Kleinanzeigen. Ein Objektiv wurde angeboten. Ein ziemlich uninteressantes. Es wurde im Startbild gezeigt, im Titel genannt und detailliert beschrieben. Blätterte man weiter, sah man auf dem vierten Foto plötzlich ein zweites Objektiv, nämlich dieses. In der ganzen Anzeige wurde es kein einziges Mal erwähnt.
Manche Leute wissen wirklich nicht, was sie da verkaufen. So ein Glück.
Das war leicht. Ein Meyer Telefogar mit Altix-Mount über einen leicht beschliffenen M42-Adapter (das billigste Chinateil) an Olympus MFT. Sitzt bombenfest und lässt sich einfach wieder lösen.
Das Wochenende kommt mir gerade recht. Ich erwarte keine Wunder, aber freue mich trotzdem drauf.
Eine neue Bastelidee entsteht gerade in meinem Kopf. Das könnte ein bisschen super werden.
Das sieht hinreichend wunderlich aus für einen alternativen Vatertagsausflug. Links Trioplan 50 2.9 Exa, rechts Helioplan 40 4.5 M42. Beides aus dem ehrwürdigen Haus Meyer Optik Görlitz. Lassen wir es bubbeln!
Fujifilm Xt5, Meyer-Optik GÖrlitz 135 2:8 15 Blades
#natureisbeautiful #instaflower #sovietoptik #meyeroptik
#photography #meyeroptikgörlitz #fujifilm
Meyer Optik Görlitz Opens New Lens Factory in Hamburg, Germany
Meyer Optik Görlitz has announced that it has opened a new manufacturing facility in Hamburg, Germany. This new lens factory welcomes visitors, will expand to include a showroom, and will be used to produce new lenses for global distribution.
While the company name is more than 125 years old, the Meyer Optik Görlitz brand itself as a manufacturer of high-quality German optics has had a bumpy road since 2018 and in its current state is less than a year old. The brand was disgraced, purchased, and reborn all in a period of a few short years, and earlier this summer the lens company announced that it was no longer a brand name, but is instead operating as an independent lens manufacturer dedicated to producing quality products again.
The company was originally founded in 1896 by optician Hugo Myer and businessman Heinrich Schätze and successfully made wide-angle camera lenses. In 1920, the company began working with former Zeiss developer Paul Rudolph. In 1990, after spinning off of a relationship with VEB Carl Zeiss, the company was unable to attract investors and liquidated. It came back in 2014 through the new brand manager Globell B.V. who bought the name and exhibited new lenses. By 2018, the company collapsed despite raising over $600,000 in Kickstarter, and everyone who backed the lens projects lost their money. Today, the collapse of the company is described as what “looks very much like an illegal ponzi pyramid scam” on Wikipedia.
Meyer Optik Görlitz is now under new management, purchased by OPC Optics in 2018, and while the brand may have suffered greatly in the last few years, the new owners say they are dedicated to relaunch the lens manufacture as a "real company." As part of that commitment, the new factory in Hamberg, Germany will be the new home of operations.
"With the successful launches of the current lenses and the foundation of Meyer Optik Görlitz GmbH this year, we have built the basis for Meyer Optik's future," says Timo Heinze, Managing Director Meyer Optik Görlitz GmbH.
"Until now, our lenses were assembled by a partner company in Hamburg. Although this was done to our complete satisfaction, it was our goal from the very beginning to handle this important part of the lens manufacturing process ourselves. So, we chose the Hamburg as location because, in addition to the assembling process, we can also take on personnel from the previous partner company and thus have access to existing experience and expertise. At the same time, Hamburg offers many sights for photography, as well as very good traveling options, making a visit to Meyer Optik even more attractive."
Meyer Optik Görlitz says the new factory is in the Rothenburgsort district of Hamburg, close to HafenCity district in a buiding that was originally constructed in 1928. The company says that it is welcoming visitors and, while for now these must be scheduled ahead of time due to the ongoing pandemic, it aims to show off how its handcrafted lenses are being made to any and all interested parties.
"The glass lenses, produced using state-of-the-art processes, will continue to be delivered to the new workshop in the Hanseatic city by Meyer Optik's sister company, OPC Optics, based in Bad Kreuznach," the company says. "Likewise, the mechanical components will continue to be manufactured by well-known precision engineering companies in Germany."
