Coated 1936 5cm F1.5 CZJ Sonnar, SN 190xxxx

[Brian Sweeney]

This Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5cm F1.5 is a bit of a mystery. Bought off of Ebay, SN190xxxx block. It arrived with a lot of oil on the blades, internal haze, no signs of ever being opened. The namering of these Sonnars is held in place with black paint on the filter threads, usually makes getting the ring off fairly difficult. It’s easy to tell when one has been worked on- marks in the paint and on the namering. My lightweight spanner was no match for the paint, and out came the heavy duty spanner- got the ring off with a lot of resistance. Same with the front triplet, retaining ring firmly in place. Cleaned the glass and realized all of the surfaces were coated. Some light cleaning marks on the front element and rear surface, but nothing bad. All the haze cleaned off, flood cleaned the blades, took the aperture ring off to get out the original grease. This was running, and is the source of oil on the blades. Relubed with a little vacuum pump grease.

Tested the lens on the Olympus EP2 using a contax to M-Mount, and M-Mount to u-43.

At F1.5:



100% crop:



FOR COMPARISON, an Uncoated SN207xxxxx lens with near perfect glass, also CLA’d.





Back to the Coated lens:

At F1.5:



100% crop:



At F4:



100% crop



The earliest Sonnar "T" that I have is a SN255xxxx block. This one is a surprise, bit of a mystery. I have a Sonnar that was coated after manufacture, and it is easy to find the signs that it had been disassembled, coated, and put back together. This lens shows no signs of ever being worked on. Zeiss started coating lenses in the mid 1930s, this lens has a serial number that dates it to 1936.

"Could Be" one of the earliest of the coated Sonnars.

[Brian Sweeney]

A Web of Mystery...

At F1.5





At F1.5, "Flare test",



I'm happy. This lens will be converted to LTM, a reversible process. I keep the original shim in the Contax mount- can put it back when i want.

[Brian Sweeney]

One more at F1.5- flare stress test.

[roboflick]

Awesome!

Beautiful lens and images, Have fun with it!
Nik

[Steve M.]

The uncoated one is very nice. I love it. Real softish, yet detailed look. The coated one is totally different. Both fine lenses for sure.

[Brian Sweeney]

The Uncoated lens at F1.5, on the EP2.



The colors are more muted. The lens coating really changes the rendering of the lens. I will do a test of coated/uncoated Sonnars on the Leica soon. I have two uncoated pre-war Sonnars, two fully coated pre-war Sonnars, and one prewar Sonnar with a coated front element.

[Brian Sweeney]

Thankyou for that information- that makes a lot of sense. The new process had to be tested, and these lenses were too valuable to just sit in a cabinet in the lab.

[Brian Sweeney]

I suddenly feel the urge to report back to Zeiss on the successful life-cycle testing of their coated optics...

[kds315]

Congrats Brian - what a great find!! If you could send me the full serial number, I would like to pass it on to be included in the Zeiss Historica Files (ex Charlie Barringer). I could also find out if there were others coated ones that age in return.

The shots are great stuff indeed!!

[Vickko]

Wow, beautiful imagery.

Thank you for re-igniting my enthusiasm for this lens.

I have one, that I use far far too infrequently.

Vick

[uhoh7]

One has to wonder if this is the famous fine grain oxidation and it's dichroic filter effect which inspired coatings---as I recently learned, hehe. Since the lens was never opened, nobody had a chance to mess with it

[kievman]

Its time to buy a Contax 50 F1.5 Sonnar!!!! I have put it off too long!!! Thanks for the information Brian, and the amazing images. I really do love Ziess glass and Ziess copies, cant get enough! Kievman

[Brian Sweeney]

Originally Posted by uhoh7

One has to wonder if this is the famous fine grain oxidation and it's dichroic filter effect which inspired coatings---as I recently learned, hehe. Since the lens was never opened, nobody had a chance to mess with it

No- this lens is from the test batch of coated Sonnars. "Bloom" on a lens tends to be uneven. It acts as a coating. Now, my pre-war 9cm F4 Elmar has a Bloom on it that is almost as good as a Coated lens.

