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View Full Version : Wollensak 9" F5.6 Raptar Copy Lens? OK for field use?



Doug_3727
1-Feb-2004, 15:27
Saw this lens on ebay with hardly a bid and was curious about it. I had to assume you couldn't use this in the field but well, better ask.

As usual I appreciate the wisdom of your knowledge. Thanks,

Ernest Purdum
1-Feb-2004, 17:31
Doug, arer you sure the aperture is f5.6? All I've seen have been f4.5. I took a look at eBay after seeing your thread and didn't find an f5.6 there.



The f4.5 ones I've seen appear to be highly asymmetrical, which usually means they are rather intolerant of being used outside the range for which they were designed.

Dan Fromm
1-Feb-2004, 18:35
Ernest, I think I found it. Look at this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2983455977&category=30077

Its bulbous front element makes me think a little of my Konica Hexanon GRIIs. FWIW, the 210/9 GRII is symmetrical, 6/6, and quite good at normal instances, but this thing is more likely to be a plasmat..

If you're referring to tessar-type copy lenses, I share your doubts about using them outside the range for which they're designed. But and however, people keep reporting that tessar-type f/9 Apo-Nikkors do very well at infinity. And I've recently gone crazy and bought a couple of f/9 TTH tessar-type copy lenses (not at all like the roughly symmetrical 8/4 ones that G.H. Cook patented) largely on the strength of comments in the Vade Mecum that they're very good at all distances. We'll see.

Doug, the lens is in barrel. If you have a camera with a focal plane shutter or a big leaf shutter you can easily hang it in front of, why not risk $20? That's not a lot to gamble on what might be a nice sleeper, and if you bid low someone else might rescue you from your folly. On the other hand, I wouldn't accept it as a gift if I had to pay to have it put in shutter before I could find out whether it worked well enough. It looks big, so odds are putting it in any shutter will require machining.

Cheers,

Dan

Ernest Purdum
1-Feb-2004, 20:02
Dan, thanks for locating it. Doug, this one looks like a symmetrical type which would be much more likely to be acceptable at longer distances than what I first had in mind. I echo Dan's thought that if you can get it at the right price you might find you had something worthwhile. I don't think you need a shutter just to try it out, though. Slow film, early morning or evening light and a lenscap should do for testing purposes, leaving the matter of a shutter until you were more sure of what you had.



There seem to be a lot more Wollensak lenses than information sources on Wollensak lenses.