Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!

SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

Piesker lens early T-mount system
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 1:17 am    Post subject: Piesker lens early T-mount system Reply with quote

Here are a few lenses by this venerable German manufacturer, Piesker. i noticed that there have been quite a few posts on here about these and similar lenses (Tele-Votars, etc.), but I have never seen mention of the interesting mount system. I have picked up a few over the years, all Tele-Picons 135mm f/3.5, 180mm f/5.5, (2) 250mm f/5.5. All except one of the 250mm lenses have pre-set diaphragms. The other 250 has a totally manual aperture. There are many interesting oddities about these heavy, chrome beasts. Three of the lenses are marked Piesker & Co. Berlin, the fourth carries the designation Piesker Berlin West-Germany. The chrome is heavy on all the examples and the glass and mechanics have withstood the test of time.

As you can see in the photo of all four lenses, they come with exchangable mounts - like an early T-mount system. There are two varieties of mounts: 1 set for the 135-180 and 1 set for the 250. The mounts I have include: Exakta classic bayonet, M42, Leica screw, and Hasselblad screw. Because they could be mounted to a Hassy, they must be able to cover 6x6. I must add I never paid more than $20 USD for any of these. Performance on the Canon 5D (images all straight from the camera, no pp except minor level adjustment) is quite respectable. See the wide open test shots attached.

Has anyone here collected any other mounts for these?

Here is a pic of all the lenses with a few of the different mounts:



Here is the 135mm lens and the test shot wide open:




Here's the 180 and its test pic:




Here are the two 250mm lenses and a test pic:




PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 1:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, I have a 135 and a 180, with M42 and Exakta mounts. They are indeed interchangable.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 2:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

luisalegria wrote:
Yes, I have a 135 and a 180, with M42 and Exakta mounts. They are indeed interchangable.


I've searched high and low in old photo mags for ads for these lenses which may have alluded to the interchangeable mount system without finding anything. I am wondering if they were sold with or without mounts, if the mounts were sold separately, or if they were sold with a specific mount for a specific brand of camera?


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

beautiful lens-congrats Very Happy


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lovely looking lenses Smile


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beautiful lenses. I haven't been lucky enough to find any cheap, but I'm still looking.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think this was just a convenience to the maker.

Even T-mounts were not really advertised to the public at the time, I believe they were intended mainly as a convenience to the camera shops.

Thats certainly the line some other makers like Komura took in their trade literature.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:29 pm    Post subject: T-mount Reply with quote

luisalegria wrote:
I think this was just a convenience to the maker.

Even T-mounts were not really advertised to the public at the time, I believe they were intended mainly as a convenience to the camera shops.

Thats certainly the line some other makers like Komura took in their trade literature.


Really interesting, Louis. So the lens companies, like Komura, would supply the camera shops with lenses and mounts and let the store owners mix and match as demand required?

Since these lenses came with Hassy screw mounts, they were obviously made for the 1600F ('49 - '53) or 1000F ('53-'57) models ,which dates them from sometime between those dates ('49 - late fifties, early sixties). I wonder what other companies produced after-market lenses for Hasselblad screw bodies? (besides the original Kodak Ektar).

P.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:58 pm    Post subject: Re: T-mount Reply with quote

pdccameras wrote:
luisalegria wrote:
I think this was just a convenience to the maker.

Even T-mounts were not really advertised to the public at the time, I believe they were intended mainly as a convenience to the camera shops.

Thats certainly the line some other makers like Komura took in their trade literature.


Really interesting, Louis. So the lens companies, like Komura, would supply the camera shops with lenses and mounts and let the store owners mix and match as demand required?


P.


Yes- the interchangeable mounts certainly were a convenience to camera shops! In the 1960s the pre-set T mount lenses - as well as the auto-iris Tamron Adaptamatic, Adaptall, Vivitar TX, Sun YS and everything else - came boxed without mounts. This made life easier for retailers and importers alike. Keeping mounts in uncommon fittings was far more affordable than stocking complete lenses in the less-common mounts. The predictable result was that long after many of the lens 'families' had been discontinued we all had drawers full of mounts in such popular fittings as Argus, Miranda, Konica, Pentamatic and so on. I guess they're all still floating about somewhere . . . Very Happy

Eventually both the importers and retailers got a bit smart and we began to promote these things as being 'obsolescence proof' - if you changed your camera all you needed to do was buy a new mount ! And it made selling used lenses so much easier because we always had lots of adaptable ones in the window and showcases. We could fix up just about any enquiry - "S/H wide angle lens for a Yashica Pentamatic ,Sir? No problem, just let me put a T2 mount on this Optofuzzinon 28mm . . ."

Ahhh, happy days . . .


