Jump to content

Is this lens for real?


msweeney

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Just a curiosity really... saw this item for sale on ebay: a Leitz 7.5cm f/0.85 lens? Never heard of it in the books before so I was wondering if anyone else knows about it. Maybe it was for some military application or other? I've only heard of a 90mm f/1 lens up until now... boy Leica has made some amazing stuff.

 

~ Mike

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think it used to be a lens for X-Ray apparat - wartime years or around ; Lager displays a similar item in his book on lenses, I seem. This item probably comes from factory museum... the seller seems to have arranged some kind of business with them and, time to time, puts for sale some of these fascinating oddities. (Lager displays some monster of this kind, but for photo use, like a Hektor 280 2,8, and even a catadioptric 600 or 800...)

In the linked page it is shown mounted on a M body... nice to see but I suppose one cannot take any decent pic with it - not a standard photo lens, I think.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The 7.5cm Summar 1:0.85 was created in 1934, but it was a special purpose lens, not for general photography. I do not even know for certain if it had the standard 39mm mount. During the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games it was used --- now don't drop your pants --- for TV projection. TV in 1936? Yes, Virginia, and in Britain too at about the same time. The war delayed the development for consumer use until after 1950. In Berlin, goings-on at the stadium were televised and relayed to a press room some distance away.

 

A picture of the front end of the lens is in Theo M. Scheerer, Leica und Leica-System, 2nd edition, Frankfurt a. M. 1960, p. 57.

 

The old man from the Birth of TV

Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

The 7.5cm Summar 1:0.85 was created in 1934, but it was a special purpose lens, not for general photography. I do not even know for certain if it had the standard 39mm mount. During the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games it was used --- now don't drop your pants --- for TV projection. TV in 1936? Yes, Virginia, and in Britain too at about the same time. The war delayed the development for consumer use until after 1950. In Berlin, goings-on at the stadium were televised and relayed to a press room some distance away.

 

A picture of the front end of the lens is in Theo M. Scheerer, Leica und Leica-System, 2nd edition, Frankfurt a. M. 1960, p. 57.

 

The old man from the Birth of TV

 

Look on AbeBooks Official Site - New & Used Books, New & Used Textbooks, Rare & Out of Print Books. There are a number available in German and English.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...