8,5 cm f 2.0 zeiss contax

[robert loop]

Looking at the site leicashop I have seen different 8,5 f 2.0 contax lenses and only one for

contax IIa or IIIa.

I thought that all these lenses would go on a contax III a or II a.

It seems NO. Do you know why ?

Regards

 

I know that 3,5 cm jupiter cannot go on contax IIa or III a

[michaelging]

I believe that Contax made lenses for the Leica ,and Nikon Market,just like Nikon made lenses for the Leica and Contax market.Even though you can mount a Contax 85mm f2 on a Nikon ,it will not focus correctly using the rangefinder.This is not as true with the 35mm wide angle.This might be the difference you are talking about.

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

Actually Zeiss (NOT Contax, this was just the name of the camera) made quite a few lenses with Leica M39 mount during WWII and shortly after. However, none of these lenses were made in large quantities since high-end photo stuff was not for public sale in these years in Germany. Zeiss-Jena made some coated lenses with M39 mount to fit the russian FED/Zorki cameras, and probably all of these lenses (the total number was not too high) went to official use in the Soviet Union and were not sold to the public.

 

There is a high risk that many of the "Contax" lenses with M39 mount are fakes based on russian copies of Zeiss lenses. I always wonder why many of the Zeiss lenses with M39 mount come from east european sellers.

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

The post-war Zeiss Jena 85/2.0 lens is very nice - really sharp with pleasing bokeh. But it is hard to find a nice one as the alloy barrel does get worn with heavy use. It took me over 6 months to find the one that I finally bought.

[robert loop]

Mr Budding, do you think that all the coated contax zeiss 8,5 cm 2.0 would fit on a Contax IIa

or IIIa.

My point was that the seller Leicashop in Vienna has 5/ 6 8,5 cm 2.0 zeiss contax lenses for

contax and on the site he says one out of these is for contax IIa or IIIa.

So it seems that not all these lenses can go nicely on the contax IIa or IIIa.

I do not know if I say it correctly as my mothertongue is not english.

Regards

[michael schub]

There may be a few things going on here at once. Pre-war uncoated lenses are often listed as Contax I (usually in black and nickel mounts)and Contax II lenses but work just as well on (save the 35mm Biogon as noted) on the post-war Contax IIa. Some Zeiss lenses for the Contax came out in M39 Leica mounts but many if not most were made up from looted parts or conversions made in the difficult days after the war and are not factory issue.

[furcafe]

Robert, if the lens is in Contax RF mount (& you can easily determine that by visual inspection), then it will fit on *all* Contax RF cameras (incl. the Kiev copies). There is no issue w/the size of the rear element to worry about (as there is w/the pre-WWII 3.5cm/2.8 Biogon & the Jupiter copy). They will also fit on Nikon RFs, but will be slightly out of focus because of the difference in the mounts. As Michael Schub wrote, this "leicashop" may be categorizing the various lenses by the time period they were produced since collectors often want to match bodies & lenses (e.g., Contax II w/pre-war CZJ 8.5cm/2 Sonnar & Contax IIa w/post-war Zeiss-Opton 85/2 Sonnar). If you don't care about such things, then you have nothing to worry about.

[richard_oleson]

Michael and Christopher are correct. The prewar 85/2.0 is uncoated and very heavy, but if you don't mind that it works fine on a IIa.

 

:)=

[robert loop]

Thanks for your expertise. Have a nice Sunday !

Robert

[carbon_dragon]

Mechanically if something fits on a IIA it should also fit on a II (for example). Like someone else has already pointed out, the Nikon mount was copied from Contax but they got it slightly wrong and this is especially critical in longer lenses. In wideangles, depth of field usually covers the problem.

 

There ARE lenses that are ONLY for II's and III's (not for IIA's and IIIA's). These are the lenses with a long back focus (that stick deeply into the camera). The prewar 35/2.8 (and the russian copy) is an example. The revised IIA shutter is thicker and the old 35 comes into contact with the shutter on IIA's and can't be put on the camera. They made a new 35 after the war for the IIA. So that focusing problem for Nikon lenses and the prewar lenses with too much extension into the camera bodies are the only cases I know of where lenses don't fit everything. But the 85 does not have such a deep extension.