[Leica] Re: Canon Serenar 85mm f 2

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (lrzeitlin@optonline.net)]

Greg writes:

<<A frozen package was waiting on the front step for me when I arrived home 
tonight. Inside was a Canon Serenar 85/2 lens in LTM and Canon, 85 Finder, 
original front and rear caps and original leather lens case.
This is my first Canon lens and with a serial number of 53028 and 'Made in 
Occupied Japan' engraving I suspect that it is from the early 1950's.
Is anyone up on these lenses, as to optical formula, approximate date of 
manufacture, etc.? I expect it to be a fairly soft focus lens good for 
portraits of older women.>>

It has been some time since I used a Canon Serenar 85/2 lens. I recall that 
it was a five element "improved" Gauss formula design. Indeed it had a 
fairly soft quality wide open but sharpened up nicely when stopped down. 
Wide open it made a good portrait lens with sharp details surrounded by a 
soft halo effect. This was probablly due to a residue of uncorrected 
spherical abberation.

Your guess as to the date of manufacture is probably in the
 ballpark. The "Made in Occupied Japan" designation was dropped at the start 
of the Korean War.

Larry Z