Over the course of the next year, Meyer Optik Görlitz says that it will add a showroom to the same building where it will host workshops and in-house events in addition to acting as an exhibition hall for photography shows.
The company says that it plans to expand its portfolio in the coming year to include the Trioplan 35mm f/2.8 II, which is currently in production, and variants of the Trioplan 100mm II for full-frame mirrorless cameras with Nikon Z and Canon RF mounts. These will be followed by the Biotar 58mm f/1.5 II and Biotar f/1.5 75mm II, which are currently in the prototype phase.
#equipment #industry #news #canonrf #germanlenses #germany #handmadelenses #lensfactory #meyeroptik #meyeroptikgorlitz #nikonz #optics
Meyer Optik Görlitz Says it is ‘a Real Company Again’
Meyer Optik Görlitz -- formerly disgraced, purchased, and reborn -- has announced that is no longer a brand-name only and is now operating as an independent organization. In the Meyer Optik's own words, it is "a real company again."
Meyer Optik Görlitz has had a long and, recently, rocky history. The brand was founded in 1896 by optician Hugo Myer and businessman Heinrich Schätze and successfully made wide-angle camera lenses. In 1920, the company began working with former Zeiss developer Paul Rudolph, who was significant in the development of the Prota, Planar, and Tessar lenses. Rudolph helped Meyer Optik obtain a patent for what the company called Plasmat lenses, and by 1936 was producing 100,000 lenses a year.
In 1990, after spinning off of a relationship with VEB Carl Zeiss, the company was unable to attract investors and liquidated. But in 2014, net SE along with brand manager Globell B.V. bought the name and exhibited new lenses at the Photokina trade show. In 2015, the company launched a Kickstarter for a new Trioplan 50mm f/2.9.
That Kickstarter was wildly successful and raised $683,801. Despite this, all was not well at the company. Geoff Livingston, a market and founder of Livingston Campaigns, joined Meyer Optik as a contractor to help with that campaign. He was also tapped to launch the Trioplan 100 Kickstarter, but departed the company after he saw some warning signs that bothered him.
In an interview with PetaPixel, he revealed that the company was working to launch the Trioplan 100 before successfully delivering on the Trioplan 50.
“We literally were dealing with complaints about not receiving the 100 while pushing the 50. Not ideal from a PR perspective, but we were told that the company had to launch the Kickstarter. I think the campaign suffered a bit from that,” Livingston told PetaPixel.
Livingston's gut was right, and the Meyer Optik Görlitz brand owner net SE was revealed to be in serious trouble in August of 2018. The company delisted its shares from the over-the-counter market in Germany and filed for bankruptcy.
Anyone who backed the original successful Kickstarter but did not receive a product simply lost their money.
Today, the collapse of the company is described as what "looks very much like an illegal ponzi pyramid scam" on Wikipedia. What was once a storied, respected lens brand was seriously tarnished by net SE's business decisions. While many photographers believed that Meyer Optik Görlitz was a larger company with many employees and vast production capabilities, in reality, it was a tiny operation with only a handful of people and was only one of several vintage lens brands under the net SE umbrella.
In 2019, it was confirmed that the net SE was selling cheaper Chinese lenses that were simply rebranded with the Meyer Optik Görlitz name, which further tarnished the brand.
After the collapse of net SE, Meyer Optik Görlitz was purchased by OPC Optics, who acquired the rights to the brand in 2018 and announced plans to bring its products back to market. OPC Optics intended to reboot the brand at Photokina 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic eventually led to the cancelation of that show. Photokina would later shut down indefinitely.
Representatives for the company say that it has since completely rebuilt the entire structure of the brand, including the portfolio of products. The result is that the company is known as Meyer Optik Görlitz GmbH and is based in Bad Kreuznach. Meyer Optik Görlitz GmbH will operate independently, alongside its sister companies OPC Optics GmbH and PPO Pfeiffer Präzisionsoptik GmbH and under the umbrella of a common parent company. The transition to organizational and administrative independence is to be completed by the end of the year.
"After almost 3 years of hard and intensive work, we are very happy to have laid the foundation for an independent Meyer Optik Görlitz GmbH and to be able to put it on its own feet" Timo Heinze, Managing Director of the new Meyer Optik Görlitz GmbH now says. "After we, under the umbrella of OPC Optics, developed the brand's portfolio and established sales structures, the time has now come for Meyer Optik Görlitz to step out of the shadows as a 'real' company and operate independently on the market."
