is there anybody who can clue me in?

I have a second question as well. Cleaning the haze out of an elmar 90 seems to be a subject that often pops up, but searching the archives I haven't really found a how-to. Is there anybody who could link me to one, or explain me how I can clean the haze? I'm not sure where it is located. It isn't very severe, but I'd like to get rid of it nevertheless. Below it gives the impression there's a lot of haze, but it really isn't that bad as it seems in these images.

Thanks!

 

[VictorM.]

Your lens looks as if it's missing the ring at the front. Or it's been replaced by a blank ring. The #3170 may be part of the serial that relates to the focusing mount. The front unit unscrews revealing hand written numbers inside the mount.

 

[John Shriver]

Yes, the last few (3-4) digits of the serial number are penciled on the mount, so that you don't swap heads and mounts. They are matched, both for infinity focus, and for focal length.

Pretty much a matter of unscrewing the two ends to clean out the Elmar. Torque with rubber sheets. If there's any sign of coating, think twice about cleaning, the coatings are so soft it is trivially easy to just clean them right off.

 

[ddutchison]

With repeated emphasis on John's point above - of not messing with internal cleaning if it's a coated lens, here's Huw Finney's tutorial on opening up the Elmar 90/f4 for cleaning out haze.

I've got an un-coated 1944 version on the way to me right now so I'll be giving this a try myself. Good luck.

 

[jonasv]

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks Victor and John!

 

[jonasv]

With repeated emphasis on John's point above - of not messing with internal cleaning if it's a coated lens, here's Huw Finney's tutorial on opening up the Elmar 90/f4 for cleaning out haze.

I've got an un-coated 1944 version on the way to me right now so I'll be giving this a try myself. Good luck.

Ah, we posted at the same time. Thanks for that link, really helpfull! No trace of coating on my elmar, so I'll be trying the cleaning. Good luck with yours too!

 

[David Murphy]

Regarding haze, my camera tech charges $50 to make just about any lens work and look pretty much like new (except for scratches of course). This is certainly worth it in my opinion ! You may want to find a reliable tech as well.

BTW what happened to your Bessa R ! Looks like it's already been around the block a few times.

 

[Wimpler]

jvx good luck. Looking forward to pictures with it.

 

[kvanderlaag]

BTW what happened to your Bessa R ! Looks like it's already been around the block a few times.

Looks like it's just a lot of electrical tape on the less black parts!

 

[jonasv]

BTW what happened to your Bessa R ! Looks like it's already been around the block a few times.

Heh, yeah. The poor thing usually hangs around my neck bumping into either a Pentacon Six or Nikon F4s. I'm not too careful with my gear when on assignment, and I don't like padded bags...

It's a habit to tape up my Nikon SLR's, because I really don't know if the average thief will see a difference between an F4s ($250) or D2x ($4500) since they're both big, black and have "NIKON" on the front. For the bessa it probably wasn't necessary, it doesn't like anything like most digital (expensive) cameras that thieves are after, but well, it's a habit... And it's good for my peace of mind I think, makes me worry less about the camera getting stolen (even if it won't make an actual difference). The tape on the corners also absorps some of the shocks when bumping into things or dropping it, I think.