Search the Community

Again, a lens made in the late '50s, silver version. A Sonnar "almost" clone. "Almost" because these were actually produced with the original Zeiss machines, taken in Russia as payment for war debts. In the first few years the glass as well came from the original Zeiss stock, then the Russians run out and had to resort to their own stock (and if I'm not mistaken they had to slightly recalculate the formula because the refraction index of the new glass was somewhat different). Small and sharp as any traditional (i.e. non aspherical) 50mm. It has a bit of highlight rings in the bokeh if used at f/1.5, but at f/2 that is gone. It's main fault / advantage is the really low contrast it exhibit especially in high contrast situations, like if shooting snow-covered landscapes. Fault / advantage because the images will look ungodly flat (so if you shoot this on slide film you're basically screwed), but cranking up the contrast in Lightroom you will discover that the lens will have actually saved tons of highlight detail that other lenses would have lost in such conditions. Understory at the "Fossiata" forest, Italy @ f/2 Snow melting at the "Tasso" forest ("Beaver" forest), Italy

This is the m39 version of the lens, a silver one made in 1957. This tiny little thing is producing probably the best bokeh of all the lenses I have. And at f/2 is really quite sharp as well. A log on a path in the "Fossiata" forest, Italy I've probably definitely read too much fantasy stuff when I was a kid, but this kinda looks like some kind of dragon to me!