Picked this lens up on Ebay for ~$200 shipped from England. Sold as way out of calibration, for use on a mirrorless camera. I'm pretty good at calibrating J-3's, and the glass was perfect. Turns out I've seen it before. The optics module was glued into place, meaning you cannot get to the shim. Try to force the lens, you'll break the guide pins. Take the helical out of the mount, take out guide pins, get to the inner helical. You get more torque, would not budge. At this point- the only option is to take out the glass and drop into solvent. This one took 6hrs in Nail Polish Remover, I've had one require 4 days. I spent a lot of time getting loose paint and glue residue out, it gummed up the helical and threads on the aperture ring. Lighter fluid, q-tips, and paper towels.
So- once apart, found the Zeiss serial number of the rear fixture that shows it to be a Zeiss Sonnar 5cm F1.5 Sonnar "T" Contax mount, from a batch of lenses made in 1943. You can also see the tap in the rear of the fixture for the set screw that held it into the Contax mount.
J3Namering_SonnarSN
The optical fixture is the Alloy used in the Zeiss Sonnars during WW-II.
J3_Sonnar
J3_Sonnar_hybrid
There were 5 of taps for the guide-pins, a "no-Whoops" lens would have 2. Glad I marked the correct one before disassembling. I've seen another with two sets, 4 taps- but never this many.
So- once apart, found the Zeiss serial number of the rear fixture that shows it to be a Zeiss Sonnar 5cm F1.5 Sonnar "T" Contax mount, from a batch of lenses made in 1943. You can also see the tap in the rear of the fixture for the set screw that held it into the Contax mount.
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The optical fixture is the Alloy used in the Zeiss Sonnars during WW-II.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
There were 5 of taps for the guide-pins, a "no-Whoops" lens would have 2. Glad I marked the correct one before disassembling. I've seen another with two sets, 4 taps- but never this many.