LWZ1 – SN 8932371
I knowingly purchased this lens in poor condition as a repair project. This is what the lens looked like in October 2018 when I first sent it to Zeiss Germany via AbelCine in Los Angeles. Zeiss determined that “cemented element #6 and #4 grey” and would only offer to completely replace the lens with a LWZ.2 at a very high cost, which I was not interested in. Once back in the US, I took the lens to Duclos lenses for a second opinion. They were able to source the #6 doublet from Zeiss, but they removed and re-cemented #4 themselves.
Next are two videos showing images before repair and after repair at Duclos, which unfortunately introduced a strange flare between T2.6 and T4.
After testing, the contrast had definitely improved, but this flare was concerning and something that should not be happening. I contacted Duclos here in LA and they took the lens back to look again. They seemed to have no idea what was happening and basically said “we did all we could and talked to everyone we could, this is the best we can do”
When I took the lens back again, the flare had mysteriously changed but was still very present and very distracting, as seen in the examples below. The above videos no longer represent the current flare properties.
The photos below were taken today, looking down the lens with an exposed light bulb on the opposite side.
LWZ1 – SN 8950437
This lens I purchased in very good condition in October 2019. As you can see, it is nowhere as bad as the first copy, but I am very worried it is beginning to show the same symptoms. Side-by-side it is definitely lower in contrast than the repaired 8932371. It has not been dropped or damaged in my ownership.
Below is a video of selects from a recent commercial I shot. Every clip in here should be at T2.6, I believe. I realize some of these shots are just extremely high-contrast scenarios, but I wanted to give you a variety of things to look at. I am still very happy in most situations with the look of this lens, but I am worried it won’t last.
And finally, here are additional photos taken just today with an exposed light bulb on the other side of the lens.