M. Valdemar
Top Veteran
- Location
- New York City
I have a Carl Zeiss Jena 58mm f2 Biotar in M42 mount that I use with my Sony A7II and I'm very happy with the images.
So a couple of weeks ago, I saw a 1950's Pentacon SLR on eBay, with a "CZ" lens that looked exactly like my Biotar. The description was lousy and the photos on eBay were poor, but I took a chance bought it for a low price.
I lucked out, because the lens was perfect, with excellent glass. The lens was an exact duplicate of my Biotar, and it made very nice images.
But I had nagging suspicions about the name brand on the lens, the "name insert" seemed to be a little off. I removed the insert with a spanner wrench, and lo and behold, underneath was the "Carl Zeiss" logo, which was butchered and crudely filed off.
This was common during the early 1950's because of trademark/import disputes between East and West Zeiss. I found this interesting. The lens has probably been sitting for close to 70 years with the "real" logo covered up.
So a couple of weeks ago, I saw a 1950's Pentacon SLR on eBay, with a "CZ" lens that looked exactly like my Biotar. The description was lousy and the photos on eBay were poor, but I took a chance bought it for a low price.
I lucked out, because the lens was perfect, with excellent glass. The lens was an exact duplicate of my Biotar, and it made very nice images.
But I had nagging suspicions about the name brand on the lens, the "name insert" seemed to be a little off. I removed the insert with a spanner wrench, and lo and behold, underneath was the "Carl Zeiss" logo, which was butchered and crudely filed off.
This was common during the early 1950's because of trademark/import disputes between East and West Zeiss. I found this interesting. The lens has probably been sitting for close to 70 years with the "real" logo covered up.
