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charlie stobbs
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 09, 2004 - 08:29 am: | 
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Along with a Canonet camera I recently purchased on EBay came a lens that looks like an Exacta lens with "Jena", "Nr 5543032", and "?B1:2 f=58" on the lens ring (? looks like the Zeiss logo used on Werra lenses of a certain vintage.) Is this a Zeiss Biotar and are there adapter mounts for M and thread mount or other bayonet mount camewras? I haven't been able to find any serial number info on the web so far. Thanks for any info. |
rick oleson
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 09, 2004 - 08:51 am: |
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This would be a Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar, the premium normal lens for Exaktas in the 1950s. CZJ lost the rights to the various trademarks over the years in litigation with "the other" Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen, West Germany, resulting in lens names like "Jena B", "Jena T" and "Jena S". These lenses were made in mounts for Exakta, Contax/Praktica and Praktina, but as far as I know there were never any adapters from one mount to another.
I don't know of any authoritative serial number listing for postwar Jena lenses; I have made up an approximate list of my own, based on correlating lens serial numbers to the production dates of cameras they were mounted on and a good deal of extrapolation.... I don't have it handy, but I can look it up and give you my best guess of a date for your lens (off hand, I'd place it somewhere in the 1956-59 range based on the markings, but they fluctuated as court decisions came down and also based on the country of sale).
Does your lens have the attached shutter release and automatic diaphragm?
rick : ) = |
charlie stobbs
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 09, 2004 - 09:44 am: |
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Hi Rick. The lens has a radially mounted arm holding a plunger, probably a shutter release, and another spring loaded lever, near the base, which doesn't seem to move anything.The diaphragm ring needs to be pushed in axially to change the settings. Thanks for any info |
Jan Dvorak
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 09, 2004 - 11:09 am: |
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Charlie,
What you have is indeed an Exakta mount lens. The 'radially mounted arm holding a plunger' is a release for the auto aperture mechanism of the lens. When mounted on an Exakta, this plunger will fit over the shutter release. The sequence of events is - press on the 'plunger' - aperture will close to actual setting - continue with further pressure - contact is made with camera's shutter release - shutter fires.
The other 'spring loaded lever' will lock the 'plunger' when depressed, thus closing the diaphragm and allowing depth of field observation through the finder.
The Biotar is an excellent lens and you should find an Eaxakta body to go with it!
Good luck,
Jan |
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