Show us your lens or lenses

Bit of a grab shot but ...

14" f/9 Red Dot Artar and a 19" f/11 APO Artar. Both started life as process lenses and I subsequently had shutters added. Both are deadly sharp, but the 19" is a bit much for my 5x4 Wisner field camera. Although the camera will focus the lens, the long extension of the bellows creates a rather large cross sectional area for the wind to push upon. So long exposures on windy days are kind of off the table with that lens...
 

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thronobulax said:
Well, I went and bought a 203mm f/7.7 Ektar I didn't need ... I mean, I had to get it you understand, but I didn't actually need it.
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So you have a 203 surplus to requirements..? This could be your lucky day as I have the cash waiting! ;)

Richard
 
Richard Lee said:
So you have a 203 surplus to requirements..? This could be your lucky day as I have the cash waiting! ;)

Richard
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Sadly, it will be the only one of its kind in my stable of glass. I may, however end up with an extra 240mm f/5.6 Sironar. The problem is that I live in the US, and conquering import taxes, VAT and the like to the UK is daunting from what I can see.
 
thronobulax said:
...conquering import taxes, VAT and the like to the UK is daunting from what I can see.
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Yikes! I don't know why I thought you were UK based. Definitely losing the plot. Back to the drawing board I reckon.

Richard
 
I've shared this one here before, in it's own thread, but it does fit with the thread & it's the only one of my unusual LF lenses I have a shot of to hand.
My 150mm f/1.2
A challenging lens by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr
and here's another shot of the rear of the lens before mounting, alongside one of my smaller lenses (a cine lens so no good for LF):
unmounted combo small.jpg
I'll have to try & get round to snapping a few of the others as well as actually using them!
 
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David Lindquist said:
I'm a bit surprised at its poor performance wide open, though I suppose one persons "beer bottle" may be another persons "a bit soft in the corners but I always stop down anyway". I've accumulated a few Tessars over the years. Under a focussing loupe they look sharp wide open but I've never taken a photo that way.

Per Hartmut Thiele's Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II Carl Zeiss Jena, s/n 1171955 was one of a batch of 5000, serial numbers 1171001-1176000. These were made for the Icarette camera, production started 27 March 1930.
David
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After I read this thread, I resolved to give that old Jena of mine a serious run through. I hereby revoke my utterly wrong comments about its properties wide open. I just printed an 8x10 taken with the lens wide open at f/4.5. Whilst there is understandably no depth-of-field, the point of focus is, indeed, razor sharp.

I suspect my initial reaction to the lens was that I shot it into some bright light and it flared pretty badly - hardly shocking for an uncoated optic - and never bothered to test further.

Thank you for putting me on the path to enlightenment here. The camera - 100+ years old as it may be - has a place in my stable of shooters now!
 
I've had this lens for a few years and had planned to use it on my 18x24cm Reisekamera, however I had not appreciated it's focal length which is 25 inches, and the camera only has double extension of around 24" so . . . . . . . .

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It is a 25" f10 Bausch & Lomb Process Anastigmat, it is a heavy lens 800g, despite being quite compact 3.25" long, 2.63" in diameter. Despite signs of a lot of use the optics are in perfect condition and the aperture ring smoooth. I need to mount it on a lens board and use it with my10x8 Agfa Ansco Commercial View which is triple extension to 37½".

It is approx 100 years old, they sold for $280 in the 1920s.

Ian
 
A beautiful example of a fine photographic optic from the second decade of the 20th century. I like the way they did the index mark on the aperture ring, easy to read and no parallax error. For what it's worth, an online inflation calculator shows that $280 US in 1925 would be $4922 in today's dollars.

David
 
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Bausch & Lomb had quite long fruitful relationship with Carl Zeiss, unlike other companies like Ross, this continued after WW1, but then B&L were one of the partners in Deckel (Comound and Compur shutters) along with Alfred Gauthier (Ibsor, Prontor) alongside Zeiss.

B&L made Compur and Compound shutters in the US, but I think aside from their own use the only other company they supplied was Goerz AM. Opt.

This 25" Process lens is a beautifully made lens, as you note :D On a 10x8 camera an f10 lens is easy to focus, I have an f14 Ross EWA, Air Ministry markings which is surpringly easy to focus, it is actually a Zeiss Protar design, but Ross stopped paying Royalties to Zeiss after the outbreak of WW1, and were given the brand new 11913 Carl Zeiss Mill Hill (London) factory,

Ian
 
Another US lens, this one came with my 10x8 Agfa ansco Commercial View, the original owner a student and later lecturer at the Clarence White School of Photography bought the best camera and lens then vavilable made in the US. The second owner said the lens was useless, he'd used a 300mm 9 Nikkor M instead :D

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A 1940 12" f6.8 C.P.Goerz Am. Opt. Dagor in a Compound 3 shutter, the lens was coated post WWII in excelent condition, the slow shutter speeds were erratic, it just needed the piston cleaned and re-lubricated. This may have been why the second owner never used it.

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Probably a 1 second exposure, f22, Fortepan 200, Pyrocat HD.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
Another US lens, this one came with my 10x8 Agfa ansco Commercial View, the original owner a student and later lecturer at the Clarence White School of Photography bought the best camera and lens then vavilable made in the US. The second owner said the lens was useless, he'd used a 300mm 9 Nikkor M instead :D

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A 1940 12" f6.8 C.P.Goerz Am. Opt. Dagor in a Compound 3 shutter, the lens was coated post WWII in excelent condition, the slow shutter speeds were erratic, it just needed the piston cleaned and re-lubricated. This may have been why the second owner never used it.

View attachment 4121

Probably a 1 second exposure, f22, Fortepan 200, Pyrocat HD.

Ian
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That's a great picture. Makes me long to return to the UK For a visit.

I have two Goerz Artars and they are fine performers.
 
24 inch F6.3 Ross EMI Lens (used for aerial reconnaissance). The 5x4 neg is shown for scale. Weighs 8Kg.
 
Coverage must be huge, I know my B&L 25" f10 Anastigmat covers 20x16 at Infinity, that Ross will be a touch less, probably 15x12.

I have an ex-Air Ministry Ross 5" 4Wide angle E.M.I. lens, I was surprised to find the designation means Extra MarginalIllumination, which essentially means it has less fall off of illumination ath the dges and corners, to do this Ross used larger than usual diameter front elements.

Often lens that use this principal particulatly older EWA's (Etreme Wide Angles) may open wider for focussing than their widest marked taking aperture.

What camera will you use it on ? Would make a wonderful Big Bertha camera attached to a 5x4 reflex camera or a Speed Graphic :D

Ian
 
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