Bausch & Lomb Portrait Unar with missing rear element

[seven]

hello all,

some time ago i bought a B&L Portrait Unar on ebay. As it happens sometimes i received not exactly a lens - it was missing the rear element. It was too heavy to ship it back across the world, seller did some refund and i have an expensive paperweight.
Anyway, now exactly the same type of lens appears on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110406448605&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&salenotsupported), again missing it's rear element (this time it is writen in the description, a honest seller).
So, my question is - do you have any idea what did they use those rear elements for ? Or is it just coincidence ?
Anybody with the same problem ? Anybody with an Unar rear element he doesn't need ? ;)

br,
rado

[eddie]

hey rado,

sorry about your one element lens.....i have also learned to ask if there is glass on both ends.......sorry to hear that.

i can not answer your question. but my experience with the unars has been that usually the soft focus is broken. there is a rod or something inside them that breaks leaving the SF useless. does yours work? maybe my friend wants to buy your barrel....what is the FL.

anyway for anybody buying a unar make sure they have all the glass and be sure to ask if the SF and the aperture is working......

eddie

[seven]

hi eddie,
yeah, i learned that lesson too ;)
neither SF or aperture are working on mine :(

br,
rado

[Mark Sawyer]

So, my question is - do you have any idea what did they use those rear elements for ? Or is it just coincidence ?


I have an 18" Portrait Unar, and just checked the back element assembly by itself. It is a nice soft focus lens, but doesn't seem to change focal length by much when you lose the front element, which seems to be a weak modifier. (The Portrait Plastigmat is similar in that respect; the rear element does most of the work and the front is a slight "modifier", but it lacks the movable internal element that the Portrait Unar has.)

My 18" Portrait Unar is missing half a dozen aperture blades, the focusing wheel underneath, and the little attachments that screw on from the outside to adjust the sf and aperture. Anybody selling a parts lens for an 18"?

[Jim Galli]

My 14" Portrait Unar is missing the aperture. Doesn't speak too well for Bausch & Lomb does it. These things all seem to be a 3 legged dog.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

the problems here are:

the rear group makes a fine SF lens by itself,
the SF Unars have a much larger diameter than the standard Unars so parts do not interchange,
when you send out the LGM in the wayback machine, it's better to pay them more than union scale, they work harder :D ;)

[seven]

that explains the situation. there are some loose rear elements that were used as SF lenses. hopefully one will appear for sale someday.
thanks to all of you for your input.

[alec4444]

I have one of these that I got from Camera Eccentric via an eBay auction. Everything was there, but the soft focus knob was no longer attached to the lens. Thankfully they were honest about it and I got the lens for a good price. What I did not expect was the rather hefty cost of having the soft focus knob reattached. That was another $300, though I can say that the people that did it are awesome (Nippon Photo Clinic in NYC) and I expect to have no further problems. Wiped away any "good deal" I got though. Engravings for the aperture and soft focus are also a bit weak. Haven't tried it yes as I need a solution for the lens board....

--A


http://www.alec.com/photos/Portrait_Unar.jpg