70 Inch Goerz APO Artar

[Bernice Loui]

Some images of a Goerz 70 inch APO Artar send to me from a friend some time ago..














Largest Goerz Red Dot Artar that passed my way was a 47 inch. This lens came out of a HUGE process camera in Silly Valley that did work for Lockheed and many others. The copy board was maybe 15 ft x 15 ft+, length of this process camera ran the length of the building about 50 ft and the vacuum film holder about 10 ft x 10+ ft. Typical copy was tape ups or paste ups of integrated circuit mask which was made many times large than the require size. This was the first step in reduction towards making a photo mask in semiconductor fab.

This shop closed down some time during the late 1990's after this type of work went digital. I knew the owner well from working with them. He sold me all the lenses from the process cameras they had. Sadly all these process cameras were scrapped.


Bernice

[StoneNYC]

Wow!

What do you shoot with it??!!

[Dan Fromm]

Oh, my. Bernice, you just surprised me. A lot. I never expected pornography from you.

[Andrew Plume]

yes

terrific

thanks for posting this a rare beast too

regards

andrew

[Amedeus]

Very nice ... drool ... Just what I need ...

[NancyP]

Yow! 1778mm lens - call it a telescope!

[Mark Sampson]

too bad we're not likely to see any pictures made with it. Telephoto views on 20x24? a la Andreas Feininger? they'd be spectacular if you could get it to work.

[StoneNYC]

too bad we're not likely to see any pictures made with it. Telephoto views on 20x24? a la Andreas Feininger? they'd be spectacular if you could get it to work.

I'm not sure I follow, why wouldn't you be able to see any pictures made with them? I would make one just because I could if I had that lens...

[Mark Sampson]

My point was that these lenses are rare, and that they are rarely used to make photographs. (I'm not counting the graphic-arts copying use they were designed for.) Few people have a camera with enough bellows to focus an 1800mm lens, and fewer have an actual pictorial application for it. Not to mention the formidable technical and logistic issues involved with using such a setup in the field. I admire the work of Douglas Busch, and especially the work of the late Reinhart Wolf, who used lenses of up to 1200mm, but I can't recall seeing any recent work using optics of this sort. Although I'd certainly like to!

[Amedeus]

These lenses are rare, yes and I'm sure there will be a few that are gathering dust but I do know a few photographers that use 70" or 1800mm lenses to make real photographs/art, not just process camera work.

I for one am looking for either Nikkor 1800mm APO, Rodenstock Ronar 1800mm or Goerz Artar 70". To make pictorial work, regardless of the challenges. As for bellow draw, I have up to 13 feet available between lens and film plane. Enough for 1:1 work ;-)

ymmv.