Show off your rare lens

Mike Deep · Joined: 25 Oct 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Upstate New York

I gotta say, this is fascinating discovering this world of impressively-specced Chinese lenses. I think in the West--especially America--we're quick to associate Chinese manufacturing with loose tolerances and poor quality, because that's what we've chosen to import.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I would love to find one of those rare old beauties. The missile tracking platforms usually had an array of optics on them. I have a surplus 500mm f/5.6 that, near as I've been able to determine, was used by the US Navy in a tracking capacity. It's a Century Precision Optics Tele Athenar II, which was also available for civilian purchase, but the civilian model is painted in a crinkle black finish, whereas mine is painted in white enamel, plus it had some stenciled lettering on its side, which I managed to remove using acetone. At any rate, this lens is a mil-spec version and, because of this, I've always assumed that its optical performance was superior.

I bought it at a swap meet for $30 about 25 years ago. The purchase included an anvil flight case, but no caps or tripod mount. I lived in Southern California back then, so I decided to pay Century a visit, since they were located in North Hollywood. Glad I did. I bought a tripod mount and a slip-on front cap for it. Unfortunately, the folks I showed the lens to were not able to tell me anything about its history. Some time later, I had the occasion to meet a gentleman who was the former president of CPO, and I asked him about the lens. His description was brief, but to the point. He described it as a "well-corrected achromatic doublet" -- and that's what it is. Its optic is a cemented doublet, plus the tube has an optical flat at the front and the rear.

I've google for pics on the subject of missile tracking, and found a few photos of machines that had optics that looked a lot like mine.

Note the long lens on the bottom of this array:

And the lens built into the side of this array, probably used as a finder scope for that giant mirror:

If you've seen any of my photos of the moon posted here, chances are they were taken with this CPO 500. An oldie, but still a great lens.

danfromm · Joined: 04 Sep 2011 Posts: 595

CZJ Goerz Dagor 45/9, anyone?

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

Many thanks Michael for a very interesting story. I think I bought my missile tracking lens about 10 years ago from a guy who was an insider of the missle industry. IIRC, I paid 1,000 yuan RMB, and I think it was a great deal. A Canon FD 1.4/50 cost 800+yuan then. But I never saw another one for sale since then. Some foreign lenses of similar design were offered though. I am impressed of its performance as I can read some letters and numbers of 1cm size on a window frame about 300 meters away! I think some company should make such lenses useable with a proper tripod and some gears for wild life photographers, but I doubt if the price for new lenses could be so cheap.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

I found an image of the filters specially made for the military mirror lens. They seem to be of very high quality.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

A large format 21cm F4.5 lens made by Beijing Nr.608 factory. It is a five elements three group design that is quite rare among Chinese large format lenses. It is a specially made lens for portrait with a wide open resolving power of no less than 250 lp/mm but low contrast, and stopped down to F11 or smaller, it becoms a high contrast lens suitable for landscapes. The lens is heavy with many brass parts, and they were made in late 1970's.It covers 130mmx180mm negtive. The metal parts finish is of Leica lens like. Like 1 small

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

A fine reduction lens (ç²¾ç¼©ï¼‰ 1/5x e line 50mm F2 made in 1979 in Fujian province. I have no information for other specifications. I think it could be reversed mounted for macro pictures.The coating also has a blue colour, and lens elements could be of special material.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

I just stumbled across a thread for that Seagull 500mm F5 mirror lens with some information and images shot with this lens. It says that about 1000 such lenses were made, and the current selling price is about RMB 1,000 only.

http://www.soupis.com/thread-138620-1-2.html

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

Here is a rarely seen 2x teleconverter for Great Wall 120 SLR with a focusing thread so that some m39 mount enlarging lenses could be used on that camera. Otherwise, you can only use the 90/3.5 normal lens sold with the camera.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

Another high quality reduction lens for chip making. It is not mine. It was made in 1969 in Shanghai so it has a (cultural) revolutionary brand name of "Red Flag", and with Mao's quote on the instruction paper. It has a resolving power of 400lp/mm in central area. I saw a set of two packed in a nice wooden case offered at last camera fair in Beijing for a very high price. The price was a bit too high,so I let it go.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

Now a less exotic Chinese lens, but still sought after among Pearl River lenses. I don't collect those, but I heard this 105/2.5 lens was awarded some prize and now demanded RMB 1,000+ to a collector. So I decided to keep an example for my collection. It is said that those Zhujiang lenses were copies of Nikon ones.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

I am not sure if these C mount 16mm format zoom lenses are copies of something. This Dalian made zoom lens was eletric motor operated, but I removed those motors. It could be mounted on the Red Flag S-16mm spring driven movie camera. I checked the image with a high quality microscope eyepiece, and the image is crisp. The mechanical parts left room for improvement though.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

Here is a site for old Chinese lenses and cameras. I saw some are rare prototypes. Many images are lost.

http://www.chinesecamera.org/lenses

SVP · Expire: 2017-12-17

Astro-Berlin 640mm f/4.5 C, the only one built (and probably the last lens produced before Astro Gesellschaft m.b.H closed down):

Astro-Berlin APO-Telastan C 600mm f/5.6, I only know of another surviving one; have no clue how many were produced but I'd recon a low two-digit figure (max.):

TeemÅ · Joined: 07 Apr 2016 Posts: 586 Location: Australia

SVP have you tried astrophotography with those?

SVP · Expire: 2017-12-17

TeemÅ · Joined: 07 Apr 2016 Posts: 586 Location: Australia

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

I saw one of these a few years ago with the same design in a store, but IIRC, it was a bigger brother of yours. It was about 2 meter long. ï¼©also saw a Nikon 6mm fisheye at the same place. I could have bought that Nikon fisheye for a good price compared to what these cost today. Rare lenses could be an investment like rare precision cameras.

Thanks for sharing.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

I will post some links for some exotic Chinese lenses in use. Here is a lens removed from a J-7 fighter plane. I will keep an eye for this. It seems like a very sharp lens.

http://www.soupis.com/thread-138667-1-1.html

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

An image of a Great Wall brand lens by Nr,608 factory, a zoom 18-180mm F3.2 for 35mm movie camera. It is so rare that even the image is rarely seen. It cost 50,000 yuan RMB when new. A Leica M3, or a Contax IIA was only 2-3000 yuan then. I have never seen this one in person.

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

A rarely seen 58mm F2 lens from my collection. It is different from those Biotar copy 58mm F2 normal lenses. It has 10 aperture blades instead of 6, and it has a M45 screw mount. It was made for a special movie camera that take a frame at long intervals. The lens was made in 1974.