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 5:28 pm    Post subject: Re: T-mount Reply with quote

[quote="scsambrook
Ahhh, happy days . . .[/quote]

Not to go to off topic, but I remember those halycon days growing up in the 70s when even my little town, pop. 8000, had a full service camera shop, and the nearest "big" city had no fewer than 4! All of them with drawers and shelves full of the wildest, most esoteric stuff - like a reverse T-mount (M42 X .75 T-threads on one end and camera female fitting on the other) in Miranda screw mount for your Vivitar belows!

The neat thing about the Pieskers, is that they must have been sold as fixed mounts with the mount switching going on in the back room!

P.


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 9:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here is my Piesker Picon 2.8/135mm.
http://forum.mflenses.com/piesker-picon-2-8-135-t25036,highlight,%2Bpiesker+%2Bpicon+%2B135.html

Thank to you, I just noticed that the M42 mount was interchangeable. Smile


PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Olivier wrote:
Here is my Piesker Picon 2.8/135mm.
http://forum.mflenses.com/piesker-picon-2-8-135-t25036,highlight,%2Bpiesker+%2Bpicon+%2B135.html

Thank to you, I just noticed that the M42 mount was interchangeable. Smile


Handsome looking lens! Good hunting on trying to find some more mounts!

P.


PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2022 1:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

pdccameras ? Sorry to bump such an ancient thread but I am curious about the 135-180. How does it shoot. A bit of an odd zoom range I think. I kind of like the Piesker offerings having the 180 the 100 and some others I don't recall right now.


PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2022 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey There, Jamaeolus,

These are all prime lenses. The lens mount is marked 135mm-180mm indicating it can be used on both the 135mm and the 180mm lenses, it might also work on a 150mm if that ever existed. The performance of these lenses are both quite good for lenses of their vintage.

All the best,

Paul


PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ahh...light dawns slowly in feeble brain! I saw a lens on an auction site listed as a 135-180 so I googled and yous is the only thing that came up. Seller is just reading numbers off the adapter and is unaware it is a prime.


PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Could be fortunate - secondhand zooms are generally much less desirable than primes these days - you might get a good deal + plus an extra adapter!

Paul


PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

They want a hundred bucks for it. Way too much money for a 135mm 3.5 from that era.


PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree! way too much.

p.


PostPosted: Thu Apr 27, 2023 9:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bought another. This one is the Piesker Berlin West-GermanyTele-Picon 250mm 5.5. It has an even different mount. It's labelled "f=250 K. Germany" the threads are 44x1 mm, so Miranda?

It is in a truly remarkable state of preservation. Photos don't really do it justice. A few very tiny nicks and dings but otherwise looks brand new. Not even the normal rust stains surrounding the steel threads. It doesn't look like it was ever mounted on a camera. Glass is crystal clear even by the "flashlight" test focus is Pentax smooth and clickers aperture with 15! Blades is flawless.


PostPosted: Fri Apr 28, 2023 1:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gorgeous lens. Like 1 Like 1 small


PostPosted: Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beautiful looking lenses, I love their design. Thanks for sharing Like 1


PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2023 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guessed WRONG! The threads do not fit my RareAdapters Miranda to E-mount. The threads start but then bind. Different pitch it seems. So some Google work and maybe for Fujita 66 or Kalimar. Now i am seeking an m42 or Exakta base for the 250. I need to dig in my bins, as I am pretty sure I have another 250mm in there somewhere.


PostPosted: Wed May 03, 2023 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jamaeolus wrote:
The threads do not fit my RareAdapters Miranda to E-mount. The threads start but then bind.


It may still be Miranda mount. The thread dimensions between the earliest Miranda cameras (Miranda T, S, A, B & C models) and the later models, were different. I purchased an adapter from Rare Adapters for Miranda to Leica L mount for my Panasonic S1, but it would only fit later model screw mount lenses, not the earliest lenses. I also have a Photodiox brand Miranda-Sony E adapter, they somehow managed to fabricate the thread dimension well enough that both earlier and later lenses will screw into it and not feel incorrect in any way. I then tried comparing the earlier and later model Miranda Cameras to see if the threading was different, it actually was.

I informed Rare Adapters of the issue over a year ago, but I don't know if this is an issue with your adapter, but it's a possibility.


PostPosted: Wed May 03, 2023 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting. It LOOKS right but only goes a little way the binds. I did drop 10 dollars on a 44mm x 0.075 to 52mm since I have 52mm helical, just 5o try. I will let you know 5he ou5come.


PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2023 12:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So the 44mm x 0.75mm to 52mm adapter came in and the thing fits. Perfectly. The flange distance is... substantial. 55mm or so. The "K" must refer to a medium format lens then? The Kalimar seems a likely match. Kalimar Six Sixty. It's a rebadged Fujita 66.