Taylor Hobson Cooke 30" f16 process les

[Cletus]

Someone is liquidating a VERY large lot of vintage large and small format gear an there's a T.H. Cooke IX 30" and a few others that might be of interest in the lot. Couple Goerz Artars too (not Gold Dot though).

I know this isn't much to go on, but does anyone with better vintage glass chops than me think the Cooke process lens might be worth something? I'm not asking so I can buy it - you can look it up yourself on Fleebay - I'm just curious as to whether there's a precious gem getting ready to slip through the cracks here.

[Jody_S]

I don't know about the Cooke 30", but that's a pretty impressive collection of gear that he's selling. I have to wonder what happened to the photographer.

[Dan Fromm]

Cletus, you should have posted a link. Here's a link to everything he has up now: http://www.ebay.com/sch/sierrariders...&_trksid=p3686

The seller doesn't understand what he has. Example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/84-GOERZ-OPT...-/370852805535 , seems to be just the front element of a 3"/4.5 Biogon made by Goerz.

[DrTang]

Looking thru all that - - that's what my kids ebay seller page will look like after I croak

[Cletus]

Dan -

I thought about linking to this, but the mods scolded me last time I did that. Nevertheless, I was kinda hoping you might chime in with a comment here.

What's your opinion on the Biogon type lens you linked to?

What about the 30"/760mm Cooke? Wouldn't this be a dream ULF lens? Surely this would do for 8x20/12x20?

I have my sights on another of the lenses, but I'm hesitant to declare it here for fear of unfair competition!

[Cletus]

Last remark on the "Big Lot" - there's a Sinar Norma 4x5/5x7 kit in there, as well as a "Frankenstein" looking Sinar 8x10 - (and a large number of older LF cameras) going at low bids right now.

[Dan Fromm]

Cletus,

I dunno, I've never been chastised for posting a link to someone else's auction.

Half a 3"/4.5 Biogon is even more of a poisoned gift than both halves. Both halves are necessary, but as taken from an aerial camera's lens cone (Hycon made aerial cameras, bought lenses in) putting them in shutter will be very expensive.

I don't know enough about TTH Series IX lenses to have an opinion. The VM says:

Series 1X Process This seems to have been made in two versions and the first was not apochromatic, while
the second was apo and replaced it, perhaps over a period about 1930 when the first seems to have stopped
being listed. It is thought that both were dialyt type rather like the Aviar but slower and that these replaced an
early-20C symmetrical anastigmat and a triplet, but the details here are rather obscure as adverts for process
lenses were not too regular. Series 1X was not in a 1912 list.
Non-Apo Version. f8.0 9, 11, 13in; f10, 16, 18, 21, 25in; f16, 30, 36in.
Apo Version. f10, 13, 16, 18, 21, 25in; f16, 30, 36, 42, 48in.

A 760 that covers 8x20 covers 40 degrees. On 12x20, 43 degrees. If this catalog http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/cooke_2.html is right, the 30"/16 Ser. IX covers 34 degrees wide open. I have no idea how much coverage it will gain when stopped down a bit.

[Steven Tribe]

An exactly similar series IX Cooke Apo 30" was sold at auction in Copehagen along with lots of other items - but in nice shiney brass and the original process board of steel and mahogany.
I did find out the coverage - on the modern Cooke website? - and it was OK for 20x24" if I remember correctly. But Dan does seem to know what he is talking about. Not physically a very large lens.

[Dan Fromm]

Steven, the catalog I quoted claims 20" x 30" at 1:1. I divided by 2 to get coverage at infinity.

[Steven Tribe]

Yes, I remember the 20x30" now - and your reasoning seems very sensible for use outside genuine process use.