Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Sonnar 5.8cm f/1.5

Carl Zeiss · LTM · 1930

our own finding

Also known as: Sonnar 1.5/5.8cm · Sonnar 1,5/5,8cm · Sonnar 5.8cm f1.5 · Sonnar 5.8cm f/1.5 · Sonnar 5,8cm f/1,5 · Sonnar 58mm f1.5 · Sonnar 58mm f/1.5 · Zeiss Sonnar 58mm f1.5 · Zeiss Sonnar 5.8cm f1.5 · Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5,8cm · Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5.8cm f1.5 · Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 1.5/5.8cm · Carl Zeiss Jena f. Leica M39 Sonnar 1.5/5.8cm · Sonnar T 1.5/5.8cm · Sonnar 1:1,5 f=5,8cm · Sonnar 5,8cm 1:1,5 · ゾナー 5.8cm F1.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Engraved 'Sonnar', black front ring, no maker's name LTM — 1407028 (Leitz Auction 49, lot 308, sale 28 November 2026)
1407191 (Leitz Auction 12, lot 349: 'chrome (with black front ring)'; engraving not seen) 		—
Engraved 'Leica-Sonnar', chrome front ring LTM — 1407316 (Leitz Auction 45, lot 280)
1407108 (Leitz On 26, lot 112)
1407364 (Leitz Auction 40, lot 280)
1407373 (Leitz Auction 17, lot 268) 		—
  1. Origin. The sources disagree, and no factory document has been cited for any position. Leitz Auction has described the same series four ways, not in sequence: as 1930s lenses, "very rare and early uncoated", without saying who made them (Auctions 39, 41, 42, 47, 49); as lenses, dated to the 1940s, that might have been assembled after the war from genuine Zeiss parts (Auctions 40 and 45, Leitz On 26), Auction 40 adding "by Zeiss employees" and "to be sold on the black market"; as a batch that appeared on the market c. 1960, of unclear provenance (Auction 31); and as "not a Zeiss product" (Auction 28). Hartmut Thiele, the compiler of the Zeiss Jena factory production books, is quoted at second hand on the ClubSNAP forum on 14 March 2010 ("Reference from Thiele:") as saying that the 58 and 60mm Sonnars date from a Sonnar "sourge" [sic] of the 1980s, were "built to puzzle Leica collectors", are "100% trumped up" and were "built up from Russian optics and fake CZJ rims/rings added"; the parenthesis "(I think they originated in Poland)" may be Thiele's or the poster's. The quotation is a forum member's, not a page of Thiele's book, and Leitz's datings of the series to the 1930s and 1940s give no source either.
  2. Year. The year given on this page, 1930, is the earliest decade any seller assigns the lens (Leitz, 1930s); it is not a launch year and no source gives one. The datings on record run from the 1930s to the 1980s, and an end date is not known.
  3. Production. "About 500" is Leitz Auction's figure, repeated in each of its lots since Auction 39 without a source. It agrees with the span of recorded numbers (1407017–1407485) if the series was numbered consecutively from 1407001, which nothing confirms.
  4. Leitz Auction 49, lot 308, sale of 28 November 2026: no. 1407028, condition B+, "very rare and early uncoated Sonnar in good condition", lacking the Carl Zeiss Jena engraving, optics with a few light cleaning marks and some white spots, with rear cap and a Leica front cap. Estimate €1,000–1,200, starting price €500; no bids shown on 9 November 2026. Not a sale.
  5. Leitz hammer prices, all including buyer's premium: Auction 12, lots 349 and 350 (1407191, 1407408), €336 and €384; Auction 17, lot 268 (1407373), €780; Auction 31, lot 266 (1407485), €1,920; Auction 39, lot 251 (1407017), €1,200; Auction 41, lot 270 (1407275), €1,320; Auction 42, lot 271 (1407156), €1,020; Auction 45, lot 280 (1407316), €2,160; Auction 47, lot 342 (1407156 again), €1,440; Leitz On 26, lot 112 (1407108), €720. Unsold: Auction 15, lot 353 (1407242), and Auction 40, lot 280 (1407364), at a €1,800–1,900 estimate and €900 starting price.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved 5,8 cm, not 5 cm: the Contax Sonnar 5cm f/1.5 is a different lens, focused by the camera body and without a focusing mount of its own
  • A number in the 1407xxx block; Leitz notes the lack of a 'Carl Zeiss Jena' engraving on lenses titled as Zeiss Jena
  • Leica thread with a focusing mount of its own and, on the lenses Leitz describes, rangefinder coupling
  • Described as uncoated in every Leitz lot from Auction 39 on; the earlier lots, including the 'Sonnar T' of Auction 31, do not mention coating

Engraved 'Sonnar', black front ring, no maker's name:

  • Black front ring engraved in white 'Sonnar 1:…', '5,8 cm.' and 'Nr. 1407028.', with no maker's name anywhere on the ring (Leitz Auction 49, lot 308, photographs)
  • Bright chrome or aluminium-finish barrel; aperture ring scaled 1,5 – 2 – 2,8 – 4 – 5,6 – 8 – 11 behind the front ring with a red index dot; depth-of-field scale to f/11; distance scale reading down to 1 m, with 1,25 marked (lot 308 photographs)

Engraved 'Leica-Sonnar', chrome front ring:

  • Chrome front ring engraved 'Leica - Sonnar 1:1,5 f = 5,8 cm. Nr. 1407316.' (Leitz Auction 45, lot 280, photographs)
  • Same scales as the plain-Sonnar lens: aperture 1,5 to 11, depth of field to 11, distance scale marked 'm' and reading down to 1 m; chrome barrel and chrome mount (lot 280 photographs)

Serial-range notes

1407017–1407485
Every number recorded for this lens falls in one block. Leitz Auction gives the series as starting around 1407002 with about 500 known; the lowest number it has sold is 1407017 and the highest 1407485. No number outside the 1407xxx block has been recorded for a 5.8cm f/1.5 Sonnar in Leica thread.
1407xxx against the Carl Zeiss Jena year table
Read as an ordinary Carl Zeiss Jena lens number, 1,407,xxx would fall between the published 1932 block (ending 1,389,279) and the 1933 block (starting 1,436,671) of the camera-wiki table, in a gap the table does not account for. The number therefore neither dates the lens nor proves it is a Zeiss number; if the series was made up after the fact, it was given a figure that reads as early-1930s Jena.
1407203
APHOG forum, January 2019: "Sonnar 5,8 cm 1:1,5 Nr. 1407203", Leica thread, without a Zeiss engraving, rescued from a photographic collection about to be thrown away. Its owner found no aperture index mark and judged it uncoated, as did one other member; another thought the coating looked bluish, like Soviet copies, and a third found the engraving type clumsy. The thread's photographs are visible only to members, so the front ring is not assigned to either engraving here.
1407242
Leitz Auction 15, lot 353, catalogued as "(Carl Zeiss Jena ?) Sonnar 1.5/5.8cm": "rare, RF coupled Sonnar in aluminium mount". Estimate €500–600, starting price €250; unsold.
1407408
Leitz Auction 12, lot 350: "rare chrome RF coupled Sonnar for M39". Hammer price €384 including premium; lot 349 in the same sale, no. 1407191 with a black front ring, made €336.
1407485
Leitz Auction 31, lot 266, catalogued as "(Zeiss) Sonnar T 1.5/5.8cm", RF-coupled M39: "a small batch of these rare lenses appeared on marked c.1960, a total number of produced units and provenance is still not completely clear"; manufacture year given as c.1960. Estimate €600–700, starting price €300; hammer price €1,920 including premium. The T in the title suggests a coating mark on the ring; the engraving was not examined for this entry.
1407063
Sold on a Leica IIIc, body 482229 (1949), in Leitz Auction 28, lot 20: "Sonnar 1.5/5.8cm no.1407063 (provenance unknown, not a Zeiss product)", with a custom-made ever-ready case. The outfit made €600 including premium against a €1,000–1,200 estimate.

Specifications

Formula
Sonnar (by name; no published cross-section or element count)
Aperture range
f/1.5–f/11
Min. focus
1 m

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

History

The Sonnar 5.8cm f/1.5 is a Leica-thread lens with a focusing mount of its own, rangefinder coupling and a Sonnar name, and nothing else about it is settled. Carl Zeiss made the Sonnar 5cm f/1.5 for the Contax from 1932; no factory document has been cited for a 5.8cm, and neither of its engravings names Zeiss. Every recorded example is numbered in a single block, 1407017 to 1407485, and Leitz Auction puts the series at about 500.

Two engravings are known. One is a plain “Sonnar” with “5,8 cm.” and the number in white on a black front ring; the other reads “Leica - Sonnar” on a chrome front ring. Both have an aperture ring running from f/1.5 to f/11, a depth-of-field scale to f/11 and a distance scale in metres down to 1 m, and both are described as uncoated. One lot at Leitz was catalogued as “Sonnar T”, and one as in an aluminium mount.

Where the lenses came from is disputed. Leitz Auction has variously called the series 1930s production, possibly postwar assembly from genuine Zeiss parts, a batch of unclear origin that reached the market around 1960, and once “not a Zeiss product”. Hartmut Thiele, who compiled the Zeiss Jena factory production books, is quoted at second hand as calling the 58 and 60mm Sonnars a 1980s fabrication built from Russian optics with fake CZJ rings, made to puzzle Leica collectors. The lens number does not decide it: read against the Carl Zeiss Jena year table, 1,407,xxx falls in an unexplained gap between the 1932 and 1933 blocks.

The market treats the lens as a collectable regardless. Leitz hammer prices, premium included, have run from €336 in its twelfth sale to €2,160 in its forty-fifth. Leitz Auction 49 offers no. 1407028, the plain-Sonnar type, as lot 308 in its sale of 28 November 2026, at an estimate of €1,000–1,200 and a starting price of €500.

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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

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Sonnar 5.8cm f/1.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,100 across 6 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half $900–$1,500). First day tracked.

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

Listings updated 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Sources (17)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.