antique large format lenses

[John Kasaian]

Where to start?
Start by clicking on The LF Home Page on the blue banner at the top of this page and follow the links to 5x7 lens reviews---there are plenty of reviews covering both classic and modern glass to look at.

[altb44]

Another dumb question...can you use magic lantern lenses on a camera?

I may seem rather obsessed with antique lenses...well yes I am. I'm in the middle of an art project and I would like to use some late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century lenses on my camera for it. Have a Lens with a Unicum shutter and would like to see if I can get one or two more.

[Pete Oakley]

Yes you can use magic lantern lenses on LF cameras but be careful. Just because it looks to be a big lens does not always mean that it will cover 4x5 let alone 5x7. I have a largish ML lens that won't cover 4x5 and a smaller ML lens that will.
Pete.

[Steven Tribe]

Early magic lantern lenses are usually Petzvals, but later ones are often the Cooke triplet design. Neither cover anywhere near as much as RRs/aplanats and most anstigmatics do in relation to focal lengths and "bulk"! It could be thought that lenses made for projection are less well made and inspected by the makers, but I have never heard conplaints about imaging.

Unicum shutters are not the most reliable of early shutters. They have problems with the brittle synthetic blades and irises - at least, the ones I have do!

[Dan Fromm]

Another dumb question...can you use magic lantern lenses on a camera?

I may seem rather obsessed with antique lenses...well yes I am. I'm in the middle of an art project and I would like to use some late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century lenses on my camera for it. Have a Lens with a Unicum shutter and would like to see if I can get one or two more.

Yes, people use magic lantern lenses on cameras. Adaptation is a pain and they're no better, often worse, than contemporary lenses made for taking.

Eighteenth century? Photography was invented in the mid-1830s. No photographic objectives were made before then. Telescope, spectacle (eyeglass) and microscope lenses in the 18th century, yes. Lenses for cameras, no, because there were no cameras.

Unicum shutter? 1897. By that time modern lenses (anastigmats) were in production.

There's nothing particularly magic about old lenses. If you want the old-timey look, whatever that means to you, well, its due to a combination of poor exposure when the negatives were taken and faded old prints. Look into paper and processing, not lenses, if you want to get it.

[altb44]

Oops not thinking when I wrote that about the eighteenth century.


Well thanks for the comment about magic lantern lenses. I saw one for sale that is attached to a projector...I guess and I was wondering if it would be ok.

[altb44]

Hi Dan,

I'm aware that there is nothing magic about old lenses. I have a variety of lenses right up to the 2000's at least for my MF and 35mm cameras. I'm actually not going for an "old timey" look as you write, but rather something else and I want to explore what very old lenses can give. Isn't that enought?

It's an artistic decision.

[Dan Fromm]

OP, years ago one of my friends acquired a meterless Nikon F and asked me how to use it. I explained the need for an exposure meter, or at least knowledge of Sunny 16, and that she had to learn technique, i.e., what the camera's controls did. To which she replied that she was an artist and had no need for technique. She went out in the woods, twiddled her cameras' dials artistically and got the predicted terrible results. Eventually she learned to control the process and now realizes her artistic vision -- she's a better artist than I am -- very well.

You're not that much of a beginner but you're as deluded. Lenses' attributes, angle of view excepted, have very little to do with art. Old lenses old give the same results as new.

However, you say you know what you want to accomplish and you're using your resources, not mine. So go do what pleases you and be happy. Experiment with lenses. Have fun.

[altb44]

oh my. Since you don't know my background I won't argue.

enough said.

[John Kasaian]

altb44,
Old lenses are fun if you can find them cheap enough. I have a few, in fact I have an old 13" Cooke Anastigmat---I don't remember the series off hand--- mounted in a Betax shutter. It came aboard a 5x7 Agfa. Nice Bokeh. A worthy choice for a 5x7 IMHO.
No, it's not for sale.

A fellow who posts here mounts Meniscus lenses in barrels---I'm sure someone will chime in with his name---not "antique" but the Meniscus is a very early "antique" design. You might enjoy trying one out!

Another resource would be to find a copy of Kingslake's History of Photographic Lens which gives photographic examples of a few Historic lens formulas with character.

Still another resource is the Vade Mecum (sp??) a digital resource covering old lenses cataloging things like formats covered, etc...
I don't have one and wouldn't know where to find it, but several members on the forum have access. Perhaps they can tell you more.

Good luck!