Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:11 PM 6/12/06 -0400, Don Dory wrote: >Marc, >Oh ye humble author of LTM lenses, talk to me about this lens. The first >roll appeared to be quite good but light levels were not high so flare >issues weren't to be tested. Any experience with this little puppy? I >don't find much information in English so I suspect most copies were kept in >Europe. Anyway, the price was right as it came as a body cap on a II series >Canon I found cheap. Don If you send me the serial number, I can decode the year of production for you. This is a really nice lens which never came into its own: it entered the market after the second version of the 2.8/35 CZ Biogon and as retro-focus designs for SLR's came out in some numbers, the interest in straight designs such as the Biogon and Xenogon faded. I had suggested in my LTM lens book that this lens might have been introduced during the War but I now suspect that its introduction date was around 1950 and that it survived to around 1960. Wilkinson suggests an introduction date of 1952 but that seems to just be the date of the earliest example he noted during his productive lifetime, and I would opt for 1949 or 1950. I briefly owned one of these and shot a couple of rolls with it. I do not recall any flare problems. It was coated -- JSK got permission from Zeiss to use their vacuum-coating technology in 1947. You have a great lens, Don. Leitz and Schneider worked together from about 1934 into the 1980's, so this lens was made with the intention of being used on Leica cameras, I suspect, unlike the CZJ Biogon T's which show up in LTM on occasion. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!