Two wartime LTM Tessars

Hello,

I have already spoken of the 8/2,8cm. It was made in 1940, by the Thiele, and was very probably transformed directly "for Fed" by Zeiss at the demand of the Soviet Army at the end of WW2.



Here is another Tessar, always made in 1940 by the Thiele, and transformed too into LTM in 1945 or 46. But that time, it's a 3,5/5cm lens:





Note the number "1124" which was engraved on different parts of the ranefinder barrel. All the original Zeiss LTM lenses have such a number.

And there is too the "M" for meter, only engraved on lenses for Russian cameras.

I had already told of the 13,5cm LTM Sonnars http://ussrphoto.com/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2774

In fact, if I try to summarize... We know that at the end of WW2, some LTM Zeiss lenses were specially made at the demand of the Red Army, for Feds. The Thiele is clear concerning these lenses which were delivered in 1946. Their number: 2120. But we can suppose too that the number of lenses made was not sufficient for the Soviet authoriries, and that the Germans had to transform a certain number of lenses belonging to their stock.

It could explain the number of non authentified lenses that we find on the net. For me, most of these lenses are not fakes, only non official lenses produced by the factory as war spoils.

Certainly the two Tessars belong to that category. Note too that in the 2120 "official" lenses for the Russians, there is absolutely no Sonnar 1,5/5cm registered by the Thiele, whereas it's probably the less uncommon LTM wartime Zeiss lens... BTW, no Biogon either.

Amitiйs. Jacques.