Good find today

[Ian Grant]

I've just bought a TT&H Cooke 16" f8 Rapid Rectilinear lens which is marked 12x10 but covers more, the seller wanted £100, I offered £60, so we agreed on £80, then he said I could have the other large dirty lens for £30. On getting home, I cleaned the optics which are excellent on both lenses, the dirty lens turns out to be worth rather more than I imagined. Turns out it's an early J.H.Dallmeyer 9" f4 Portrait Petzval so a great find. The lens hood need a bit of straightening.



Both lenses are mounted on identical sized lens boards, they are about an 1/8th of an inch larger than the one that fits my 12"x10" camera, so rather than make new boards I'll file them down to fit. I already have an adapter board to allow me to fit the 20" f8 RR fitted to my 12"x10" camera on my 10x8 Agfa Ansco cameras. So I will be able to use these as well.


So definitely my oldest lens so far

So I may sell my other 8" Petzval . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ian

 

[Monsta]

Thats a wonderful find!

 

[Ian Grant]

Thanks Monsta, the Dallmeyer Petzval came with one Waterhouse stop, so I'll have to make a complete set. I have spare front mounting TP shutters that will fit the lens.

Ian

 

[Ian Grant]

It's all in the name:



Cleaned and ready for re-blacking internally, re-lacquering, then reassembly. The lens hood needs to be straightened and a minor repair by a brass worker, a friend has offered to do it for me.



The 7772 Serial number indicates early 1860s, probably 1865

Ian

 

[thronobulax]

What? No autofocus!!!

 

[Ian Grant]

What? No autofocus!!!

Irony . . . . I spoke to someone yesterday for advice on dis-assembly. He'd worked for very high-end lens manufacturers, and at his last company before retiring they re-barrelled old lenses with automated aperture and focus control. They list Petzvals . . . . . . .

Kubrick had older Cooke Panchro Speed lenses re-barrelled/converted for Barry Lyndon.

Ian

 

[Ian Grant]

Made a lens board for the Dallmeyer Rapid/Quick Acting Portrait Petzval today, this fits my 12"x10" camera and more importantly an adapter board for my 10"x8" Agfa Ansco cameras. It'll take a couple of days to finish, but I've had the lens on a camera, and it's actually closer to 8" FL, but as it's f4 it's easy to focus. It will cover Half plate/7"x5" but no larger, the best results are with 5"x4".

What surprised me is it doesn't have the typical Petzval swirly spherical abberation, it's very different to my other 8" Petzval, it's probably why variations of it were made for well over 5 decades.

Next job is to adapt a (Kodak ?) 10x8 to Half plate conversion back to fit the Agfa Anco cameras, I need to get a friend to make the missing springs and fixings for the GG focus screen.

The 16" TT&H RR lens fits the same flange as my unbranded 20" RR, But I'm altering its lens board to fit. Next to match to some shutters.

Ian