Camera Talk

My mother came to visit and she came with a few lenses she found in a closet at my grandmother's house:
- Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5cm f1.5 - seems to be from 1932 by the serial number

Type 1 lens, very rare with f/ 1.5-8 only

- Jupiter 12 3.5 cm f2.8 from about 1956


- Jupiter 9 8.5 cm f2 from 1955


- KMZ Universal ViewFinder turret


They are al in the bakelite cases
Are those lenses fit for a KIEV/Contax?
If so which kiev you recommend

She also found a Ihagee EXA-IIA that needs work, with a Domiplan 50/2.8 which I'll sell

Plus an assortment of filters, lens shades etc.

My guess is that it belonged to one of my uncles when they were flirting with communism

PS. The Zeiss lens belonged to my grandfather, he had a Contax camera (prewar) that he bought from one of the Italian-jewish that came to Ecuador in the mid 1930s escaping their fate. They were friends of him as fellow doctors, others were engineers and all of them were incredibly helpful to develop my country upwards. They built one of the first pharmaceutical labs and brought many advancements.
That camera was used by him until he bought a Leica (sometime in the late 40s) and later the Contax camera broke and was unrepareable. My uncle bought a Kiev camera sometime in the 60s, and the Jupiter lenses belonged with it.

They do look like Kiev/Contax mount to me. Should be nice lenses.

The KMZ turret is very useful as well.

Most Kievs will need service. I would suggest getting one CLAed from Oleg, with a Helios-103. As for the model, whatever suits you will do. The Kiev magic is in the lenses.

As for the Exa, be careful. I started with one of those and now I am running into a few Exaktas with lenses and accessories. They tend to multiply and grow.

From what I understand about the Kiev line, the older ones are better as a lot of them were made from genuine Zeiss parts, or from the original tooling. But then those would be the ones with the most use/wear also so its "Buyer beware!". The lenses and finder will work just fine on a Contax II, and only the J-12 will not fit on the IIa.

PF

The J12 is a very sought after lens. Beware that the rear element of your example does not foul the shutter curtain of whatever Kiev you choose to mount it on, when focussed to infinity. You should be able to find a good Kiev IVA with no problem, in Moscow. https://kosmofoto.com/2021/03/kiev-4-review/
This is my one:

Well, I decided I don't need another camera system so I'll sell all these to fund my next Pentax DSLR
I have to research how much I can get from them but that is a different story

- The lenses are in good shape, no marks or dings or scratches and blades are smooth and clean
All of them came in bakelite cylinders, with stickers in Russian at the bottom
The J9 focuses well, albeit being a bit stiff.
The J12 is clean and seems to work fine

- They soviet lenses are marked in cyrilic, not western characters (except for "made in the USSR"), and from what I could research they are the 2nd or 3rd model to come out of KMZ factory so I don;t expect them to have any German glass by then

- The Carl Zeiss lens is a prewar example (max f/8) and is in very good shape for the age, seems to also be sought after by mirrorless users with a novoflex adapter

You will get decent money for the J9 and Sonnar 5cm, even for the J12
Talking with the locals about the early serial numbers of the KMZ lenses, all about Zeiss glasses is a myth but truth that the most sought lenses are the ones from 1949-1956, it’s about control quality when they rebuilt the factories from Jena and personal trained after the war by the German specialist (released from 1955-1956).
One friend from EU was very happy when I got him a J9 from those years for about USD120, he told mr that lens would be 200euro in his country.

The Sonnar is an early version, although not the original. The earliest were all black. This one seems to be an in-between model, because it has a black nose while the rest of the barrel is chrome. Always interesting.

I recall reading that camera makers would do some mix and match when one model ended, and another began.

Personally, I don't think uncoated lenses have enough contrast to satisfy digital needs, but there always is someone willing to spend money to prove me wrong.

I would think that you could easily get a couple of hundred for the Sonnar.

I think so too, it has the iris only until f/8 and only the f/ring is chrome, the rest is black
According to a serial nbr databse this one is from 1932-3 (v1)
I can't see much separation , haze or "oil" but it is not perfect
https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/zicontax50f15.htm

I made myself an adapter to test with my pentax but can't get close enought to the sensor for anything other than macro

melek wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:20 pm

The Sonnar is an early version, although not the original. The earliest were all black. This one seems to be an in-between model, because it has a black nose while the rest of the barrel is chrome. Always interesting.

I recall reading that camera makers would do some mix and match when one model ended, and another began.

Personally, I don't think uncoated lenses have enough contrast to satisfy digital needs, but there always is someone willing to spend money to prove me wrong.

I would think that you could easily get a couple of hundred for the Sonnar.

melek wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:20 pm

The Sonnar is an early version, although not the original. The earliest were all black. This one seems to be an in-between model, because it has a black nose while the rest of the barrel is chrome. Always interesting.

I recall reading that camera makers would do some mix and match when one model ended, and another began.

Personally, I don't think uncoated lenses have enough contrast to satisfy digital needs, but there always is someone willing to spend money to prove me wrong.

I would think that you could easily get a couple of hundred for the Sonnar.

I have been told this is V1, which coincides with the PacificRimCamera page
on the Sonnar. Serial nbr is "low" coinciding with 1932/3
"The lens was first introduced in 1932 in black and nickel finish. To avoid contrast problems due to diffraction, the lens was limited to stopping down to f/8. The aperture ring is in the center of the lens. The lens is not threaded for filters."

Do you have another reference for the variations?



* Body Chrome and black
* Markings: CarlZeissJena Nr1374239
Sonnar 1:1,5 f=5cm
No markings on barrel
Rear element has the last 5 digits of the S/N
* F apertures 1.5-2.2.8-4-5.6-8
* Blades 16
Dimensions:
Barrel Front: 42mm
Push on filter: 39.5mm
Length 39.5mm
Rear Element diameter 29.5mm
Weight 188g

@melek

Someone found the picture I had in flickr, and sent me a message saying:

I have quite shocking news to you. Your Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5cm f1.5 is on the list (In Thiele's book). So it is authentic. More than this it belongs to the first production run of 100 copies from 18.10.1932. They made only 155 of this optical design at all. Yours is Nr 68 of 155 if I calculated it right.
The v1 design has a max aperture of F8. Bertele improved the lens design and you see it in the table as v2 with calculation date 08.12.1932. The v2 Design has a max aperture of F11. This is not a cosmetic change. Bertele changed the calculation of the glass lenses and distances between
them. So there should be a visible difference of images with v1 and v2 lenses.
Found in Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II by Hartmut Thiele. It lists all lenses manufactured by Carl Zeiss Jena from 1927 to 1991.