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Sonnar 1.5/50 Contax 1937
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nice B&H interview on the new 55/1.4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DILwPyQKDA

medium format quality for the best of the FF sensors.

Love it.

oh wait....I'm the Leica guy right? Damn.


I love this 1937 sonnar and often shoot it on 5n Smile

Cannot wait to see it on the A7r.

I bought that whole rig on ebay for 200 bucks---contax 3a, but the lens turned out to be much older ---which was fine by me. Uncoated, I had it cleaned by the crazy old zeiss specialist in USA. He told me: never touch the glass with anything. Has a natural coat.

Last edited by uhoh7 on Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:39 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Snap, same camera, same lens, 1937 Sonnar.



PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Snap, same camera, same lens, 1937 Sonnar.

Nice! You shooting it on the nex?

Here's mine:

hey--just like the otus, no?


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, it works well on the NEX, sadly all my samples are on my old hard drive.

Here's a film one wide open inside the local church:



And one with the Jupiter-3 1963 copy which I think is equally as good:



PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Yes, it works well on the NEX, sadly all my samples are on my old hard drive.

no back up? Sad Reminds me I better run one .

Flags are nice, Ian.

close serials: mine is 2187512

On topic: While I confess I would buy a used M9 before I'd buy the 55/1.4, which would be 500 cheaper, I think it's great Zeiss is there at the tip of the spear, as it was when our lenses were made.

What's interesting is that the Zeiss guys says the Planar is equal to the Otus stopped down. Really?

For me, form factor is key, because I lug them into mountains all the time. These days I only take one big lens, the Contax 100-300, and four small ones: sel1018, 28&50 cron, and cv 75.

Last edited by uhoh7 on Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:09 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have backups for most of it on DVD. The PC died so I extracted the drive and ordered an external caddy for it, which never arrived, so I must get another one ordered. I live in the boondocks and can't drive atm so everything has to come mail order.

How I got the Sonnar was extremely lucky, I spotted it in a tiny antique shop, all I could see was something shiny in the window, and couldn't make out what it was, but it was clearly in Contax fit. Shop was closed, but when I went back, it was still there and the nice old man sold me it for 40ukp because it had been sat there a long time and no-one had even looked at it. Turns out it's got perfect glass without so much as a scratch or a speck of dust inside, I was lucky indeed.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
I have backups for most of it on DVD. The PC died so I extracted the drive and ordered an external caddy for it, which never arrived, so I must get another one ordered. I live in the boondocks and can't drive atm so everything has to come mail order.

How I got the Sonnar was extremely lucky, I spotted it in a tiny antique shop, all I could see was something shiny in the window, and couldn't make out what it was, but it was clearly in Contax fit. Shop was closed, but when I went back, it was still there and the nice old man sold me it for 40ukp because it had been sat there a long time and no-one had even looked at it. Turns out it's got perfect glass without so much as a scratch or a speck of dust inside, I was lucky indeed.


Oh, TY god you have backup. Smile My lens had all kind of problem at first, but came back really nice.
some before and after:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55299472@N07/sets/72157627939792640/

One of my real favorites is the Nikon copy, 5cm 1.4 Both superior to Leica at the time---or so I'm told. I don't have any old Leicas yet.

The zeiss is sharper at infinity, but the nikon is unreal out to about 4 meters.





What adpaters are you using contax to nex?


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
The Nikon looks very nice. All Nikon RF stuff is rare here in Blighty, apart from a 3.5/28 a friend bought, I don't think I've seen much of it for sale.

I have an adapter from Attila made out of the helicoid from a broken Kiev. Sadly the helicoid in it has decided to jam solid so I can only use it with my Biogon, J9 and J11 atm, but I will find a ratty Kiev and make another sometime. I have two fairly early Kievs with broken shutters, but they are in far too nice shape to destroy, I'll be getting them repaired.

If you don't have one, you should grab a Helios-103, only 40 bucks for a new one from Russia, it's a Summicron copy and a very fine lens.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
uhoh7 wrote:
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Snap, same camera, same lens, 1937 Sonnar.

Nice! You shooting it on the nex?

Here's mine:

hey--just like the otus, no?



The Leica glow!

Oh no, what have I said


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hari wrote:



The Leica glow!

Oh no, what have I said


troublemaker! the whole page just turned red, is that my graphics card?

