Description
Optics: Excellent for its age. There are a few very fine cleaning and coating marks on the front and rear elements. No major issues at all (no haze, fungus, large scratches…etc). There is about a dozen or more micro air bubbles in the glass elements, this is typical of the era this lens is from, as the high quality Schott glass formula was known for causing micro air bubbles in the glass. They do not affect image quality.
Lens renders extraordinary colours and bokeh, a masterpiece of tele-photo lenses.
Mehcanics: Some exterior wear marks here and there. Body has been mostly polished back to its original luster.
About this lens:
This is a Carl Zeiss Jena 8.5cm f/2 Sonnar originally for CRF mount, post war era. It has the T multi-coating. The lens was completely stripped down to its basic components, and the mechanics were cleaned using an ultrasonic bath. The exterior mechanics underwent a multi-stage polishing process and had new font work added back in.
The helicoid system was fully rebuilt, using synthetic low outgassing lubricants. It is buttery smooth to focus now. The aperture control system was also dismantled, ultrasonically cleaned and rebuilt, again using synthetic lubricants. The optics were cleaned, and underwent a re-centering process to get the most out of this vintage formula. A modified Amedeo-Japan CRF to LM adapter was installed into the rear of the lens, and the optical block then collimated and calibrated for Leica RF standards.
This lens focuses accurately on Leica M mount rangefinders from 1.2m to Infinity. The calibration aperture is f/2. Lens has been 6-bit coded and brings up the 75mm frame lines, which we find actually matches closer to the field of view of this lens than the 90mm frame lines do. This is probably due to the lenses EFL being more towards 84mm, and the M camera 75mm frame lines being more towards 77-78mm.
Note: The Leica cameras shown in some photos are for reference purposes only and not included in the listing.
Lens comes with a front push-on metal cap, rear M cap, the custom Contax-Leica converter installed in rear, and a screw-on ventilated hood.
