Not sure about these glasses. I can't seem to find much information on these. Usually Zeiss/Jena comes up not Jena by itself. They say Jena on the left side and 8x30 on the left with M over. Are they rare ? THANKS.
Not sure about these glasses. I can't seem to find much information on these. Usually Zeiss/Jena comes up not Jena by itself. They say Jena on the left side and 8x30 on the left with M over. Are they rare ? THANKS.
Hello Nessus,I wonder if those are from the factory in East Germany and were made post WW2.
Not sure about these glasses. I can't seem to find much information on these. Usually Zeiss/Jena comes up not Jena by itself. They say Jena on the left side and 8x30 on the left with M over. Are they rare ? THANKS.
I think what you have are Carl Zeiss Jena Deltrintem binoculars manufactured in 1968 at the Zeiss Jena plant in Eisfeld, East Germany. The binocular is marked "Jena" as an early consequence of the then pending trademark dispute with Carl Zeiss in West Germany for binoculars exported to Western Europe. The 1Q mark supposedly indicates a "First Quality Export Product". The export trade name was later changed for West Bloc markets to "Aus Jena". "M" usually indicated military application which would be the case if the bins had a rangefinding recticle, but the cash strapped DDR was notoriously lax in quality control matters.
There is one glitch in the idea that this glass was so marked because of trade mark issues.
The serial number, as LPT noted earlier, is for a 1955 manufacture. At that time, the trademark issues had not yet come to the fore and the East German Zeiss gear was labeled as such.
The M is suggestive of a Navy/Coastguard application( noting that there were similar glasses labeled MdI, for Ministry of the Interior, ie Border Patrol etc), the Q1 logo was introduced well after 1955 afaik, the Jena label is really a post reunification development.
Hello!
Thank you for your input. Would it please be possible for you to ask this European collector for more input: mainly, is it Carl Zeiss and if so why is the logo not stated on the binocular. And is such item marked Jena Q1 7X50 M not valuable for a collection as Carl Zeiss logo is not on it?
Thank you again!
He knew nothing about them, asked my opinion and I forwarded this thread to him. This thread is as much information as I have been able to find. The question is if they are genuine Carl Zeiss Jena or fakes. Until now I had thought they were genuine although I have no explanation of what the M marking signifies. The serial number on yours indicates 1952 manufacture. I had thought these did not have the usual Carl Zeiss Jena marking because of the copyright war going on between that company and Carl Zeiss Oberkochen. But your 1952 dating seems very early for this to happen so now I've got my doubts again...