Kilfitt Kilar Zoomar lenses on leica?

[Zoomar]

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Tyvm, I tried googling NIN, but got no obvious hit.

Do you happen to know what the difference is between Pan - Tele - Kilar 1:4 f=300mm without and with S. I only see without S at the end,. I have no clue what and S at the end stands for.

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[zeitz]

I only have a Pan Tele Kilar 300mm f4 with an AN mount.  These do not carry an S designation.  So this information is taken from Patrice-Herve Pont's book "Kilfitt Zoomar Imageurs et Objectifs".  

There were three versions of the Pan Tele Kilar 300mm f4.  The first version (1957 to 1966) has the AN mount, it has the lever focusing, and it also has the pull-out mount feature for close focus.  (Patrice says this version was also available in KI mount, which I don't think is correct.  I think it introduced the AN mount because it would vignette badly with a KI mount.)  The AN mount is a pain because no matter how tight you tightened the ring on the AN cone, the lens will rotate on the cone.  So the WE mount fixed that problem by introducing a pin to prevent rotation.  There were two versions of the WE lens made at the same time, which Patrice calls the second and third versions.  The second version of the lens (1966 to 1979) was designated S.  It has the WE mount, it has the lever focusing, and it has the pull-out mount feature for close focus.  The third version of the lens (1966 to 1977) does not have the S designation.   It has the WE mount, it has conventional helical focusing, and it does not have the pull-out feature. 

[Zoomar]

19 hours ago, zeitz said:

I only have a Pan Tele Kilar 300mm f4 with an AN mount.  These do not carry an S designation.  So this information is taken from Patrice-Herve Pont's book "Kilfitt Zoomar Imageurs et Objectifs".  

There were three versions of the Pan Tele Kilar 300mm f4.  The first version (1957 to 1966) has the AN mount, it has the lever focusing, and it also has the pull-out mount feature for close focus.  (Patrice says this version was also available in KI mount, which I don't think is correct.  I think it introduced the AN mount because it would vignette badly with a KI mount.)  The AN mount is a pain because no matter how tight you tightened the ring on the AN cone, the lens will rotate on the cone.  So the WE mount fixed that problem by introducing a pin to prevent rotation.  There were two versions of the WE lens made at the same time, which Patrice calls the second and third versions.  The second version of the lens (1966 to 1979) was designated S.  It has the WE mount, it has the lever focusing, and it has the pull-out mount feature for close focus.  The third version of the lens (1966 to 1977) does not have the S designation.   It has the WE mount, it has conventional helical focusing, and it does not have the pull-out feature. 

Wow, impressive. Could not find this myself. Thanks!

[zeitz]

On 5/27/2020 at 11:45 AM, Zoomar said:

Could not find this myself.

The only detailed reference on Kilfitt / Zoomar is Pont's book.  I think it is still available, in French, from Club Niepce Lumiere.  But the book is weak on the Zoomar products.

You seem to be a fan of Zoomar fan.  I do not know of any book that addresses Zoomar, which is a big gap in lens history.  There are two sources of Zoomar information.  Dr Back's personal archives are at the University of California, San Diego, library.  Zoomar corporate and some Dr Back personal archives are at the University of Rochester library.