Zunow 5cm f/1.3
Zunow (Teikoku Kogaku) · LTM · 1956
single source, unconfirmed via machine translation — corrections welcomeAlso known as: Zunow 5cm f/1.3 · Zunow 50mm f/1.3 · Zunow 50mm f1.3 · Zunow 5cm F1.3 · Zunow 1.3/5cm · Teikoku Kogaku F1.3 5cm · ズノー 5cm F1.3 · ズノー 50mm F1.3
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zunow 5cm f/1.3 · Leica screw mount | LTM | 1956 | No. 7027 (Jo Geier) · No. 7115 (Coeln Cameras) · a third masked as 7xxx (LSKamera) — every serial seen is in the 7000s | Under 100, by a dealer's estimate (Flashback Camera); no production figure has been published¹ |
- Flashback Camera's estimate. The same dealer reports, as something that is said rather than known, that the lens was assembled from parts that fell short of f/1.1 performance; no other source addresses how it relates to the f/1.1, and neither its construction nor its specifications have been published reliably.
- The date is uncertain. Japanese Wikipedia lists the 5cm f/1.3 twice, citing the same page of Kurashikku Kamera Senka: released beside the Leica-mount 5cm f/1.1 in September 1954, and again with the 35mm f/1.7 and 100mm f/2 in December 1956. Camera-wiki gives 1957, after A Lens Collector's Vade Mecum, and records an unconfirmed 5cm f/1.5 beside it. Dealers date examples to 1955 and 1957.
How to tell them apart
- Every example on record is Leica screw mount; no Nikon S or Contax 5cm f/1.3 has been reported
- Dealers also list it under the older company name, as Teikoku Kogaku Zunow 1.3/5cm
Zunow 5cm f/1.3 · Leica screw mount:
- Chrome; distance scale in feet (Flashback Camera)
- Zunow 5cm f/1.3 · Leica screw mount: A hazed example sold on Yahoo! Auctions Japan on 10 August 2023 for ¥781,000 after 72 bids; No. 7115, with caps, filter and leather case, was priced at €14,000 before VAT by Coeln Cameras.
Specifications
- Aperture range
- f/1.3
- Years manufactured
- 1956
- Country
- Japan
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
Optical formula
No construction for the f/1.3 has been published reliably — the one figure found online repeats a dealer's description of the f/1.1 word for word — so there is nothing to draw from.
History
The rarest lens in the Zunow range, and the least documented: a 5cm f/1.3 in Leica thread, made in such small numbers that Pacific Rim Camera, writing years ago, had only heard of it and was not sure it existed. It did. A handful of examples have since passed through dealers — serials 7027 and 7115, and a third in the 7000s — and one sold on Yahoo! Auctions Japan in 2023 for ¥781,000 despite haze. Flashback Camera, the only dealer to guess at a total, puts it under a hundred.
What the lens is, optically, is not settled. Flashback relays a story, flagged as hearsay, that the f/1.3 was built from f/1.1 parts that did not make the grade — which would explain both the numbers and the name, a Zunow a third of a stop slower than its flagship. No construction has been published that is not a copy of the f/1.1’s, and no specifications beyond a chrome barrel and a distance scale in feet. Flashback describes it as sharp wide open, with a swirling background like the f/1.1’s but a character of its own.
The date is as uncertain as the rest. Japanese Wikipedia gives it twice, in September 1954 beside the Leica-mount f/1.1 and in December 1956 beside the 35mm f/1.7 and 100mm f/2, from the same period chronology; Camera-wiki, following A Lens Collector’s Vade Mecum, gives 1957, and dealers date their examples to 1955 and 1957. No example in Nikon S or Contax mount has been reported.
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 Zunow 5cm f/1.3? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
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