Leica Company in the United Kingdom offering Professional Lens conversion to Leica AND a new Sonnar

Brian

Product of the Fifties

I saw this on Leicarumors, had to check it out.
This company is offering Professionally Done conversions for lenses that I've hacked out on my desk.

They also offer adjusted Jupiters.


I've inquired whether they offer pre-war Sonnar to Leica conversions. I no longer do those- just too busy with "the day job".
As you all know, I'm a DOS Fortran programmer. How many programmers does it take to screw the optics module into a focus mount? That joke never gets old.
 
Bah, physics. Who needs that? :LOL:

More seriously, I think you explained that once over at RFF and I had forgotten. But it makes sense that there was some real reason for it given the skill of the Nippon Kogaku & Zeiss optical people.
 
These are from the above 5cm F2 Sonnar- and a good reason why the Sonnar Fans chose this design.

All wide-open. Finding a clean-glass 5cm F2 Sonnar is difficult, the front element is soft glass like a Summar. Fewer F2 Sonnars converted to Leica mount than the F1.5 "Super-Speed" big brother.
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I received a very nice response from Skyllaney, and will be on the list of people chosen to test their new lens. I'm excited!

I also received pictures of the Contax Sonnar to Leica conversion they are doing. The benefit of having a real machine shop dedicated to this task!

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I will be referring any inquiry for converting 5cm F2 and 5cm F1.5 CZJ Sonnars to Skyllaney.
They even do the machining in order that the "winged" aperture rings to fit the J-8 focus mount. I had to use the J-8 aperture ring for lenses below SN270x or so.
 
I was going to get a "Family Portrait" of all my Sonnar 50's.
I would have to clean everything off my Desk- and I am working from home.
So- I settled for Seven Sonnars, all 5cm F2 Sonnars.

1934 CZJ 5cm F2 Sonnar on the M Monochrom, converted using a tabbed J-8 modified to RF couple down to 0.85m;
1940 CZj 5cm F2 Sonnar "T" converted using an early J-8,
1948 Collapsible Nikkor-H 5cm F2
1952 KMZ Jupiter-8 5cm F2 with German Glass in it
early rigid Nikkor-H 5cm F2
Tanar 5cm F2
Late Nikkor-H 5cm F2.
The 1934 5cm F2 Sonnar is uncoated. The 1940 Sonnar "T" is one of the first coated F2 lenses made. All of these lenses are "cherry-picked" and have perfect glass, I set the shims on the Tanar to optimize for wide-open use. The CZJ Sonnar 5cm F2- I've converted (I think) 8 of these to Leica mount.

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I'l looking forward to testing the new lens against these classics. I also have a 1957 J-8, J-8M modified for Leica mount, a second 1952 J-8 with German glass, and a Zeiss Opton 50/2 that can be used with a dedicated Amedeo adapter. I have 35 Sonnar formula 50mm lenses in total. The Jupiter-3+, C-Sonnar 50/1.5, and 7Artisans 50/1.1 all have modern coatings.
 
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"Eight is Enough"- of Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 lenses, that is.
1934 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar on the M9, perhaps the first batch that can be converted to Leica mount using a J-3 focus mount.
1935 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar, front element is Coated- first Sonnar that I converted to Leica Mount.
1936 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar, uncoated- very sharp same batch as the one next to it.
1936 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar, all surfaces are coated- a few lenses from this batch were pulled to try out the new coating equipment.
1938 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar T, fully coated and marked with "T" for transparent
I converted these five lenses to Leica Mount.

These three are original Leica Thread Mount.
1943 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar "T", recomputed optics, new metal alloy fixtures, original Leica Thread Mount.
1945 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Sonnar "T" on the Canon 7, note "black nose" for filter ring, original Leica Thread Mount.
1946 Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm F1.5 Spnnar "T", post-war lens, "transition lens" as I call it. I needed to replace the middle triplet on this one, the original was unfinished.

All of these required hours of work to restore to usable condition. The 1945 lens has a helical that was so worn, and had so much slop in it- I had to make a guide tube to fit around the mechanism to stop the wobble.

So- problem? 'I don't have no problem!'.... "I'm a Sonnar Expert"...


They said so, I heard them....

Next up- I'll get a group shot of my Jupiters.

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This one is way out of date...

I'm very happy and proud that this new company is offering service on the Jupiters and converting Sonnars to Leica mount.
 
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This is exciting. Should have known they service and calibrate before selling some of my unfocussing 50mm FSU's that were optically rather good and could match the quality of Leica..
I had seen several of their lenses on the UK Bay some time ago.
I added them to my favorites and look forward to developments.
 
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