Fake canon 50mm Lenses

[Black Pearl]

Turns out there are a fair few fake canon 50mm f1.8 II lenses knocking about.

http://www.digitalrev.com/article/ma...-ii-isn-t-fake

[Cogito]

Thanks! Good job I don't have anything Canon.....

[LePetomane]

In some places the term, "copyright" means the right to copy.

[NorthernFocus]

I'm surprised anyone could tell the difference vs original Canon

[rpcrowe]

Thanks! Good job I don't have anything Canon.....

If it happens with Canon, you can probably be assured that it has or will happen with Nikon gear....

[miatab]

I have a very old Canon f2 85mm screw thread that has been marked with words to the effect that it was manufactured in Occupied Japan. It's heavy as lead. Maybe that one's fake?

[Manfred M]

I have a very old Canon f2 85mm screw thread that has been marked with words to the effect that it was manufactured in Occupied Japan. It's heavy as lead. Maybe that one's fake?

I suspect it pre-dates fakes. Old and heavy implies that it could be an early post-WW II lens (Canon started manufacturing lenses in 1939; prior to that they used lenses made by Nikon). Lenses of that era were still being made from brass rather than aluminum, so they were heavy. Likely they were designed for B&W photography did not have any anti-reflective coatings. Some of the early models were called "Serenar", copying the German lens maker's tradition of having names for lens models.

[Ken MT]

http://global.canon/en/c-museum/year...=lens&sort=old

[tao2]

I have a very old Canon f2 85mm screw thread that has been marked with words to the effect that it was manufactured in Occupied Japan. It's heavy as lead. Maybe that one's fake?

Hi Ken,

Does it say Serenar on the beauty ring? Without seeing a photo, ah reckon ye have a genuine model. Ah sold a Canon S-ll with a Serenar f3.5/50mm lens, several years ago - it bought me a mint, used Sony A700 body! That camera had "made in occupied Japan "on the baseplate. Canon cameras and lenses from around 1948 'til the early/mid-fifties all had MIOJ on them.

The lens you have is a rangefinder, all brass and chrome, hence the weight (though the Canon chrome was pretty poor in the earlier models). The camera bodies have hovered around the same price for years though the interest in rangefinder cameras over the past couple of years has seen the prices creeping up. The Canon Serenar lens range has shot up in price due tae mirrorless cameras and all sorts of adaptors now available. Your lens sells in the UK for around £100-150, depending on condition. If it's mint or near mint and yer looking tae sell it, ah'd look at the top price, or more, for it.

[kazuyar]

The problem is we all love a bargain, so there's a market for them, buying online is becoming more difficult as there seems to be counterfeit everything these days, fake memory cards seem to be abundant and then big companies like amazon that use market place sellers don't seem to be to bothered about who these market sellers are either.
i read where fake pharmaceuticals managed to find their way onto the shelves of big legitimate companies, now thats just dangerous
all you can do i suppose is use the old adage, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is

[miatab]

Yes, Boab, it is a Serenar. I bought it at auction to use with a Bessa 2A, and fitted it with a V'lander M adaptor. I have always loved "Leicalike" rangefinders, and thus the Bessa, which went down to AUS, later to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, a trip to the Grand Canyon, and a hike to the bottom and back up. It looks like it has just come off the camera shop shelf, but that's true of all my cameras and lenses. I doubt that the Bessa has seen 10 rolls of film in total. In contrast, my wife took her digital P&S and shot many hundreds of images. Back to the Canon and screw mounts. I brought a genuine 1V-S2 in mint condition to Canada in 1967 I had bought in 1960. It too had a Serenar , a 50mm f1.8, and I bought a 135 tele in a Vancouver camera store a week later. Also genuine, not fake. The Canon became an Olympus Pen F, and that became an OM-1, also genuine, taken to Germany and replaced with my Nikon F2SB, but not quite the end of my Canon fake/genuine story. Before I stopped using the Bessa and went back to digitals I bought on eBay a Canon 28 mm f2.8 lens, which predated the naming of names on Canon lenses, and I think before multi coating. It has a Canon dedicated 28mm viewfinder, and these I call my rare birds, but I think the time has come to open the cage door and liberate them, as I tidy up my stuff and make my wife's job a little more simple. Getting rid of genuine stuff on eBay is probably more difficult than auctioning fakes!