For adapters Contax/nikon RF to nex I use Amedeo Contax/leica then M/E. Works fine, but mounting the outer style is not a quick affair:



I have this one in both Nikon RF and "C"


Leica "glow" is kinda like the Apple "cloud", haha

For those who think Leica guys don't consider zeiss here's a thread I ran into last night:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/95897-50mm-fingerprints-summicron-vs-zeiss-planar-2.html
pretty healthy debate there Smile

That was a search inspired by the 55/1.4 interview I posted above. When the zeiss guy implied the planar was as sharp as the Otus at f/8, I wanted to see if I should replace my 50/2 v4 summicron with a planar for landscapes on the A7r. After all, I save money too Smile But after reading the whole thread I think I'll just keep my summicron--seems it's pretty close sharpness, and nicer oof render.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Uhoh, it's great if you want to post your images with the 1937 Sonnar, but please do in a dedicated thread.
I had to lose 5 minutes to split your post and all that followed from the Otus Distagon thread, with which it
had absolutely nothing to do.
Guys, some consideration for the time of the admins and mods would be really appreciated...


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
Uhoh, it's great if you want to post your images with the 1937 Sonnar, but please do in a dedicated thread.
I had to lose 5 minutes to split your post and all that followed from the Otus Distagon thread, with which it
had absolutely nothing to do.
Guys, some consideration for the time of the admins and mods would be really appreciated...

Point taken, shots posted in what I thought was historical context mentioned in the thread. i.e. zeiss 50/1.5 was the Otus 55 of the day.

My apologies, sir.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I also bear some responsibility, sorry Orio.

Thanks for the split.

Orio, it was some samples you posted from a Sonnar 1.5/50 that convinced me I needed one, what version was it you had?


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 4:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Laughing Laughing Laughing good one thank you Hari, Charlie, Ian...


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 9:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:

Orio, it was some samples you posted from a Sonnar 1.5/50 that convinced me I needed one, what version was it you had?


I have two versions, an Oberkochen Opton, and a Jena pre-war (I used to have two of these, one was sold).
They are stored now, so I don't have the serials handy to give a precise datation.

Here's an interesting and informative article by Pierpaolo Ghisetti (president of Leica Historica Italia and co-author
of the Contarex Book together with Marco Cavina) about the 1.5/50 Sonnar:

http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Pierpaolo_Ghisetti/29/00_pag.htm

Italian language of course, but google translate will help.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Cheers Orio. I will acquire an Opton version one day, but in the meantime I rate my J3 very highly and enjoy my pre-war Jena a lot too.

I shall study that article, cheers.

J3, Agfa Vista Plus 200:



PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 10:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Cheers Orio. I will acquire an Opton version one day, but in the meantime I rate my J3 very highly and enjoy my pre-war Jena a lot too.


Alessandro Guerani too has a fantastic copy of Jupiter-3, which was sharper than the Jena Sonnar I used to have at the time we compared them (then I sold it...).
My copy of J-3 is OK, but not better than the Sonnars. One always needs some luck with very old lenses.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Indeed, my J3 has perfect glass, which I'm sure makes a difference, judging by the condition of the lens and the Kiev it came on, I doubt it's seen much use at all.


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 10:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 wrote:
Indeed, my J3 has perfect glass, which I'm sure makes a difference, judging by the condition of the lens and the Kiev it came on, I doubt it's seen much use at all.


My J-3 is in excellent condition too, in fact it does perform like the Sonnars, but as I said, not better.
I think it's possible that some lots of J-3 were improved in design, Soviets did indeed make small changes
to original Zeiss designs, that happened with the Helios-44 for instance, which starting from version 44-2
becomes noticeably sharper than the Biogon 2/58 (but with noticeably worse bokeh too as side effect)


PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Mine is a 1963, so it may be changed slightly. One thing that is surely different is the coating.

I have never compared my J3 to my Sonnar, I'm not a fan of comparisons, but both lenses give me a lot of please. my Sonnar is sharp wide open, I don't think I've tried the J3 wide open yet.

Sonnar wide open, FP4 rated at 64 and developed in Microdol-X:



From the same roll, not sure what aperture this was, but I guess f4:



I think both of these were wide open too. Polypan F50, I don't remember the development details:


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