1909 seems about right in light of the serial number
The number preceding the 09 are most likely the focal length numbers for the individual elements, easy to verify.
Cheers,
Rudi A.
1909 seems about right in light of the serial number
The number preceding the 09 are most likely the focal length numbers for the individual elements, easy to verify.
Cheers,
Rudi A.
Yes! Hermagis used the last two digits - both in the 19th and 20th centuries.
It matches well with the known matches of serial numbers and dates of production.
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ermagis+serial
Looking to Jaytral's chart I was wondering what the size "carte-album" would be. After more than one hour on books I have in paper or digital and on the web I found in Fabre T3 that carte-album is 10 x 14 cm. Meanwhile I found also that the carte-boudoir is 6.5 x 8.5" and cabinet means 5x8" (those I found in an advertising in Philadelphia Photographer 1884). Carte-de-Visite is an easy one: 54x89 mm, found on Wikipedia. Does anybody know a good summary/history of those formats? It would be nice to have it condensed somewhere.
More about the carte-album format: I found an interesting book with good descriptions of the most important photographic studios in Europe (from 1882).
It says that the "cabinet" format was introduced in London and became later the "carte-album" in other countries:
"But the Window and Grove establishment has other claims upon history. The cabinet portrait was born here. Mr. Window was the first to suggest and press upon the attention of the public this familiar style, which has not only become popular in this country, but as the "carte album" is in favour throughout the Continent and in America".
But 10x14 cm (Fabre) does not match 5x8" (in Philadelphia Photographer ad - 1884) that would be 12.7 x 20.32 cm (?) I think Fabre wouldn't be wrong about carte-album. I need to confirm the cabinet format somewhere else. Wikipedia says cabinet card is: 108 by 165 mm ( 4 1⁄4 by 6 1⁄2 inches). Any other clue?
This is a link to download it: https://archive.org/details/studiosofeurope00prit
Originally Posted by lungovw
Have you measured the focal length of this lens ?
Cheers,
No, I took for granted what is written on that catalogue (posted above) mentioning that the portrait Nº 5 should be 310 mm. Do you think it could be otherwise?
I have quite a few lenses that do not follow catalog. There were often "specials" ... some are clearly labeled like a #5 and a 5A or even 5B but some are not labeled at all. That's why I always measure.
Reason in particular to ask for your lens is that you have in total 4 numbers on your lenses. If I feed those into my calculator assuming that these relate to the focal length of the individual lens elements, then I arrive at a shorter focal length and a lower f # of course.
Just double checking. Either my assumption is right or it's wrong and then the 4 numbers are unrelated to focal length.
Thanks for the support.
Cheers,
Rudi, good point. I will check it out and let you know. I am still working on a camera to fit this lens. Cheers
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks