Meyer Gorlitz Lens

<p>I recently purchased a Leica Ia for cheap and with it came a Meyer Gorlitz Tele Megor f5.5 18cm lens. I've tried searching but I've found basically no information on the lens, or its value. I'm looking to resell it eventually, but until then any information would be greatly beneficial. Here are some images of the lens itself:<br /> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/li9xqih.jpg" alt="" width="4896" height="3672" /><br /> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/TE5YIMT.jpg" alt="" width="3672" height="4896" /></p>

<p>Meyer Optik of Goerlitz was a major supplier of lenses for the Exa and Exakta cameras in the 1950s-1970s as I recall. Many of their lenses were relatively relatively inexpensive compared to other manufacturers, some are niche lenses sought after today. I can't speak to their performance as I've only owned one of theirs and that was many years ago. Several threads online talk about your lens, its several variations and "funky" bokeh, soft images wide open. Sounds like an average performer for the times.</p>

<p>Google translates the German "Ohne Kupplung" as "without clutch" which, I imagine, in this context, means without a rangefinder cam. This is no matter for your rangefinder-less Ia, but how would you guess-focus a 180 mm lens, other than at infinity?</p>

<p>I had an Exacta with a Meyer Gorlitz lens, which went as a "pyrrhic gift" to someone here. My recollection is that that one, at least, was generally considered to be pretty miserable. I never found out because the Exacta's shutter packed up before I had a chance to put film in it. </p>

<p>Addendum: long ago I had a friend who was, like me, a collector of odd bits of everything, including tools and machines whose purposes were either obsolete or unknown, and we would, occasionally exchange what we came to call "pyrrhic gifts." As a pyrrhic victory is one in which winning the battle loses the war, a pyrrhic gift is one that you cannot use, but is too interesting to refuse. </p>

<p>What would the value of a lens like this be? I've seen the Exakta version (mine is a M39 mount) for $400 or less, but Collectiblend estimates to be worth up to $1000...?</p>

<p>Robert interpreted Google translate right. - I am amazed to see such a warning engraved on a lens though!<br>

Value: Sorry I am at best a photographer. (<- The kind of guy who 'd look for "a working FED" to shoot it and doesn't care about Hermann Göring's social security number engraved into it.) As such I googled and spotted an M42 version finding a new home for 61Euro last week via ebay.de. The auction text mentioned "15 aperture blades... bokeh". <br>

I suppose the lens appeals to adaptomaniacs who 'll be going to MILC it. LTM adapters seem among the cheapest & common, so the lens should be easy to resell.<br>

If you have a matching VF sell it separately. Some M8 user might like it with their 135mm Elmar. <br>

Upon usage back in its days: With 30s to 50s film speeds it was never really handholdable, was it? - 1/250sec wide open shouts for ISO100+x film, which was rare. - So the main appeal must have been saving payload to be better used for a tripod instead of mirrorbox and faster 180mm.<br>

I can't get rid of the impression that the guys back then believed to be willing to jump through Rube Goldberg hoops to get their shots somehow. - My father owned a macro kit consisting of a parallax compensation device a folding ruler and a conversion table telling how to set distance on his zone focused Voigtländer with +1, +2 or both diopters in front of the lens. Other folks apparently zone focused their 9x12cm consumer cameras successfully during the 20s etc. <br>

The Telemegor's distance scale seems to encourage such an approach.<br>

Question on the side: Is a part of the rear end detachable to make space for a Visoflex?</p>

<p>It is better to make a few pictures and assess for yourself the quality of an old lens. Some may provide magnificent results; others may be so so. There is no standard way one can assess an old lens. Some Meyer lenses are cherished, highly, for their Bokeh and Rendering ability. But these characteristics are the photographers' preference modes. There is no fully objective way to assess a lens' utility and Value. sp.</p>

<p>Can't see it being particularly valuable; just interesting.<br>

I have a 'Feinmess' slightly lumpy looking 105mm German lens from the 1950's, valuable to my sense of humour, as in 'This is a feinmess you've got us into....' :-)</p>

