Carl zeiss Jena Sonnar serial 0000000

Lucse · Joined: 22 Jul 2015 Posts: 166 Location: EU

Ok, thanks.

Luckily the most important part in your explanation is that my lens is not one of those Wink

.

rÃ¤uber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

Last weekend I was in the Technische Sammlungen Dresden. If someone doesn't know about it it is a museum in the previous Ernemann / Zeiss Ikon / Pentacon VEB production building. It houses a collection of cameras and lenses from companies that manufactured in Dresden from the 19th to 20th century. Since the collection has its source in the previous Carl Zeiss Jena / Pentacon VEB production it might span the East German part of photo industry only. And it will stop with the time of the fall of the iron curtain since this was the end of almost all photographic manufacturers in the eastern part of Germany.

Back to topic. I was looking for Sonnar 5cm 1.5 copies there and found a showcase with a special one. It is a black nickel Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm 1.5 lens with the serial 0000000. I could not see if the Sonnar 5cm had a metal mirror inside since it was mounted to a black Contax I camera. It has a differnt Nickel finish as the versions I know. It is almost completely black where the sold versions are only partly black. What makes it special is that it has a max aperture of F32! (this one should not exist). The black nickel versions of the Sonnar 5cm 1.5 have a max aperture of F8 (v1) and F11 (v2) only. Even later Sonnar 5cm / 50mm 1.5 lenses never had a max aperture of F32. I doubt that Bertele was possible to expand the max aperture to F32 in one of its prototypes.

I was wondering over this unique lens until I saw your lens. If you look into the Thiele Fabrikationsbuch all build (and likely tested) prototypes have a valid serial number. So I guess the 0000000 serial lenses are demo lenses for internal and maybe external use. Maybe they are shown on fares. This would be plausible since your lens is not usable at all and has a 'perfect' housing.

rÃ¤uber · Joined: 13 Nov 2021 Posts: 33

Here are images of the demo lens from the Technische Sammlungen Dresden. The display says it is a prototype of the Contax (I) camera with an Sonnar 5cm 1.5, Zeiss Icon AG, Dresden since 1932. There is not a single bit of further information about this one there. I think it will be difficult to find someone that can give reliable information about those 000 serial lenses. My guess is that it might be demonstration prototypes of cameras and lenses for internal use. They might be created to show the look and size of the later product. So they could be considered as lens prototypes after all even if they are not operational and usable on a real camera. Since so they might be older than the lens or camera they show. There are differences between these demo prototypes and the final product too. A comparison can be interesting for some.

Speaking about value... Since you can't use them on a real camera the value is not high. Since they are rare and old and demonstrate the history of the lens and camera they have some value for collectors. How much? I can not tell.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

Lightshow · Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3666 Location: Calgary

Op's lens looks like it could be a cosmetic prototype used to help decide which body version to put into production, I base this opinion on the optics being incomplete and having that metal plate inside (assuming I understand that correctly), there may have been multiple variants to choose from, this could be validated by lack of any matching production lens.

That Contax is an interesting relic...

jamaeolus · Expire: 2015-08-20

One of a kind! Mock up for decision-making on styles or such. Wow!

kymarto · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:22 pm Post subject: