Orion-15 28mm f/6

KMZ · Contax RF + LTM · 1951 · Topogon type

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: Orion-15 28mm f/6 · Orion 15 28mm f6 · Orion-15 2.8cm f/6 · ОРИОН-15 · Orion-15 6/28

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Prototype and pre-series, Zorki thread	LTM	1951–1958	#5100004 — 1951, the only 1951 lens sovietcams knows #5200001 — 1952, the earliest of the first production-pattern lenses #5800030 and #5800145 — 1958, the two pre-series batches, told apart by which way the aperture ring turns	Sovietcams: up to 10 copies in 1951, up to 10 in 1952, about 100 and about 50 in 1958 — collector estimates, not plant figures
KMZ production, Zorki thread	LTM	1959–1963	#001830, #002014, #002102 — 1959–60, six digits with NO year prefix; #002102 is dated 28 April 1959 #6007050 — 1960 onward, seven digits with the year in front, to 1963 A small 1960–61 batch reverted to six digits with the year prefix	Sovietcams: a few thousand in 1959–60 for the first series; no figure for the rest
ZOMZ production, Zorki thread	LTM	1963–1978	#6300690 — 1963, Cyrillic nameplate, seven digits #6301644 — 1963, Roman-letter nameplate #640459 — 1964 onward, six digits, some with 'Made in USSR' #670281 — 1967, the export version, the common one	No figure published; sovietcams calls the 1964–78 export version 'the most common to find'
ZOMZ black barrel	LTM	1966–1967	—	Sovietcams: 'very limited quantities'
Contax/Kiev bayonet	Contax RF	—	—	No figure published; every source that mentions it calls it scarce

Every dated serial on this page is from sovietcams' owner-contributed registry, which quotes an "earliest so far known" number for each version: a floor on what has been seen, not a first day of production. The batch sizes for the 1951–58 lenses ("up to 10", "± 100 copies only?") are that registry's own estimates and carry its question marks.
The dates disagree at the start. Sovietcams has KMZ prototypes in 1951; allphotolenses gives 1956 as the year of release; Wikipedia's Topogon article says 1964; and a Japanese account (spiral-m42) has GOI, the State Optical Institute, calculating the lens in 1944 with KMZ series production from 1951 and ZOMZ from about 1963. The serial evidence supports sovietcams: 1951 and 1952 lenses exist, mass production starts in 1959, ZOMZ's first known lens is 1963. The 1944 GOI origin is plausible — the Orion name was GOI's, used on aerial lenses — but rests on one source here.
Weight is quoted two ways: 80 g (allphotolenses; Kamerastore's ZOMZ bayonet lens) and 62 g (spiral-m42, a screw-mount lens on a scale). Shige's 112 g includes an L/M adapter. The 80 g figure is used above; the barrels differ across the versions and both numbers may be right for the lens each writer held.
The design. Robert Richter's Topogon, patented for Zeiss in 1933, is four meniscus elements in four groups placed symmetrically about the stop — a 100° aerial-survey lens that Zeiss also sold in small numbers as the 2.5cm f/4 Topogon for the prewar Contax. The Orion-15 is that scheme at 28mm and f/6, covering 74° on 35mm film (USSRPhoto's table; Fedka says 75°). USSRPhoto's factory resolution figures are 45 lines/mm at centre and 18 at the edge, transmission 0.8, vignetting 67%; allphotolenses adds a second-degree diploma at the 1959 Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy. Shige's observation that the glass thicknesses differ from the Topogon, so that the Soviet side recomputed rather than copied, is one reviewer's reading of two diagrams.
Other Orions. The name belonged to GOI's aerial and reproduction lenses — Orion-1 and Orion-1A, Orion-20 (both 200mm f/6.3 aerial lenses of different coverage), Orion-18 (a 100mm f/8 process lens) — none of them made for a 35mm camera mount. The Orion-15 is the only Orion that fits a body in this catalog, which is why it stands alone here.

How to tell them apart (expand)

A tiny symmetrical four-glass lens, front and rear elements bulging almost equally — the Topogon shape
f/6 maximum, engraved 6 not 5.6, with a scale to 22
40.5 mm filter thread on the screw-mount lens; a filter fitted over the bulging front glass can block the aperture ring

Prototype and pre-series, Zorki thread:

Clockwise aperture scale on the 1951–52 and second 1958 lenses; counter-clockwise on the first 1958 batch
Flat-topped '3' and old-style '4' engravings on the 1951 prototype only

KMZ production, Zorki thread:

Name in Cyrillic only (ОРИОН-15); KMZ's prism-and-ray logo

ZOMZ production, Zorki thread:

ZOMZ's logo, a lens pierced by a ray, on the nameplate
ORION-15 in Roman letters and 'MADE IN USSR' on export lenses

ZOMZ black barrel:

All-black barrel; export markings; otherwise the 1964–78 lens

Contax/Kiev bayonet:

Internal Contax bayonet, focusing through the body's helical like every Kiev 50; ZOMZ-marked examples are the ones offered

Contax/Kiev bayonet: The bayonet version is the one this catalog files under the Contax rangefinder and it is the one least documented. Kamerastore has offered a ZOMZ-built example in Contax/Kiev mount (80 g, 51 × 30 mm); sovietcams' owner registry, which dates every screw-mount version above, was not reachable for the bayonet lens when this entry was written, so no serial floor and no years are given here. One dealer specification (Fedka) quotes an M49 filter thread against the 40.5 mm of the screw-mount lens; whether that is the bayonet barrel or an error is unresolved.

Serial-range notes

the first two digits: The Soviet rule — the first two digits are the year — holds for every seven-digit Orion-15 and for the six-digit ZOMZ lenses of 1964 onward (#640459, #670281). It FAILS for the first mass-market KMZ batch of 1959–60, which was numbered plainly from #001830 with no year in front; a six-digit serial beginning 00 is a 1959–60 KMZ lens, not a 2000s one.
#5100004, #5200001: The prototypes carry the year prefix even though nothing else about them was settled. Sovietcams records exactly one 1951 lens.

Specifications

Formula: Topogon type
Construction: 4 elements / 4 groups
Aperture range: f/6–f/22
Min. focus: 1 m
Weight: 80 g
Filter: 40.5 mm (0.5 mm pitch)
Years manufactured: 1951–1978
Country: Russia
Coating: Coated (Fedka's specification, via its store listing)

What reviewers say

Shige (Shige's hobby), two ZOMZ lenses on Leica M9 and M-P (blog) — A dark, compact wide-angle that "shows an unexpectedly normal rendering" on a 20-megapixel digital Leica, with no distortion on buildings and none of the colour cast the Russar 20 and Super-Angulon 21 give an M9 — and worn aluminium barrels on both examples, edges that get coarse at f/6, and a 40.5 mm filter that blocks the aperture ring once fitted.
spiral-m42 (M42 Mount Spiral), a KMZ lens on a Sony body (blog) — "Sharp right into the corners" with minimal distortion, well-corrected colour and curvature, soft tonality and restrained contrast, and little flare into the light — "this Topogon type suits architecture." Measures 55/35/26 lines/mm centre to edge and 67% corner vignetting.

History

The Orion-15 is the Topogon made in the Soviet Union, and it is the cheapest way there has ever been to own that design. Robert Richter drew the Topogon for Zeiss in 1933 as an aerial-survey lens: four thin meniscus glasses arranged symmetrically about the stop, a shape that corrects distortion almost perfectly and pays for it in speed. Zeiss sold a handful as the 2.5cm f/4 for the prewar Contax. The State Optical Institute recomputed it at 28mm and f/6, and KMZ at Krasnogorsk made the first ten in 1951.

What followed is a collector’s puzzle more than a production run. Sovietcams’ registry traces prototypes in 1951 and 1952, two small pre-series batches in 1958 that differ in which way the aperture ring turns, a first real series in 1959 numbered without the usual year prefix, and then the handover to ZOMZ at Zagorsk in 1963, whose export version of 1964 to 1978 — ORION-15 in Roman letters, MADE IN USSR on the barrel — is the one most people find. Nearly all of them are in Leica thread for the Zorki and FED. The Contax/Kiev bayonet version exists and is scarce, and it is the least documented lens on this page.

Used, it is what the design promises: straight lines, even sharpness to the corners by f/8, low contrast, and f/6 — which on film meant a tripod or sunshine, and on a digital rangefinder means very little, since the lens sits so close to the sensor that it gives none of the colour cast wider Soviet and German symmetricals do. The front glass bulges, so a filter blocks the aperture ring; most owners shoot it bare.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Orion-15 28mm f/6? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $360 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $330–$410). Tracked since 2026-09-09, 2 days: unchanged from $360.

By day

Date	Median	Middle half	Listings
2026-09-11	$360	$330–$410	4
2026-09-09	$360	$330–$410	4

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Très rare objectif grand angle Orion-15 28 mm f/6 RF pour monture LTM M39 Lei... — €278.28 · eBay
KMZ Orion-15 6/28 M39 (LTM) — €290.00 · eBay · likely KMZ
LZOS Orion-15 6/28mm Lens Leica LTM Screw Mount — €310.00 · eBay
Orion-15 6/28mm Mini 28mm Lens In Leica 39 Bayonet Mont. In Top Shape 🔥 🔥 🔥 — €350.00 · eBay
Very rare Orion-15 28mm f/6 RF wide angle Lens For LTM M39 Leica Mount Topogon — $325.00 · eBay
Rare ORION-15 6/28mm KMZ Soviet USSR lens for M39-L39 Zorki FED Leica Bessa MINT (LTM) — $355.00 · eBay · likely KMZ
LZOS Orion-15 6/28mm Lens Leica LTM Screw Mount — $407.00 · eBay
21530●ORION-15 28mm 2.8cm F6 L39 mount — $521.88 · eBay
Vintage UdSSR Manual Wide Angle Lens ORION-15, 28mm F/6, M-39 Screw Mount Working — £225.00 · eBay
Very rare Orion-15 28mm f/6 RF wide angle Lens For LTM M39 Leica Mount Topogon — £238.20 · eBay
Orion - 15 6/28 M39 Weitwinkelobjektiv (LTM) — £249.00 · eBay
Leica IIIf Black Repaint with Orion-15 28mm f/6 — HK$16,800.00 · LSKamera

Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.