<p>Although this site doesn't do valuations, for a variety of legal and ethical reasons, but if the lens was in top notch condition...ie everything was smooth, no oil on the diaphragm blades and they worked fine, the lens elements had no haze, separation or fungus, and the lens surfaces had no cleaning marks, scratches, chips....I'd guess you might be lucky to get $100 for the lens. It is not a highly sought after item, nor top of the mfr's line, and I'm guessing the lens head doesn't detach for use with a Leica Visoflex, making it of very limited utility on a Leica.</p>

<p>Meyer Optik Görlitz was a sort of second-line supplier of lenses to the main nationalized camera works in the DDR after WWII.<br /> Some of their lenses are excellent. Some, IMHO, merely good. They are responsible for the 'standard' cheap lens, the 50mm Domiplan f/2.8.<br /> Mind you, the optical qualities of the Domiplan are not all that bad (nor, to be honest, all that good, either). It's the mechanicals, specifically the automatic aperture mechanism, that is responsible for the inutility of most of those on the market today.<br /> I have a couple of Telemeagors and they are, well, OK. I got mine for little more than the shipping cost.</p>

<p>BTW, if you reduce the images to no more than 700 pixels in dimension, it will speed up loading and display massively.</p>

<p>Strictly speaking, "ohne Kupplung" means "without [rangefinder] coupling".<br /> Meyer has a long history:<br /> http://www.meyer-optik-goerlitz.com/history/<br /> Like many German companies, its fortunes after World War II changed dramatically - before the war, Meyer seems to have supplied lenses, mainly Trioplan triplets, to numerous cameras makers and also seems to have dived into the Leica market (I suspect without official Leitz support). Even when the Leica was available officially only with a non-removable f3.5 50mm lens, Meyer were offering the camera with a removable f1.5 "Plasmat" (IIRC a "Kino"-Plasmat, suggesting Meyer was also supplying high-end lenses to movie studios).<br /> I could imagine it would have been very dumb of Meyer to offer a 180mm lens that didn't work with a PLOOT reflex housing - it would not surprise me if part of the rear of the lens detaches. I am almost certain your lens is pre-WWII.<br>

See also http://www.photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/004Smr?start=10</p>

David, not sure if Kino-Plasmat referrs to cinema lenses, rather, a lens that was specifically made for 35mm film, as this was called in

German "Kinofilm". AFAIK, they only made consumer lenses for 16mm film cameras. Before and early after the war they used to make a

lot of large format lenses which are highly sought after due to their ability to render portraits really soft. They were the main supplier for

the Primar-Reflex and Primarflex SLRs.

<p>I'm seconding Gunnar, pointing at "Kine Exakta" as a famous example of "kine" being just a reference to 35mm film usage.</p>

<p>Sometimes the names used by German lens manufacturers are rather fanciful, but in the case of the Kino-Plasmat, this term refers quite definitely to lenses for cine cameras, as can be seen from the advertisement (from 1939) below. Kino-Plasmat Lenses are offered for four gauges of film, 8, 9.5, 16 and 35mm. It seems that many pre-war Meyer products have been forgotten and have almost disappeared – in an advertisement for 1932, it offers press cameras of the four-strut design with f3 lenses and in the same year offered an intriguing 6 x 9 focal plane camera with an f1.5 lens. This latter was presumably to compete with the Ermanox, no knowing how good it was, but the Ermanox is the one that people remember!</p><div></div>

<p>Another Meyer ad (1932).</p><div></div>

<p>One more.</p><div></div>

Na, wieder was dazu gelernt, danke! Interesting, nice ads! I wonder if Roth was a distributor, the camera in the last ad looks exactly like the Mentor II from Goltz & Breutmann, which often also come with Meyer lenses...

<p>Gunnar, das stimmt, man lernt nie aus! (You never stop learning).<br>

AO Roth was indeed an English distributor located in Catford, South-East London. They handled Meyer lenses and Reflex Korelle and Primarflex cameras.</p>

OOhh je.. our Forum dives into the depths of the German language.. gut soo Haaha

<p>FWIW, here is my Meyer Telemegor 400mm f/5,5 in Exakta mount (external flange), all-black.<br>

Probably MEY1930 in Kadlubeks Objektiv-Katalog.</p><div></div>