Chocolate Buns

Shortly after taking this photograph, this bun, and two of its companions, were consumed by a glutton operating a Canon EOS 40D camera with a Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens on an extension tube.

f/4; 1/90th; 1600 ISO.

Johannes Berger of Zeiss invented a 55mm f/1.4 Planar lens in 1957. But the design wasn't used for Zeiss lenses, because Erhard Glatzel invented a 50mm f/1.4 Planar lens, which was better. Berger's Planar, an asymmetrical double-Gauss scheme, similar to Nikon’s Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f/1.4 lens of 1961, was licensed to other manufacturers. Amongst these was Tomioka, a Japanese glass manufacturer.

Chinon, who made cameras but not lenses, went to Tomioka for a standard fast lens. They got the 55mm f/1.4 (there was also a 55mm f/1.2 supplied in smaller numbers).

In appearance, the 55mm f/1.4 closely resembles the more usual offering of a 55mm f/1.7 lens which came with Chinons of that period. Notably, the barrel is all-metal with a strip of thin leather glued on for a focussing grip. The standard of construction is good without equalling Leitz or Nikon quality. Because of the similarity in appearance, some suspect that the f/1.7 version was also a Tomioka product, but that is not proven, whereas the Tomioka involvement in the 1.4 55mm lens is pretty clear. Some of them even have the Tomioka name engraved at the front. Others are identical except for the absence of that information. The versions with the Tomioka name are appreciably more expensive to buy secondhand.