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Cosinon M42 Lenses

Cosina Company, Ltd.or Kabushiki-gaisha Koshina) is a Japanese camera and lens manufactuer. The company was founded by Mr. B. Kobayashi in 1959 as a lens factory under the name Nikō (or Nikoh). Though the company has produced cameras and lenses under its own name, it is better known for making equipment for resale under other company's brand names. Cosina has manufactured camera bodies for many well-known camera brands, including Canon, Contax, Nikon, Revue, Olympus, Vivitar, and Yashica. Cosina also manufactures the modern Voigtländer Bessa line of cameras and optics, along with the newly revived Zeiss Ikon rangefinder camera and lenses.

Cosina has a long history of manufacturing optical glass and is currently capable of producing glass and plastic aspheric lenses. Their factory maintains a glass furance that is heated to 1300 C, running 24 hours a day. All glass produced by Cosina today is lead-free eco-glass. Their current glass polishing technology is able to achieve sub-micron precision. They also have vacuum-deposition optical coating capabilities that are certified to meet Carl Zeiss lens standards.[1]

In Germany, a lot of Cosina cameras and lenses were marketed by Photo Porst, for many years Germany's biggest photo retailer and mailorder house under their house brand name Porst.

One of Cosina's more interesting camera designs was the E1 Solar, introduced in 1994. The E1, a 35mm film SLR, is powered by rechargeable batteries charged by a small solar panel atop the camera prism housing.

A recent Cosina-branded product was the SW-107, identical to the (silver) Bessa L except for a different top plate, made at the beginning of the Cosina Voigtländer era for areas where Cosina was not authorized to market the Voigtländer trademark. The 107 is hard to find now.

In 2005 Zeiss and Cosina announced a partnership whereby Cosina would manufacture the new Zeiss Ikon RF camera and most of the accompanying M mount lenses.

Cosinon 35mm F2.8

A quality lens from a well known Japanese manufacturer. This lens is nice and sharp even wide open and no evidence of any chroma, even @ F2.8. An all metal lens built to last a lifetime. We were really very impressed with the optical qualities of this lens.

F2.8 1/1600th

F5.6 1/800th

F8 1/320th

F11 1/160th

Cosinon 50mm F1.8

Another quality lens from a well known Japanese manufacturer. This lens is nice and sharp even wide open and no evidence of any chroma, even @ F1.8. An all metal lens built to last a lifetime. We were really very impressed with the optical qualities of this lens.

F1.8 1/160th

F2.8 1/160th

F5.6 1/100th

F1.8 1/200th

F1.8 1/160th

F2.8 1/160th

F5.6 1/100th

F8 1/50th

F1.8 1/5000th

F1.8 1/5000th

F2.8 1/2500th

F2.8 1/2500th

F5.6 1/1250th

F5.6 1/1000th

F8 1/640th

F8 1/640th

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