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Carl Zeiss Sonnar 50 mm f/1.5 (Burke & James mount)
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 3:30 pm    Post subject: Carl Zeiss Sonnar 50 mm f/1.5 (Burke & James mount) Reply with quote
Because many of the people here are among the most knowledgable ones on usual lenses like that, I just have to try my luck and ask if anyone has heard of this lens, which is both, a well-known and a pretty mysterious one at the same time...

The Sonnar the better by simple.joy, on Flickr

If I'm not mistaken there are several versions of the Sonnar 50 mm f/1.5 out there and for all I know this one could very well be just one of them re-housed by James & Burke Chicago for an unspecified application. I have no idea how to spot Sonnar fakes, so it could also be that, however it would be somewhat surprising James & Burke (who seems to have made cameras) would have sold it with their name on it, I suppose.

It was sold as an enlarging lens, it doesn't have a LTM/M39 thread though, but an M42 one interestingly enough. It looks to be coated, even though it doesn't have any T* inscription and the silver metal part of the lens looks different from the other Sonnars I've seen. It feels very well made and has a beautiful (at certain f-stops star-shaped) aperture with 11 blades. It needs to be really close to the sensor in order to reach infinity so I still have to think about a solution for that.

If you happen to know anything about it, please let me know. Regardless of what it turns out to be, I'm pretty confident that I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this lens, despite its obvious limits in terms of sharpness and correction.

Here are a couple of shots:

Second hand halo by simple.joy, on Flickr

Music bends reality… by simple.joy, on Flickr

Light snack by simple.joy, on Flickr

Let light play by simple.joy, on Flickr


PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Like 1 small

Yes. It should be a re-housed post-war Oberkochen Sonnar with T coating.


PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 1:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
It sure is no fake. But it is a converted lens. I would call it a Franken-Sonnar Very Happy

This is a Carl Zeiss Oberkochern (West Germany) Sonnar 50mm F/1.5. It was made after 1954. It is coated but Zeiss dropped the T at this point because all lenses were coated with their T-coating anyway. Your Sonnar is one of the most common ones with black filter rim and Carl Zeiss name on it. It is a very sharp and contrasty lens nevertheless.

Because this Sonnar was build in the Contax Rangefinder mount it is quite complicated to use on other cameras. Most common those Sonnars get a conversion to LTM and can be used on other rangefinder cameras like Leicas. It is not usable on SLRs as the flange distance is very short. But you can adapt Sonnars to work on mirrorless cameras as Sony A7. Your conversion removed the bottom part of the lens and added a new bottom. Zeiss never did such conversions. Carl Zeiss Oberkochern never build a LTM version of the Sonnar 50mm. So all conversions found where made by others. How usable it is depends on the skill and mechanical solutions used.


PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
jamaeolus wrote:
Like 1


calvin83 wrote:
Like 1 small

Yes. It should be a re-housed post-war Oberkochen Sonnar with T coating.


Thank you very much!

räuber wrote:
It sure is no fake. But it is a converted lens. I would call it a Franken-Sonnar Very Happy

This is a Carl Zeiss Oberkochern (West Germany) Sonnar 50mm F/1.5. It was made after 1954. It is coated but Zeiss dropped the T at this point because all lenses were coated with their T-coating anyway. Your Sonnar is one of the most common ones with black filter rim and Carl Zeiss name on it. It is a very sharp and contrasty lens nevertheless.

Because this Sonnar was build in the Contax Rangefinder mount it is quite complicated to use on other cameras. Most common those Sonnars get a conversion to LTM and can be used on other rangefinder cameras like Leicas. It is not usable on SLRs as the flange distance is very short. But you can adapt Sonnars to work on mirrorless cameras as Sony A7. Your conversion removed the bottom part of the lens and added a new bottom. Zeiss never did such conversions. Carl Zeiss Oberkochern never build a LTM version of the Sonnar 50mm. So all conversions found where made by others. How usable it is depends on the skill and mechanical solutions used.


Thanks a lot for the detailed information. 'Franken-Sonnar' definitely seems to fit this unusual lens. The flange distance is certainly extremely short. A 1 mm M42 adapter got me slightly over infinity, so it will need a custom adapter to be usable on my bellows. However I'm not sure how viable it is to even attempt infinity focus with a lens like that so I might be content with a little more options for close-ups than I got now.

And up we go... by simple.joy, on Flickr

Not part of the group by simple.joy, on Flickr


PostPosted: Sun Jan 29, 2023 8:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
simple.joy wrote:
'Franken-Sonnar' definitely seems to fit this unusual lens. The flange distance is certainly extremely short. A 1 mm M42 adapter got me slightly over infinity, so it will need a custom adapter to be usable on my bellows.


If nothing else, the aperture is a dead give away. Those West German Sonnar apertures from the 1950s are unmistakable.

Except for the mount, yours looks almost identical to my Contax RF version. It's probable that was the original configuration. It would be relatively easy to add a custom mount since the CRF version has no focusing helicoid of its own.
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