Bloom acts like an anti-reflection coating, and does not act as a dichroic coating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-reflection_coating

Dichroic filters use thin-film technology to allow a specified band of light to pass through, and to reflect others. The Hot Mirror Filter/ IR reflecting filter used for the M8 is an example of a dichroic filter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichroic_filter

You work around optical engineers for over 30 years, you pick up a few things.

[Brian Sweeney]

The lens is now "L-C" convertible mount. Like the "M-S" convertible 50mm F1.3.

Leica thread Mount and Contax Mount.


czj_sn190_contax by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr


czjsonnar_sn190_6 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

[Brian Sweeney]

Wide-Open at F1.5, on the M9.


grass1_f15 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

at F4:


grass1_f4 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

F1.5 again


BERRY1_F15 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

F4:


berry1_f4 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

and on the M9.


coated_sonnar_m9 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

The 75-year Life-test of coated optics is decalred to be successful.

[Brian Sweeney]

From this morning. After morning Fog lifted.

Wide-Open at f1.5.


leaf1_f15 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

The lens looks spot-on wide-open and close-up. Shimmed it using my TTL viewer, then made the last 0.02mm correction with the lens on the M9.


leaf1_f15crop by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

Corner to Corner looks good.


window1_f4 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

Wide-open, 1/30th.


nikki1_f15 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

[Mudman]

Looks like a good lens Brian. So interesting to see your daughter grow up through all of these test photos!

[Brian Sweeney]

Remember when I made her wear the MTF test pattern clothing?


nikki_two_yrs_Xenon 50/1.9 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

Maybe I could find an Air Force Test Pattern T-Shirt....

[Brian Sweeney]

Winnie the Pooh flare test...


nikki4 Xenon 50/1.9 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

Xenon 50/1.9 on the Retina IIIS

My favorite Model- and I am so very lucky that she still likes her picture being taken.

[Brian Sweeney]

And this is with the Carl Zeiss 50mm F1.5, wide-open on the M9 using an Amedeo Adapter-





That Dexdog will be receiving.

[dexdog]

Brian, that lens looks like beauty- great swap all around

[mynikonf2]

[quote=Brian Sweeney;1761918]From this morning. After morning Fog lifted.

Wide-Open at f1.5.


leaf1_f15 by zeiss_sonnar, on Flickr

Really like this Brian, reminds me of a Japanese watercolor. In your first comparison shots of the fence post the coated lens appears soft at f1.5 or is it just the coating making it appear that way because the color is more saturated? but then at f4 it sharpens up. Anyway, nice find you have there.

[Brian Sweeney]

The first shots are with the Olympus EP2: The Anti-Aliasing filter and thicker IR absorbing glass cut into the "pop". After conversion to LTM, I used the M9 for the shots.

Dexdog- it really is a beauty of a post-war Sonnar. someday I will figure a good way to convert "1 of my other 3" of them to LTM.

The 1951 Jupiter-3 focus mount is one of the smoothest that I have seen, great helical. The glass had some damage to the cement of the rear triplet, and some fungus on the inner surface of the front element. The rear triplet was uncoated german, hard to find a perfect match for. At some point- i will make it into a Contax mount lens.

[Brian Sweeney]

I have one pre-war lens engraved "made in germany", and it is a SN160 block lens, circa 1934~1935. Black trim on the mount. Probably Export version.



The pre-war Sonnar "T" lenses would have a SN of less than 270xxxx. I would be surprised if any were exported, as the coating process was a "State Secret".

It would have been easy to transplant the optics module into an earlier mount. I've done that, when a latch pin broke.

Post a picture of it on a thread here- we'll have a look.

[dexdog]

I have several pre-WW2 Contax 8.5 cm, 13.5 cm and 18cm lenses stamped "Made in Germany" and all are marked in feet, not meters. The only 5cm lens that I have with the Germany stamp is a 144 series lens that has a distance scale marked in meters. Go figure.