HIstorica ... but not Leica

[dkpeterborough]

In London last Tuesday today bought a Zeiss Ikon Contarex Bullseye SLR outfit c. 1963 ?? from London Camera Exchange in the Strand where they were stocktaking and invited me to make an offer ... the outfit comprises the camera, plus 50/2 Planar, 35/4 Distagon, 85/2 Sonnar, 135/4 Sonnar and 21/4.5 Biogon; bellows, microscope attachment, 21mm finder, filters, rightangle finder, leather camera case, 2 extra interchangeable film backs for the camera .. all in a fitted Zeiss Ikon attache case.

The bad news is that all the Zeiss lenses have fungus ... but I think a specialist repairer will be able to dismantle and clean the lenses ... so took a gamble and made a low offer which surprisingly was accepted ... they were stocktaking and wanted rid of it.

Have already found a repairer to strip the lenses and clean them but the 135mm is probably too far gone re balsam fault. The filters were also well fungused ... but they cleaned up fine as did the camera mirror and focusing screen. Also managed to strip down the right angle finder as was very cloudy ... all the glasses cleaned up fine and is now bright and clear.

The camera is fine apart from the meter.

Will treat attache case interior with anti fungal spray just in case of "spores".

Not Leica but I know some of you might be interested as the Biogon is scarce.

The camera has the later secure fixing for the meter baffle but is not a D model ... serial number is Z 18099 ... I need to find year of manufacture.

Expect some of you may have seen the outfit as recall some posts about visits to this dealer.

The outfit appears to have been stored for years and I bought it for the jewel in the crown 21mm Biogon ... bit of a gamble and just hope it cleans up ok.

Cheers

Dunk

[k_g_wolf]

Stay away from FUNGUS, your dealer knows why he is giving the stuff away.

It´snot worth it ...


Best

[dkpeterborough]

I've bought several lenses in the past with visible fungus and had them professionally cleaned ... and had one recoated ... and they are fine . A few people on this forum have expressed their concerns about cleaning fungused lenses ... but in my experience if cleaned properly the problem is curable. As for dealers ... well some of them know so little about optics and they can talk absolute rubbish about cameras and photography ... and then again there are very reputable dealers who regularly send lenses for fungus removal and repolishing/recoating if necessary. Fungal spores are present everywhere and will thrive in/on any suitable medium ... especially glass which is subject to condensation. But provided the glass lens is kept in a stable environment and not subjected to extreme sudden changes in temperature it should stay free of visible fungus. Having said that I expect that there are microscopic fungi/spores on thousands of lenses which never develop into a problem because the conditions on the lens are not suitable.

When I was at school we did experiments growing cultures derived from our 'clean hands' ... some of those cultures were fungi ...

So we just cannot stay away from fungus ... fungi are everywhere and waiting for any suitable opportunity. And many are killed by daylight.

Today I've sent the lenses opff to a specialist optical engineer for an estimate ... it is not a matter of can they do the job because I know they can .. more a matter of whether it is cost effective. If not cost effective the lenses will be ditched ... but I hope at least a couple of them will be worth salvaging.

Dunk