Can anyone recognize this lens ?

[KarlF]

It seems like a fast lens with a shutter.

These screen shots (attached) were taken from the documentary "What the bleep do we know. "

Any pointer as to what lens this is and where to find/buy it would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Karl

[Steven Tribe]

Not convinced this has a shutter. Perhaps a pneumatic connection to an internally mounted shutter. Looks like universal heliar handles? Coated post war, 42cm or bigger.
Just a guess.

[Two23]

I agree it looks coated, and a 420mm is a good guess. Also agree likely no shutter attached to lens.


Kent in SD

[William Whitaker]

No shutter? Looks like it's sitting in a Copal 3 to me.

[IanG]

No shutter? Looks like it's sitting in a Copal 3 to me.

With a cable release fitted :D

Ian

[Bryan Lemasters]

Yeah, something close to a Schneider Symmar 480mm mounted in a Copal 3 on a Sinar 8x10. Not a particularly fast lens.

[KarlF]

Hat-off for the consistency of responses. Thanks guys, you are great! I know where to start digging. I would take any suggestion other than the 480mm Symmar + copal 3.

[Sevo]

Given the coating colour, I agree with the Symmar-S MC. 480mm might be, but so might the 360mm.

[Oren Grad]

The front cell doesn't look nearly large enough to be a 480.

[Brian C. Miller]

I thought it has a similar size to a Fuji 360 f/6.3 or Nikkor 240. That's a black ring Copal 3, and the writing on the lens will be on the outside of the rim.

[Ole Tjugen]

On the second picture I think I see what could be the pneumatic retarder (nice phrase) of a big Compound shutter peeking out behind the lens - upper left side?

The lens doesn't look like an old convertible Symmar, and the Symmar-S and later didn't come in Compound shutters. Humm...

[Jim Galli]

Simply no way to tell from those pics. No reason it couldn't be an ordinary Rodenstock 360mm Sironar-N. Looks like a black Copal 3 with the release coming right out the side of the body. I say Rodenstock because them and the Fuji's tend to throw green back at you more than the Schneiders.

[rdenney]

Sinar lens boards are 140mm wide, and this lens looks to be about two-thirds of that, which is in the 90mm range.

The 240mm Symmar-S has an 86mm filter thread, and the 300 has a 105mm filter thread. I'm thinking the former is more likely. The Symmar Convertible is smaller across the front, with the 300 using an 86mm filter thread.

The lens loooks multicoated, with the green and pink reflection, so I would think at least a Symmar-S or similar Rodenstock, probably 240mm f/5.6.

Edit: Seeing Jim's response, I checked--the Sironar-S 240/5.6 also uses an 86mm filter. Both use a 90mm push-on cap.

Rick "it just looks big" Denney

[Steven Tribe]

I was misled by the tiny female (?) hand!

[Thebes]

Looks to me like a 360 plasmat of some kind.

[KarlF]

Question to all those who say that there is a copal 3. How come we cannot see it in any of the pictures ?

[Leonard Robertson]

Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-azcMJ5JS4
At about 6:50 you can see the the vid of this, if it helps any.

Len

[Thebes]

The huge front lens cell is mostly obscuring the shutter.

It looks to me like the lens hourglasses in as it meets the shutter, that there is a rim consistent with the outside edge of a copal 3. There are levers consistent with a copal 3, but most of the shutter body is hidden from view by the large front cell. There is very clearly a release cable coming out of the bottom right. There is very clearly a lever with a red dot on it just above the release cable and one with a black dot on it opposite on the top left side of the shutter. There is also a small lever just left of the shutter release.

Since the camera is a Sinar I'd guess the lens is a 360mm Sinar labeled Sironar. It looks too big to be a 240 or 300 and too small to be a 480. Its a common enough arrangement it could likely have been rented from the same house as the film crew's gear.

[rdenney]

The huge front lens cell is mostly obscuring the shutter.

It looks to me like the lens hourglasses in as it meets the shutter, that there is a rim consistent with the outside edge of a copal 3. There are levers consistent with a copal 3, but most of the shutter body is hidden from view by the large front cell. There is very clearly a release cable coming out of the bottom right. There is very clearly a lever with a red dot on it just above the release cable and one with a black dot on it opposite on the top left side of the shutter. There is also a small lever just left of the shutter release.

Since the camera is a Sinar I'd guess the lens is a 360mm Sinar labeled Sironar. It looks too big to be a 240 or 300 and too small to be a 480. Its a common enough arrangement it could likely have been rented from the same house as the film crew's gear.

And the cable release prevents the possibility of a DB mount.

Don't compare to the hand. Compare to the lens board. Sinar lens boards are 140mm wide. A Sironar-S 360 is 117mm wide across the front. An older Symmar-S 360 is wider than that--over 120mm (it takes 120mm filters). That Sironar would consume 85% of the wide of the board, and leave slivers 11mm wide on either side. Clearly, this lens does not consume nearly this much width. Were this a Cambo lens board, I might agree with you.

If it was a Symmar Convertible, it might be possible within the fuzz of the video frame--it used a 105mm filter. But I don't think those ever came multicoated and in an all-black Copal shutter, as this lens clearly is. And we'd get a hint of the label ring.

Comparing it to the lens board, I think that lens is closer to 90mm wide.

Rick "not that it matters" Denney

[Steven Tribe]

Doesn't the female hand belong to "your" Annie - long, long ago? But there are number of women who look like that.

[Frank_E]

wonderful thread

20 posts and everyone is commenting on the lens
unless I missed it not one comment on the content of the documentary....(the content is quite provocative)

tells a story about where our interest lie (no critism intended, just an observation on human nature....)

[Sevo]

wonderful thread

20 posts and everyone is commenting on the lens
unless I missed it not one comment on the content of the documentary....(the content is quite provocative)


That "documentary" (or rather promotional video for an odd esoteric sect) is rather old news (mid 2000'ish), and has long been appropriately ridiculed and parodied to death...

[Jim Galli]

wonderful thread

20 posts and everyone is commenting on the lens
unless I missed it not one comment on the content of the documentary....

Read the OP

[KarlF]

You are the absolute best there is ! Thank you so much for the analysis !!!!! With the knowledge out there, we will get tot he bottom of this.

Here is one more image as an element of comparison for size. The head is more reliable than the hand.

[Armin Seeholzer]

I vote also for a 240mm like Rick or maybe it could be a 300mm but not a 360 in my opinion!

[Sevo]

Agreed, that is quite the size of my 240mm Sironar - other Plasmat type builds might be one step up or down and still share that diameter, but it won't be a 360mm.