James Coleman Rogers

They were lent engineers and machinery etc. from Zeiss Jena according to some other bits of lore I could find. Interesting and fair point on the dating. I was basing that date range on the fact that the vast majority of factory 608's other lenses are from that period...but those are primes. It seems that this factory actually continued on into the early 2000's (no longer around), so your thought that this could perhaps be a decade or so newer than my original guess has merit. Regarding performance...I'm excited to see. Anecdotal evidence from collectors seems to actually place performance on par with period products from the west...remember this was a "halo" top-tier item. it was about a technological achievment/feat, not about sales or bottom dollar etc. I imagine if the Soviets did it (their 20-120mm is looked upon as a rather decent vintage performer based upon an improved Cooke 20-100 design, IIRC), Lomos being as loved as they are, then the Chinese certainly have a decent chance here, having likely ripped many important design elements from experience manufacturers. Word is they also purchased the actual glass elements used in their high end cine lenses, from Western mfr's. We'll know next week or so...I'll be posting results of tests as soon as the lens arrives back from Optitek.

Thank you, cool insight. That claim (about modern gov wanting this pushed away in favor of modern stuff post-reform) was "lore" of sorts passed around in the very few discussions i could find mentioning lenses from same era.

I know it's probably a long shot, but...does ANYBODY here know ANYTHING about this thing? I have scoured the internet, including Chinese sites, as best I can...there is next to nothing. As I understand it, the modern Chinese government would prefer people not know such things even exist....they want people thinking that China was not capable of highly advanced industrial achievments until AFTER the so-called "economic reforms" of the ~80's+. Obviously...they were indeed capable. Everything I can find dates this lens to somewhere in 1979 to 1983. They studied English, French and German cinema lenses and glass in their efforts. Obviously by that serial number...not very many of these were made. I cannot find another example literally ANYWHERE. No rental houses...western hemisphere OR in the east. Truly...a Unicorn. It is on the way back to me from being refreshed and modernized with PL and gears, and will be available for rental to appropriate customers/projects VERY soon...along with a matching prime lens (50mm T2, exact same coating), for low light or handheld/stabilizer use. I wonder which films this was used on? I suspect every major Mainland-Chinese production made since the late 70s likely used this zoom, until trade began to open up and use of western cine equipment became more prevalent in China. Think "Raise the Red Lantern", "Farewell My Concubine", etc...not to mention the many martial arts films of earlier years. Anyway...I hope someone can tell me more about this wonderful piece of history, and I hope to see it put back to use very soon on some cool projects!! ....Would love to see this put to use on a period martial-arts feature for example...