Need help Identifying Zeiss lens... (PIC)

amiga500

amiga500

Active member
I came across this lens somebody has for sale for $50 and I don't know if I will be able to use it on a 7D.
Seller says this:"Old Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/135 lens + extension tube JHAGE DRESDEN"

I don't know if the lens is in good condition yet, but it looks like it have horrible fungus in one of the pictures, or maybe is just a reflection.

Also, what kind of mount is that? I'm new to the DSLR world, but I have a bunch of old canon/nikon mount lenses.
Is this cine lens or still lens? Is it worth the $50 bucks just for fun?

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Well its a bayonet mount. Can't make out exactly what it is.

Here's some interesting history on Zeiss "Jena".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Zeiss_AG

At the end of the war Jena was occupied by the US Army. When Jena and Dresden were incorporated into the Soviet occupation zone, later East Germany, Zeiss Jena was assisted by the US army to relocate to the Contessa manufacturing facility in Stuttgart, West Germany, while the remainder of Zeiss Jena was taken over by the (Eastern) German Democratic Republic as Kombinat VEB Zeiss Jena[1]. The occupying Russians took most of the existing Zeiss factories and tooling back to the Soviet Union as the Kiev camera works, which produced copies of the Contax and other Zeiss Ikon products.
Click to expand...

Basically any post WWII Zeiss optic labeled "Carl Zeiss Jena" and/or "DDR" was not actually made by the original Zeiss company. The Soviets took control of all the original factories in East Germany and started making optics based on the same designs and using the same machinery. Probably hired a few of the original employees too. Theory is that quality was pretty good at first and drifted in the following decades. Now Jena is not under soviet control after the fall of the Berlin wall but it exists today as a separate company from Zeiss.

Still, old Soviet optics are pretty fun and I have quite a few. Just keep in mind the history as its pretty interesting.
 
I use those vintage medium format Zeiss "Zebra" (because of the black/white ring) lenses religiously on my HVX/Letus - just love the cinematic look.

What you seem to have is a 35mm version and the bayonet is probably Exacta.

50 bucks? Not in that condition. For 80 you can get a absolute mint medium format (at least in Germany).

Frank
 
Very interesting story.
So bayonet mount means that it is a cine lens? Is there an adapter ring that will work to fit a 7D?
I talk to the seller by phone now and he says the lens is in "perfect" condition, no fungus.

Frank, will this adapter work? Adapter for Exacta to Canon Mount is 50 bucks!
 
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