Olympia Sonnar lens

One of the most famous lenses designed by Zeiss for the Contax was the 18cm f2.8 Olympia Sonnar, so-called because it was first made available for the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  Although high-speed telephoto lenses of this kind are now considered a fairly routine aspect of 35mm systems, nothing like it had previously been seen when it was introduced by Zeiss.  In fact, Zeiss seems to have been somewhat uncertain precisely how the lens should be used.  It was first introduced with a rifle stock and was mounted directly on the Contax.  Presumably, it became apparent that focusing a lens of this speed and focal length with the camera rangefinder did not yield sufficient accuracy and Zeiss later mounted the lens on a mirror reflex housing called the Flektoskop.  This arrangement seems to have been intended primarily for focusing rather than viewing, since it gave an upside-down image.

For sale is optical block ONLY. It has an iris diaphragm, but has no focusing mount. So, it is suitable for collection or as spare part for broken lens. Very good condition though it shows some wear of the coating layer (pre-WWII coating wasn't very durable).