Clip-on Filters made in Poland

I just got back from a two-week academic research trip in Cracow, and

of course stopped in several of the used camera shops, and thought I'd

mention yet another source for those hard-to-find clip-on filters for

various old cameras.

 

Apparently the Warsaw optical company, PZO (Polskie Zaklady Optyczne),

made clip-on filters in various sizes, I would guess for some East

German, Russian, or Ukrainian cameras. They aren't of the heavy build

quality of Voigtlander filters, but they seem optically flat and

otherwise functional, and can be had for a few dollars a piece. They

fit well, they stack, and a Voigtlander lens

shade fits properly over the filter. I was able to find medium yellow and

orange in 37 mm for my Bessa II, and there seemed to be many in 36 mm,

34 mm I think, 30.5 mm and various other sizes.

Just googled this place and got a 'not found' error for the English version of their Web site.

Do you have a snail mail address or other contact info for them?

I don't know whether they still exist. The filters I found were used, not new, but there seem to be lots of them out there, so if one were in the market, it might make sense to try online photo dealers in Poland. I know there are a couple active on eBay.

 

Hunting around, I think PZO made some lenses and other equipment for military applications and maybe some large format lenses and instruments like microscopes, binoculars, and such. From previous trips I have cable releases and quite a decent pistol grip manufactured by PZO.

They do exist, and the Polish version of their web site works fine. I guess I'll have to polish

up my Polish....

That's a really slow, animation intensive website (www.pzo.com.pl). I didn't trudge through the whole thing, but it looks like they've privatized and now are making microscopes, spectrometers, and military optics, and are open for custom optical manufacturing. I didn't see any photo optics or filters there.

I've been at their factory outlet store 10 years ago and got some parts for my old Krokus 3 enlarger. Nice people, very polite, I can't remember if they had somebody speaking broken English but Polish people re usually willing to understand foreigners talking with hand and feet or just sketching what they want.

I didn't know PZO for anything else then enlarging lenses with maybe small airbubbles in some element.