Lens Specifications List

[Randy]

Perhaps this can be found somewhere...and if so, someone please direct me to it - but I sure could benefit from a concise list of lenses that outlines:

1 - Name of lens design (Tessar, Petzval, etc, etc)
2 - Includes a diagram of the lens formula
3 - Lens intended use (and perhaps suggestions of how it can be, or is being used effectively - close-ups, landscape, portrait, etc)
4 - Known focal length range (ex. 90mm - 350mm)
5 - Known manufacturer or marketer names (B&L, Kodak Ektar, SK Symmar, Xenar, Yamasaki Congo, etc)
6 - Perhaps years of manufacture

Probably more I could list, but these are what come to mind. I know there is probably a giant expensive book available, but I was wondering if anyone had compiled a list on the web that included some of the info from my list.

[Dan Fromm]

Short answer, ain't no such thing. A Lens Collectors Vade Mecum is as close as you'll get and it is incomplete and riddled with errors. You can also work through the many catalogs my list (download it from http://1drv.ms/1w0vbMD) points to. My list includes directions for buying the VM.

Self help is the only kind of help you can get. You're not asking for much, you're asking for a hell of a lot.

[StoneNYC]

There are often lists by brand of LF lenses, in particular modern lenses (Fijinkn, Schneider, Nikkor, Rodenstock) you can find other semi-modern brand info like Goerz and Docter Wetzer(spelling?) and ultra-high end old lenses like Voigtlander catalogue that's been digitalized.

But each one is separate, most aren't done BY the manufacturer although Schneider is pretty good at keeping full lists of their entire catalogue online.

Once you read a particular lens lines lens type like a Schneider Symmar-S you can google that lens and read up on what type of lens design it is (non-symmetric 6 elements in 4 groups) and a list of the entire line, like this...

https://www.schneideroptics.com/info...nses/symmar-s/

That's about the closest you'll get to a list.

IF on the other hand you want to MAKE a list of your research and then share it with the rest of us, that would be great

[jcoldslabs]

I don't know of any online resource that is as comprehensive and concise as what you are asking about. I second Dan's recommendation for the Lens Collector's Vade Mecum. While it is flawed in some respects, it has served me well over the years in helping to identify lenses by type (Petzval, rapid rectilinear, Tessar, plasmat, dialyte, triplet, etc.) and manufacturer. Being a PDF the search function is particularly useful. Once downloaded it's like a Web resource on your desktop. And you can't beat the price.

J.

[John Kasaian]

Kingslake's A History of the Photographic Lens, while not exactly what you're looking for it does cover whom made what, diagrams and even gives some examples. Used copies aren't hard to find---I got an ex-library for around $5 from Abe's, IIRC.

[IanG]

Dan's right "A Lens Collectors Vade Mecum" is the only comprehensive resource, the major problem is that it's not been updated since 2001 and since then much more information has become available via the internet.

It's easy to criticise it for it's flaws but the authors must have spent years collating the data and almost certainly expected to continue updating it. Much of the work must have been done before the arrival of the internet.

Could there be another newer resource ? Probably but who's going to do the groundwork, information would need to come from Primary sources and cited, not be lifted from the Vade Mecum. I'm lucky because I have quite a large number of British Journal Photographic Almanacs going back over 60 years and they serve me quite well as a resource for many aspects of photographic history, cameras, lenses, equipment, formulae etc, plus many other books.

You only need to look at Camera-wiki.org to see how slowly data builds up on a collective site, it's as Dan says "a hell of a lot" of work.

Ian

[Mark Sawyer]

Here's one that gives elements/groups, which lets you deduce to an extent:

http://www.graflex.org/lenses/lens-spec.html

[IanG]

Of course there's the pages on this website scroll down to lenses.

Ian

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

Hello from France

Another good starting point is Henri Gaud's lens list posted in 2012 to the French MF+LF photography forum
http://www.galerie-photo.org/n3-f2,138284.html

Nothing less than 764 lenses are listed from a 16 mm Zeiss Luminar to a 2400 mm Boyer Apo Saphir.

A typical entry in the list reads as follows

Schneider Angulon 90 mm F/6,8 F/45 CI 158 mm AC 81° 130 gr Format couvert entre : 6x8 cm & 4x5 inch

manufacturer / lens name / focal length / min aperture / image circle = CI at 1:10 magnification ratio / field angle = AC / weight / covered format (= format couvert ) at 1/10 magnification ratio

[Randy]

Thanks all. I guess the best place to start is with the links you have provided...and my own meager lens collection, and expand from there.