The company says that it plans to launch a Trioplan 35 II, Biotar 58 II, and Biotar 75 II by the fourth quarter of 202. It will also expand the portfolio of lenses with classic models. Additionally, the company says new products are already in the works, so more new launches can be expected next year.
#equipment #news #bankruptcy #cameralens #disgraced #lenses #lensmanufacturer #meyeroptik #meyeroptikgorlitz #netse #opcoptics #reborn
$10 Flea Market Leica Lens Sells for $50,000 in Under 24 Hours
A rare, collapsible version of the Meyer Primoplan 5cm f/1.9 LTM Leica M39 mm RF -- valued at $50,000 -- was listed for less than a day before the seller received a private offer to purchase it. Just a few months before, it was scooped up at a flea market for just $10.
While the sale is pending, it shows just how hot the market is for rare, vintage Leica collectibles.
Jean-Louis Beek who runs the vintage camera shop Cameratique says that the lens was purchased about three months ago in South Africa at a flea market, where it was picked up for a "what is equivalent to $10."
"The new lucky owner then advertised it on a local online auction webpage where a photographer recognized what it was and purchased it for a substantial amount more. He then on-sold to me," Beek explains. "I then brought it to the international market where it will probably end up in the hands of a high-end collector."
He says that he expects that after it is sold, it could be up to another generation before it appears for sale again.
"And so the life cycle of such a rarity will continue," he says.
Beek tells PetaPixel that the interest in the lens even exceeded his expectations.
"It's a small world of capable buyers at this level," he says. "And word can spread fast amongst them."
The lens is a screw-mount type produced by Meyer Primoplan and while exceedingly rare, the specific history of this lens was not known to Beek as it -and lenses like it -- is particularly difficult to categorize and value, as its history is are not well documented.
"The problem with these items is that they are so limited, there is little or no reference to them anywhere," Beek says. "No online images to work with, no previous recorded sales history that factor in the fast increase in value these items are experiencing, mixed with the ability to use these lenses on modern cameras easily today and produce outstanding results," he says.
The image below was captured using the lens and shows that it still maintains its optical quality to this day.
"Factory archives are limited if available at all, and access I certainly do not have to these records of the wartime-surviving company Meyer Optic that also went bankrupt a few times during its lifespan."
An added wrinkle to valuation is how rarely the lenses actually show on the public market.
"These rare optical artifacts are also difficult to estimate the values of, as a lot of the trades taking place are happening behind closed doors. Not all are online and visible to the public," Beek says.
The lens is still available to see on Cameratique as Beek considers the private offer -- a value which he prefers not to disclose while the sale is pending -- and is described as such:
When a bright light is used to inspect the lens, dust is visible, this however does not affect performance of the lens in any manner at this stage. There are barely visible with the naked eye light fibres that are the beginning of fungus at a very early stage. When inspecting the front element with a loupe, as always light cleaning marks and hairline scratches are visible with great effort. The rear element appears flawless.
So, for ultimate performance and optical perfection this lens should be cleaned. I have not done this, as I believe for a lens of this calibre, the new owner would like to use their own people to do the job. There is no evident haze, the 10 aperture blades operate smoothly and produce a beautiful circular bokeh. The lens shows usual wear marks for a lens of this age. It has been used and it reflects in the cosmetic condition as visible in the pictures in the listing. The focus is a little stiff for my liking but works accurately with a little more effort than usually needed such as on a modern lens. Again, a service will sort this out. I have also included lens caps as visible in the images.
Needless to say, there is no other lens like it with a Leica M 39 LTM screw mount available on the global market at this stage and they do not appear ever! You will find a Hugo Meyer Kino Makro Plasmat Leica M before you will find another one of these for sale again.
While the value of this particular lens seems high, it's not out of the ordinary. Vintage Leica lenses and cameras regularly sell for enormous sums at auction. In December of 2020, a rare Leica lens was sold at auction for $290,000, while earlier that year a prototype L-mount Nikon rangefinder sold for $468,850. Most recently, a Jony-Ive-designed Leica prototype is expected to sell for at least $200,000.
Image credits: Photos by Jean-Louis Beek and used with permission.
#equipment #news #50mmf19 #fleamarket #leica #leicam #leicam39 #meyeroptik #meyerprimoplan #primoplan #rarelens #screwmount #vintage #vintagelens
