Why the CZJ Pancolar 1.4/55 isn't the best travel lens

CarlosB · Joined: 25 Sep 2012 Posts: 1

Hi everyone, I've had alot of help from these forums the last couple of years but I have never registered or posted. Now, however, I have to issue a warning concerning the spectacular CZJ Pancolar.

Last week I went for a short vacation to St Petersburg. The city was great and I stumbled over a few cameras and lenses as well. I've read about the customs in Russia and that they have rules against taking certain old things out of the country. From what I had read there are usually no problems with cameras though. Instead of my ordinary vacation camera (the Zenit-19) I decided to bring my Pentacon Super with the attached Pancolar 55mm 1,4 for shooting BW film, partly because I hadn't used the Pancolar for BW film before and partly because I didn't want my bags to be overflowing with russian camera equipment when going through the customs for the return trip (you can never be too sure).

'Super through the wide open eye of the Pancolar

Anyhow as I went through the customs on my way home a red lamp started blinking and there was a beeping sound. Some people from the customs came running, stopped me and started asking if I had a health problem or if I had bought a watch or something else in Russia. I found it hard to believe that they had a device that could sense if the old russian camera stuff in my bag but, I thought, maybe the camera store had marked the things in some way? After passing the sensor with different things it soon became clear that the Pentacon outfit was the culprit. I sat there scratching my head in wonder until they said that the thing that beeped and blinked was an alarm for radioactivity. Of course I had heard the stories about the radioactive coating of the Pancolar (and seen the brownish surface of the glass) and it all became clear to me. I explained the matter and was a bit worried that I would have to leave the lens behind but the customs people were overall very friendly. They wondered why in the world I had an old camera with a radioactive lens when there are new digital autofocus cameras and told me to keep it away from children (and themselves) but they did let me bring it back home.

Lessons learned:

1. The customs people at Pulkovo airport are nice but haven't discovered the charm of old manual lenses.
2. They (above) don't seem to care much about preventing old russian cameras from leaving the country.
3. Don't travel to Russia with your Pancolar 1.4/55 if you don't like the attention.

Now I will have to find a geiger counter to see how much the lens really radiates, I don't think an old Takumar would have been enough for sounding the alarm, but who knows how sensitive the russian devices are? Has anyone here experienced anything similar with any of the old "radioactive" lenses or had them measured?

As for the lens I think my copy has a loose lens element or something because the pictures vary pretty much in sharpness (from super sharp wide open to not so sharp with halos), it is one of my favourites anyway as the pictures always have a unique atmosphere, often with a sickly (radioactive?) glow.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Welcome! Congrats for your sought after combo! Thank you for sharing this valuable info!

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

Nice story, I wouldn't worry about the radiation too much unless you plan to sleep next to it every night, or plan to eat it.

SVP · Expire: 2017-12-17

Nisseliten · Joined: 26 May 2012 Posts: 332 Location: Sweden

miran · Joined: 01 Aug 2012 Posts: 1364 Location: Slovenia

urbeker · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 8

If you own an android smartphone you can use the camera as a makeshift Geiger counter. There is an app made by some nuclear physicists. Although it only works for gamma radiation, I doubt the lens would be giving off beta or alpha particles but I could be wrong about that.