[rollei_list] Re: TLR
- From: Marc James Small <msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 10:26:55 -0500
At 10:48 AM 10/30/05 +0100, Thor Legvold wrote:
>The Taking (Zeiss-Opton Tessar 1:3,5 f=75mm) lens is Nr. 913174
>(apparently with a T coating, judging from the red T marking).
>The viewing (Heidomat 1:2,8/75) lens is Nr. 633608 (also marked with a
>red T).
>
> From what I found at Rolleiclub.com, it was made as you say between '51
>and '54. Judging from the serial number your guess as to year of
>manufacture would seem to be most reasonable.
>
>Although I've heard (much) about Prochnow, I'm not familiar with his
>litterature. Are any of his references available online?
>I'm not a collector, so I don't know if it would be overkill to buy his
>material.
Thanks for the numbers, Thor.
Hysteron proteron: you have to buy Prochnow in print the old-fashioned
way. It is well worth the while to purchase the entire run of his
publications. One of these is a Rollei repair manual, by the way. He is
now engaged on issuing Voigtländer Reports every bit as authoritative as
are his Rollei Reports.
So you have a Rolleiflex 3.5A/MX (Type 1):
Body s/n 1287946
Taking Lens: 3.5/75 Zeiss-Opton Tessar T 913174
Viewing Lens: 2.8/75 Heidosmat T 633608
The numbering on the Heidosmat is problematic and these numbers seem to
have been assigned by Rolleiflex and not by Carl Zeiss. That you viewing
lens is marked with a red T is a rarity but has been previously noted, I
believe.
The taking lens is part of a lot of 15,000 lenses completed on 5 OCT 1950
according to the factory records, so the lens on your gem must have been in
storage for a few years before being installed in your camera. It seems to
have been the practice of the era for Franke & Heidecke to order lenses
well in advance from Zeiss -- and, until the early 1950's, a lot of lenses
might come from either Jena or Oberkochen. We do not know whether Franke &
Heidecke paid for these lenses at the date of manufacture or upon delivery
and whether these lenses would have been stored at a Zeiss facility or in
Braunschweig at the Franke & Heidecke facility. It is probable that Zeiss
Oberkochen did not warehouse Zeiss Jena lenses and the converse, but even
this is not certain.
The rule of thumb is that the guys at Oberkochen shifted the marking on
their lenses from "Zeiss-Opton" to "Carl Zeiss" on 1 OCT 1954 and that the
transition occurred at the 1,000,000 mark but the truth is not nearly this
neat. Zeiss produced lenses in batches and numbered them sequentially
within these batches. As a result, there are Zeiss-Opton lenses bearing
serial numbers well in excess of that one-million mark and some Carl Zeiss
lenses with lower numbers. The changeover was a gradual one, as was the
elimination of the red T marking indicating coating, though, in general,
coated Zeiss-Opton lenses bear the T mark and coated Carl Zeiss lenses do
not, a practice soon followed by Carl Zeiss Jena, Joseph Schneider
Kreuznach, and the Soviet lens factories.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505
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