How did Carl Zeiss (Jena) manufacture lenses?

[räuber]

My question is how did Carl Zeiss (Jena) manufacture lenses in Jena and Oberkochern? How was planing and manufacturing connected? What is known and where can I find further information?

I'm looking at the variations of one Carl Zeiss Jena lens at the moment. By looking at Ebay sales and "official" information I found a lot of inconsistencies in what is known and what really is found in the market. I try to find an explanation for all this inconsistencies.

I own the Fabrikationsbuch II and III of Mr. Thiele. So I have this as a source. Than there are several online resources that give information of Type I, II, III ... versions of lenses (like this nice site give information about the Biotar 58mm F2 : https://casualphotophile.com/2019/02/13/carl-zeiss-jena-biotar-58mm-f-2-lens-review/ )

But looking at the Nummernbuch I found batches where lenses of different mounts where produced. I found batches where the exterior housing and appearance of the lens was found inbetween. I found cases where the housing (often refered to as Type I, II, III ...) does not match the design calculations. And finally I find a lot of lenses where the external design does not match the design of the period. The last case might easily be sipped as "some non Zeiss guy just put the lenses of the younger lens into the older lens and created a Franken-Zeiss-lens" but the ring with serial and lens name fits the right serial number with the later engravings.

Can someone help and shed some light on this issue?

My thought and interpretation for now is quite Non-German manufacturing:

* Zeiss plan to produce Lens X from serial 0001 - 5000 and write down the inner lens design
* on start of production the craftsmen get a blueprint of the lens and start manufacturing parts and assemble full lenses
* next day Zeiss designers design a housing that is more efficient to build and it is decided to use this new housing design next
* a week later all craftsman get the new blueprint and start producing new parts and assemble lenses with the new lens design
* since there are still parts left from the old lens they will be used and so some Franken-Zeiss lenses will be produced where new and old lens parts are mixed
* some Zeiss salesmen decide to produce Lens X in a different mount only a given number of say 100
* the Zeiss designers come up with a blueprint of the new mount design and it is handed over to the craftsmen
* the Craftsmen produce the new mount and original mount lenses side by side???
* one lens with the old design get back to Zeiss because it was damaged and Zeiss decided to replace the whole lens
* instead of repairing only parts it is decided to replace the damaged lens with a new manufactured one so the craftsmen only needed to manufacture a new lens ring with the old serial number of the damaged lens and the customer gets back a lens with the new design

This is my interpretation for now. Can someone confirm it or tell me where I'm wrong. Thank you guys.

[Max78]

[räuber]

Thank you max78. I thought my alias would be a hint that I understand German. I know this sites already but the information I‘m looking for might scattered around there. It might be an idea to get in contact with the authors of the side and ask them this question.

I see the same kind of inconsistancy for lenses before WWII, CZJ and CZ Oberkochern in the 50s. I see this kind of inconsistecy even for camera production of CZ Ikon. If you look at different images of a Contax Ia or Ib you will notice that details like the shutter button will not change from Ia to Ib but within production runs of Ia. So new features like improved shutter buttons where introduced fluently it seems and not in major type changes. So the manufacturing style did not change much at CZJ.

As a collector I‘m interested in how chaotic this changes where introduced. And what are the details I have to look for to know is this a regular Type X lens or a not. As a collector there is a big difference if there is one or two versions of q lens or 40+

It would help to know what to expect from CZJ lenses

[Max78]