Manual Focus Lenses Forum

yalcinaydin · Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 825 Location: Izmir, Turkey

Serial: 22531 Made in German Democratic Republic

I've bought it today from a local dealer but I was expecting it to be CARL ZEISS JENA but for 30USD/25Euro I wanted to give it a try.
Right now I don't have a PB adapter but in a 2-4 weeks will built one.
This one looks exactly the same like the CZJ one (but mine has a larger filter size than it which is 49mm) so I am currious if this one also a similar production like Made by Rollei CZ glasses.

According to this I guess mine is also Carl Zeiss Jena:
http://praktica-b.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86:aj1450&catid=39:czj&Itemid=55
# Aperture of 1.4 - 16 in half
# Construction 7 elements in 6 groups
# Distance setting with 0.36 m - inf.
# Angle 46 °
# Multicoated
# Filter diameter 52 mm

My copy:

orly_andico · Joined: 02 Jul 2008 Posts: 253 Location: Philippines

By the late 1970's to mid 1980's after CZ Jena lost their copyright battle with Carl Zeiss Oberkochen, they were forced to mark their lenses for-export to Western countries as "aus Jena" to avoid problems with Zeiss West Germany.

Others on this forum say that "aus Jena" lenses are higher quality than those marked Carl Zeiss Jena because the latter were for domestic consumption within the Communist bloc, while the "aus Jena" were for export to Western countries.

That said, if it's an f/1.4 it's probably a double-Gauss design. I would be interested to see how it compares to the Japanese f/1.4 double-Gauss. It has a very nice close-focusing distance though, like a Pancolar! my Japanese 50/1.4 only goes down to 0.45m.

yalcinaydin · Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 825 Location: Izmir, Turkey

yalcinaydin · Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 825 Location: Izmir, Turkey

Mine with Leica-R mount: 250USD!?!
Click here to see on Ebay

n6mod · Sun Dec 07, 2008 6:34 pm

Koji's the Prakticar expert around here, but I think what you have is the second version of the 50/1.4. Koji has said that version is sharper than the early version (of which I have a copy) but the early version has better (actually, I think his word was "wilder") bokeh.

Labelling didn't mean much on Prakticars, though. From what I can tell, you need to find the lens in the list here to figure out who made it. I have a CZJ labeled 28/2.8 that according to that table is a Pentacon (ex-Meyer Optik Görlitz... no bad thing).

Klaus identified my early version as a Pancolar (which is why I bought it), but I don't know if the optical formula changed for your later version.

-Zandr

koji · Expire: 2012-12-27

It is a bit interesting to know Prakticar 50/1.4 with mfd 36cm which
looks exactly later version of 50/1.4 whose mfd is 40cm.

There are two versions for Prakticar 50/1.4, the first one has 36cm as MFD,
the second one has 40cm as MFD. And there are some more differences
between two, the most important thing is the first version was made by CZJ
and the second one was made by Pentacon.

These photos, the left is the first version and the right is the second version.

side view (rubber rings has 4 rows for the first version and 3 rows for the second)

front view (lens name on bevel for the second version, ninjya-shiriken shape aperture opening f2.8~f4)

rear view (the mount of the second one was cheaply made, see around elctrical contacts,
and DDR name is on the second version on the lens rear protecter/dust cover)

side bayonet mount base (CZJ made first version has tapered bayonet nail, see <-- part)

Yalçın, your lens is either VERY rare Prakticar 50/1.4 or reconstructed from many
different parts (prabably form both lenses), mount base does not look right. It looks
like much newer all black base such as that of Pralticar 28/2.8. My guess.

The optical design of the first version was derived from Pancolar 55/1.4 (M42) which
was introduced with Pentacon Super, and the first version today has yellowish cast
maybe due to radio-active material used like Pancolar 55/1.4.

I still don't know the optical formula of the second version of Prakticar 50/1.4.

yalcinaydin · Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 825 Location: Izmir, Turkey

yalcinaydin · Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 825 Location: Izmir, Turkey

Hmm, so mine looks like a Pentacon production.

stephenmcleod · Joined: 05 Jan 2018 Posts: 15

Hello!

Apologies for necro-bumping this thread, but it seemed best to keep the relevant discussion together.

I just purchased a Prakticar 50mm f1.4, and it looks like it is the older Pancolar optical model based on the above. Here are some of the pictures provided:

#1

#2

#3

Can anybody help confirm this?

I'm also curious to learn more about the history of these lenses, so any resources you know of that are especially useful/informative will be welcomed!

y · Joined: 11 Aug 2013 Posts: 338 Location: EU

stephenmcleod · Joined: 05 Jan 2018 Posts: 15

pandreas68 · Joined: 24 Jan 2020 Posts: 96

Hi,

some news about the Prakticar 1.4 50:

In the last section here https://zeissikonveb.de/start/objektive/normalobjektive/prakticar-1-4.html there is the news that actually there are three versions of the Prakticar 1.4 50:

The first version with the yellow Thorium contenting glass

An intermediate version with the old lens socket style but new (non yellowish) glasses yet (Serial numbers 9004 - 11.004)

The second version with new lens socket style and new glasses

I have a copy of the intermediate version of the very number range and can confirm that its glasses do not get yellowish.

This link [url] https://www.digicamclub.de/showthread.php?t=20956&page=4 [/url] and previous pages also show example pictures of the different versions.

Best regards
Andreas

pandreas68 · Joined: 24 Jan 2020 Posts: 96

PS: So stephenmcleod copy is of the intermediate version. Rear glass should not show yellowish.