Canon's early Serenar portrait tele — 85mm f/1.9 in Leica Thread Mount, manual focus.
The Canon Serenar 85mm f/1.9 is a fast short-telephoto rangefinder lens made in Japan for the 39mm Leica screw thread. It dates from the late-1940s Serenar period of Canon's rangefinder line, when the company was building fast portrait-length optics. It gave Leica-thread and Canon rangefinder users a bright 85mm for portraits and low light.
This is a manual-focus, rangefinder-coupled Leica Thread Mount lens with an 85mm focal length and a maximum aperture of f/1.9. The mount is the 39mm Leica screw thread (LTM / L39 / M39). Focus and aperture are set on the barrel by hand. Element count, weight and filter thread are not restated here because they are not verified from the gap data.
The 85mm focal length is a natural portrait lens on rangefinders, and at f/1.9 it isolates subjects against soft backgrounds. Fast short teles of this early era tend to render smoothly and with gentle contrast wide open, sharpening as they are stopped down. It suits portraits, candid street work at a distance and low-light shooting.
On the used market, inspect these early Serenar teles for haze, fungus and balsam separation in the cemented groups. Check the coatings for cleaning marks and wear, look for oily aperture blades, and confirm the focus helicoid is smooth. Test rangefinder-coupling accuracy on a body, which is important at 85mm. It adapts well to Leica M via M39-to-M and to mirrorless with M39-to-E, M39-to-Z or M39-to-RF adapters.