Very late CZJ P6 lenses and Photooptik II

[Noritar]

I just got my copy of Hartmut Thiele's Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II. It is incredible. But I now have more questions than answers.

I have several lenses with serial numbers that exceed the last serial numbers published in the book, one copy marked "Made in Germany" instead of "DDR". I had hoped the book would illuminate that.

Also, the book demonstrates that (e.g.) Biometar lenses with 00xx serial numbers were made after Biometar lenses with 1xxx serial numbers. Anyone know or remember why? Were there some limited edition type lenses sold in 1985-1987?

I looked up my M42 75mm Biotar. It's listed in an Exakta mount serial number block.

Such a great book, but the rabbit hole only gets deeper!

[kds315*]

Well Mr Thiele is always happy to hear about unknown serial numbers or unknown optics.
I usually write him that...

[stevemark]

The history of these lenses seems to be quite complicated.

A good example is the history of the Prakticar 4/300mm. It's development and production was very well documented by zeissikonveb.de:

https://zeissikonveb.de/start/objektive/wechselobjektive-1980er/carl_zeiss_jena/prakticar-4-300.html

(use google translate - works pretty well).

If you go through the entire text of this single lens, you'll get an idea of how complicated the entire story must be ...

S

[Noritar]