West German Voigtlander Color-Ultron 1.4/55mm Rollei QBM

praktiman · Joined: 15 May 2013 Posts: 22 Location: United States

Srdjan,

Thanks for your kind words. Truth be told, I was being intentionally a bit provocative since the thread is a bit old, I thought maybe I would increase the chances that someone would want to reply. Smile

I think much of the mystery has been solved, at least to my satisfaction. But it would be good to see a methodical effort at documenting these questions.

It seems beyond doubt that the Rolleinar MC lenses were extracted directly from the Mamiya SX line (except, of course, the few lenses which we know were not Mamiya). The only difference is the upgraded coating. My personal opinion is that there was some sort of technology trade between the two firms, where Rollei got already-existing (and proven) optics, possibly at a discounted price, and eventually possibly even tooling, and Mamiya got multi-coating technology (it is noteworthy that when the SX lenses were introduced in 1974--and by 1977, positively anachronistic--that Mamiya still was not multi-coating their lenses; on 35mm at least, I don't know about their MF gear). The Mamiya Rolleinars appeared in 1977. In 1978 Mamiya released its newestcamera body for 35mm, the NC1000, accompanied by their new, multicoated CS lenses.

BTW, did you mean to say "Skopars" or "Ultrons" in your last question? Which Skopars, the new Cosina lenses or the "classic"/original Voigtlander?

Pancolart, those are beautiful images. I think the third image contains precisely the kind of information that can put to rest speculations as to the pedigree of the 1.4/55.

duckrider · Joined: 11 Dec 2013 Posts: 437 Location: Germany

Late reply:
Early Skopars (without "Colour" in name) are made in Germany and obviously same glass & mount like Zeiss shemes.
Mount is without rubber band.
Those types are also found with "Singapore" engraving on the mount.
Later one WITH Colour- in their name are newer shemes and different from Zeiss. They have the pyramidal rubber ring for fokussing.

Thomas

tb_a · Expire: 2019-08-28

To clarify this matter which left room for various speculations I can provide you with the information from the original sources.

The Voigtlander Color Ultron 55mm/f1.4 was only available in QBM-mount and is a Mamiya-Sekor lens just marked as Voigtlander:

Interestingly there have been some lenses also assembled in Braunschweig/Western Germany.
However, the majority was made by Mamiya/Japan.

Source: "Voigtlaender Report 2" by Claus Prochnow (2005).

BTW, the Mamiya lens was also available in Rollei branding marked Rolleinar MC 55mm/f1.4.

Oldhand · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:38 am Post subject:

Reviving this old topic.
A quick question.....after reading the information in this thread.....
Am I correct in assuming....that the lens that I have pictured below, is a Mamiya made lens assembled in Germany?
Thanks
Tom

#1

#2

#3

papasito · Joined: 09 Jan 2015 Posts: 1658

AFAIK , THe 55/1,4 AR lenses were made by Mamiya, no matter what the parts have engraved

tb_a · Expire: 2019-08-28

Oldhand · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:24 am Post subject: