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Norman
Tinkerer
Username: Norman
Post Number: 40
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 06:12 pm: | 
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I have a problem. I have recently received my Contax II back from a refurbishment and it now works perfectly. However, the attached Sonnar lens has lots of flare and is very soft in comparison to the identical lens that I owned 40 years ago. I had hoped that by some miracle it's performance would have improved.
Now my dilemma, I cannot find a Sonnar lens to replace it so I am looking at the Russian equivalents. I have found the optical part, brand new of a Jupiter lens on Ebay. Would that fit into the Sonnar mount? Ther are several other complete lenses available. I cannot afford to buy lots of them to test. Can anyone give me some guidance?
Thanks, Norman |
T6nn
Tinkerer
Username: T6nn
Post Number: 6
Registered: 06-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 11:16 am: |
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I believe it could fit if it has the same max aperture, but you would need to recollimate it anyway. I would buy a complete new lens as the outer shells don't seem to make that big difference in appearance to me. Except when you have a collapsible one or something? |
Msiegel
Tinkerer
Username: Msiegel
Post Number: 206
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 02:04 am: |
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Hi,
according to that website it should be possible to use Russian lenses in Kiev/Contax mount on Contax cameras (there is one exception mentioned)
http://www.cameraquest.com/conrf.htm
There are also quite cheap Russian lenses from the used market like the Jupiter-8M which is said to be a Sonnar copy. |
T6nn
Tinkerer
Username: T6nn
Post Number: 8
Registered: 06-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 10:35 am: |
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If it's a Contax II and not postwar IIa, then it should take all Kiev rangefinder lenses except a very few special ones for Kiev 5 that didn't have inner bayonet. After all, Kiev an it's lenses were more than a Contax copy, being made by the same machinery and partly by the same workers too. |
Sevo
Tinkerer
Username: Sevo
Post Number: 68
Registered: 09-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 04:31 pm: |
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As a matter of fact the outer bayonet normals for the Kiev 5 work nicely on every Contax - the limitation is the other way around, inner bayonet normals can't even be attached to a Kiev 5.
The 2.8/35 pre war Biogon and the USSR equivalent Jupiter-12 do not fit the Contax IIa/IIIa, and all Nikon RF normals and long lenses do front focus by about 15% close-up on Contax type cameras - apart from that I am not aware of any incompatibilities within Contax Bayonet cameras.
In any case, Norman seems to be talking of the 50/1.5 Sonnar - whose pre war designed version would be compatible with a Jupiter-3 optical block. The Opton/Oberkochen lens made in Western Germany after 1949 was a redesign with different mechanics and is not parts compatible with the old one and its Ukrainian successor.
And the Jupiter-3 optical block on ebay is of 1984 vintage - right from the years where Kiev quality control was worst. As unused parts generally were rejects even from that overall poor batch, anybody who buys that thing might be in for a true late soviet experience. It probably is worse than the fogged Zeiss it replaces, and will be much harder to clean or repair.
Personally I'd wait for a 50/1.5 Sonnar to come around, or purchase a earlier (fifties to early sixties) Jupiter-3 in full working order. |
Norman
Tinkerer
Username: Norman
Post Number: 41
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 01:33 pm: |
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I didn't explain myself very well. What I was hoping to do was to use the new Russian optics in the body of the Zeiss f2 lens. Sevo's comments about the quality have got me worried as I went ahead and ordered one! I might take his advice an buy an older Jupiter or three to try to find a good one.
Norman |
Sevo
Tinkerer
Username: Sevo
Post Number: 69
Registered: 09-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 03:05 pm: |
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Well, if you got a f/2.0 optical block off ebay, it will be something different, and might be from a better year - the only Sonnar block currently found by searches on ebay Germany is that 1984 f/1.5.
As far as I remember, the f/1.5 and f/2 optical blocks are not interchangeable - if you happened to get one of the former to repair a f/2 lens you may have to search on. But as Jupiter-8's are common as dirt (and tend to come as body cap along with every second 20€ Kiev), getting a J-8 for a spare f/2 block should be very easy.
Even pre 1949 f/2 Sonnars are neither hard to find nor expensive - the last I bought, a coated one, was 50€ on ebay, in very good optical condition. They go for similar prices once or twice each month, and are even a bit cheaper on good camera fairs. |
