The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

MYSTERY LENS ???

C

CBOY6714

Guest
HI,
I AM NEW TO THE FORUM, BUT I HAVE BEEN A SHOOTER/COLLECTOR FOR MANY YEARS. I RECENTLY CAME ACROSS A LENS THAT I CAN FIND NOWHERE. IT IS A STEINHEIL MUNCHEN TRIPLAR 1:4.5 f=9cm LTM. I FOUND TRIPLARS IN OTHER LENGTHS, BUT NO INFO ON THIS ITEM AT ALL(NOT EVEN IN THE VADE MECUM). CAN ANYONE HELP ME PLACE THE LENS ? I UNDERSTAND STEINHEIL MADE A VERY LIMITED NUMBER OF LEICA THREAD MOUNT LENSES..
THANKS - CHAD
 

seakayaker

Active member
You may want to post this question over in the four/thirds camera thread. In particular the 'Photographing your Bokeh' thread has a lot of folks using older lens with the micro four/thirds cameras.
 

arri

Active member
The Steinheil Triplar is a four element lens in three groups but not a Tessar copy. The Triplar has the cemented element in front of the aperture. This lenses were made in different focusses, all are made before 1945 I guess, some of it were sold after this date and coated but Steinheil don´t produced this lens after 45. New glasses allowed better disigns and the Tessar patent were free and Steinheil made the Cassar and Quinar.
You find a lot of prewar lenses in Leica screw mount from different lens makers but a lot of it are made by mechanics and not by the lens makers. Leica lenses were very expensive, now also and so it were always a good choice to use another good lens when you have one to give it a Leica housing.
I guess your Triplar is an original but maybe made only by a special order. When a lens maker wants to sell lenses in Leica screw mount, we are talking about the time untill 1945, they have to pay licence fees to Leica and I can´t believe that.
You have a fine lens at all, I like the Triplar optics, I have a 50mm version for my Leica and I enjoying to use it.
 
Top