Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc, Thank you for responding so quickly. The serial number on my example is 3255206. It appears to be a fairly advanced design: there is a disc at the rear of the lens inside the last group that apparently is used to cut off edge rays. Likewise the diaphragm also apears to cut off edge rays. The performace on the first roll is quite good so I will have to try A:B tests with the other 35's to see how it fits in the panopoly of design. Sometime soon I will get back my first generation 35 Biogon and a repaired Contax to mount it on. Apparently someone had opened it up in the past and not put it back in proper order. Don don.dory@gmail.com On 6/12/06, Marc James Small <msmall@aya.yale.edu> wrote: > > 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! > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >