Carl Zeiss JenaZoom II 28-85

Hi,

I came across a couple of CZ Jenazoom lenses. These are brand new and beautiful but they are PB mount. Not sure what I can do with them? I wanted to adapt them but a PB to EOS adapter is not readily available (not a reputable seller available on Yabe). Any thoughts on these lenses? The build quality is superb, these are weighty lenses.

Not sure what PB mount means. Most CZ Jena Lens were manufactured in East Germany in the '50's '60's and early '70's for the Pentax/Praktica 42mm screw mount or in Exakta 3 claw bayonet mount. Could you please provide specifics--focal length, etc. and whether or not mount is a screw or bayonet mount.

Not sure what you consider reputable, I am not sure that much at all on eBay is, but this seller does have 99.7% positive feedback:

http://cgi.ebay.com/PIXCO-AF-Confir...ccessories&hash=item2eb0236824#ht_2210wt_1133

No idea how well it works, I just found it now searching on google.

A quick search seems to indicate "PB" = "Praktica Bayonet". If you can't find the adapter you want you might want to talk to a machinist company, such as S.K. Grimes to see if they could either make you an adapter, or change the mount on the lens directly.

I looked into the Jenazooms a couple of years ago - interesting lenses, very nice zooms from the samples pics I've seen online. Most of the lenses were designed by CZJ, but manufactured by a 3rd party (many say it was Cosina, which makes sense) in the late 80's and early-to-mid 90's. Unfortunately they are not terribly common, particularly in K-mount which is what I'm primarily interested in. Other mounts pop up from time to time - I see a couple of M42-mount versions on eBay at the moment, but due to moderate cult status among zooms they all tend to go for more than I'm willing to spend.

PB = Praktica Mount. @ Mabman - yeah that is what I have heard a about these CZ Zooms. I wanted to change out the mount to M42, however there is a millimeter or so difference between the register. Being non-mechanical makes it difficult. Besides that I guess there is a lot more to a lens from what I have heard. The build quality on the lenses is great and they feel solid. Being slow F4 to 5 means the lens may be difficult to focus on a dslr.

Thanks for your replies.

If they're going for a really good price, and they're about to be scooped by someone else, I'd still say go for it, and then talk to a machinist. If not, talk to a machinist first about conversion and costs.

My thinking is, if the costs of lenses and the work are good enough, given the cult status of the lenses, you might be able to turn around and sell 1 of the converted lens to recoup your costs from both lenses.