Zeiss Series Ic 7.5cm f3.5

[Ox Bird]

Just bought this lens. Carl Zeiss Jena Series 1c 7.5cm f3.5 with Serial Number 386437

I don't have a great deal of experience with pre-1930's lenses......so......a few basic questions.

My cheap calipers suggest that this lens has an approximate diameter of 33mm. Does anyone know the correct diameter and thread-pitch for this lens?

I would like to mount this lens on a bellows set that I own (for use on a Micro 4/3 digital camera) and need to know which adapters to buy to get this lens neatly attached with no damage at all to current mount.

Also...........I am curious as to the date of production of this lens and any other historical information that anyone may know about it.

Thank you.

[Attila]

serial numbers by years
http://forum.mflenses.com/carl-zeiss-jena-lenses-issue-date-by-serial-number-t6865.html

[Attila]

Rare find, I never seen any before, don't modify it , just hold before camera with a paper tube , lens will be 90% quiet bad , low contrast, may low sharpness too, not a user lens. It can be valuable at proper place on proper camera. You can make temporary mount with tape and cardboard to your bellow.

[iangreenhalgh1]

It's probably a Tessar, 4 elements in 3 groups. It will be quite soft wide open with some glow due to uncorrected spherical aberration - good for portraits, but stopped down it will be very sharp. Contrast will be low but that can be fixed easily in post.

This thread should give you some idea of how the lens will perform:

http://forum.mflenses.com/bausch-and-lomb-tessar-series-1c-f-4-5-t25270.html

[luisalegria]

Very easy and nondestructive mounting method-
Get a plastic M42 body cap. These go for about $1 online.
Get several while you are at it, they have lots of uses.
Drill a 32mm hole in the plastic. Screw your lens into the the hole. Voila, your lens is M42. If you judge your hole size correctly it can be very secure.
You can then use the lens on bellows, focusing tubes or extension rings. If these things aren't M42, get a cheap M42 adapter. There's one for every mount.
It looks like your lens has dirt and haze inside. That's typical. Without cleaning it you will get low contrast, muddy results. After disassembly and a good cleaning, the thing may surprise you. These can indeed be reasonably sharp wide open, with as much contrast as anyone could wish for.
Generally the rear cell screws right off. This is most likely a Tessar, so that would hold a cemented pair, so cleaning is easy, just two surfaces. Blow and brush all the dust off, get some q-tips and isopropyl alcohol (the proper stuff, not the watery rubbing alcohol) and polish away.
Front cells screw off as a piece. This however is made of two cells, each with one lens element. Unfortunately, much of the haze of years seems to lodge between the two front elements of Tessars. So odds are you will have to screw them apart. This can be fiddly. Q-tips and isopropyl.

[Ox Bird]

Interesting thoughts........Looks like lens is from 1920.

I like the M42 body cap idea....although I would prefer to buy a proper adapter.....if one is available.

I am just not sure if the diameter is 33mm.......????

[luisalegria]

There wouldn't be proper adapters as this lens was designed to screw into a threaded flange fitting, probably for a lensboard.

If you want to guesstimate what Zeiss thought the dimensions should be, here you go - this catalog is approximately right for your lens as it still uses the series numbering that Zeiss dropped sometime post-WWI -

http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/zeiss_4.html

Maybe you can find the thread size there.

There was little standardization, and what there was (like shutters from different makers being made in a standard series of sizes) would not apply to us trying to adapt these to digital cameras.

Press fit into a body cap is quite secure for a little lens like this.

If you want a "proper" adapter you would probably have to have one machined.

[uddhava]

[Ox Bird]

luisalegria..........I appreciate your thoughts. The catalog that you link to has (on page 11) a description of mounts, which includes a Tube Mount II with a "Diameter of Screw Joint" of 34mm.

Looks like this is what I have.

If you notice on the image of my lens, a Roman numeral II is on the side of the lens.

Interesting.....

[Ox Bird]

FYI.....I have used a 34mm to 37mm adapter and a 37mm to 42mm ring adapter....threaded into an old M42 to Exakta bayonet adapter....to make the Zeiss Series Ic fit onto my Exakta bellows setup. A Chinese M42 to Micro 4/3 focusing helix would make it focus to infinity.

[Attila]

Nice solution, look forward images taken with this setup.

[Ox Bird]

This one is a "sunny day lens".....I will give it a fair chance with an adequately sunny day.....and flowers as the subject!!

This may be a lens worth a professional cleaning....