Leica Showcase KMZ 50mm f/3.5 Industar-22 in LTM

[Mr_Flibble]

I hadn't used this coated 1952-dated lens in quite a while, mainly because the curtains on the Zorki Ic it was attached to were starting to come apart. I could shake the camera and flakes of rubber would fall out, no matter how much LET is smeared on the curtains.

So last year I decided to hand it over to a friend who likes rebuilding soviet Leica and Contax copies (He has also repaired my real Contax II cameras). I didn't hear anything for a while until December when he found some time to work on his backlog of repairs. I got the camera back in January this year and it feels great. Okay the RF is a little dim, but nothing too bad. Without slow speeds I wouldn't need good contrast in the RF patch anyway.

The Industar-22, I'm told, is a tried-and-tested 4 element triplet with the aperture opening behind the second group. And shooting with a properly coated lens was something I had not done in a long time.

I loaded the camera with some Rollei RPX 100 and took it with me wherever I went.


1. Zandberg road

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2. Nr 10

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3. Out on the Roestelberg

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4. Firewood at Fort Altena

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5. Calibrating his Nicca 3-f

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6. Land of Altena

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7. The crapper

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Film was developed in Ro9, 1+50 for 18.5 minutes
Negatives were scanned at 4800dpi with generic film settings in Vuescan.
Scans were resized and the levels and curves slightly adjusted.
Still a little too gray in my opinion.

Looks like this Zorki and Industar will do okay for another 50 years.

 

[Brian]

These look great. The Industar is a Tessar copy, and compares favorably with the Coated Elmar.

Industar-50, in collapsible mount, "even better". The collapsible Industars are Brass.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

The chrome on my two I-22 lenses is still pretty spotless.

I recall reading a pre-war Soviet review of the Elmar and the Industar (I-10) that said they were very close in image quality and that the industar was, possibly, a little sharper (Of course they would say that, wouldn't they).

 

[Brian]

I had a coated I-10, was not as good as my post-war coated Elmar. The I-22 was as good. I suspect the I-50 is close to the last-version F3.5 Elmar.