Russian lens from junk shop......

[Stephen]

Found today in local secondhand (junk) shop, bought for a pound, a Russian lens, an Industar standard 50mm F3.5 from about 1959 made by the KMZ plant in the USSR. I did search around to see if they had the Zorki camera body to go with it, but nothing showed up, I may check with them again.

Industar 50mm F3.5 by KMZ, Russian standard lens late 1950's.

This lens was the replacement for the earlier collapsible standard 50mm F3.5 lens based on Leica's pre-war design, and retained the same glass elements in a much more substantial aluminium focusing mount. They were supplied on mid production period Zorki cameras till about 1963.

Front with Russian Script markings.

This one appears to have been a USSR home market version, no western script on the markings, so probably it was never officially imported to the UK by the importer, TOE Ltd, (Technical & Optical Equipment).

The general condition of the lens is reasonable for its age, the glass elements are fungus free, but it has a very slight haze under bright light, very few marks on surfaces, the coating is sound. I will test it on the Periflex, same M39 mounting.

The slight light haze is a known issue with Industar lenses, nothing much to worry about in B/W, where a yellow or red filter, and medium aperture makes sure it does not show. Open aperture is generally a bit soft.

It does affect colour slides a bit more, it lowers saturation, but works fine for portraits, and is quite satisfactory for colour prints, where there is a very faint glow to brighter highlights. Sharpness varies with examples, as usual with USSR productions, so a test film will be needed to check this one out.

I think I have a spare Zorki camera body that it can go on, after testing out.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

I did go back for a further search of the shop in case there was a Zorki lurching lens less in a very dark corner, but no,.... none were found.
I discovered however another find, a Braun Paxette Viewfinder, details on own thread. It is a useful shop if they buy cameras, they know nothing of the value of the items..........bad for the seller, but fine by me!!

Stephen.

[hansz]

Stephen,

That is the kind of shop we're all searching for!

Here, in NL, when these kind of shops grow bigger - they do because of the economic climate, where more and more people buy second hand stuff - the trend is to establish one of the outlets as a 'luxury item outlet'. The most valuable things will be offered for sale there.

Even when the prices rise, I found a Contax lens set Planar 3,5/35mm and a Triotar 4/8,5cm for €70 which is very expensive for the trade shop but for me a very good find!
Hans

[Stephen]

I don't like buying cheap in a charity shop, after all they need the money, this shop is run by a house clearing concern, so no need to worry when a bargain is found. I had hoped the matching Zorki was there somewhere, but no, if it was once there, it has been sold.
Ebay usually is too expensive, but things do turn up every so often. These days there are few specialist camera shops left, when film "ended", (still actually going of course), a lot closed very rapidly indeed. London stil as several good shops, but they price items too steeply.

Stephen.