Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The Carl Zeiss Jena Contax RF lenses were made in steel, nickel, or brass mounts until the Second World War, when aluminium became the norm. Almost all Postwar Jena production continued in aluminium; Postwar Oberkochen production was in steel and brass. Regular production of Zeiss Jena lenses in LTM was principally conducted during the War. This seems to have included: 8/2.8cm Tessar, 2.8/3.5cm Biogon, 4.5/3.5cm Orthometar, 2/5cm Sonnar, 1.5/5cm Sonnar, 2/8.5cm Sonnar, and the 4/13.5cm Sonnar. Examples of the 4/13.5cm and 4.5/13.5cm Triotar in LTM have surfaced, but the known numbers are currently too few to establish quantity production. Postwar, Jena made a very small run of the 1.5/6cm Sonnar in LTM and an excruciatingly small run of 1.5/7.5 Biotars as well -- only three of the latter are known to exist. Almost all of the regular production Jena LTM lenses are coated and T-marked. There was no known production of Oberkochen lenses in LTM, though a small number of conversions have been noted. There is also the 1.5/5.8 "Leica Sonnar", now believed to have been an early Postwar forgery -- these ARE proper Sonnars by design but seem to have been Soviet production. The 2/5cm and 1.5/cm Sonnars were the benchmark for miniature-format (35mm) normal camera lenses from their inception until the end of the 1950's. The 2/5cm Summicron, introduced in 1954, certainly equalled the 2/5cm Sonnar, while the second version of the 1.4/50 Summilux, introduced in 1961, equalled the 1.5/5cm Sonnar. There is a rather nice book available which covers the saga of the non-Leitz LTM lenses in detail. Heck of a good read, too! Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!