Question about adjustment scale on Conley 9-1/2-inch f/4.5 lens

[Paul Kinzer]

I bought this lens several months ago in order to adapt the Ilex #4 shutter for a different lens. But I ended up deciding to use a different shutter for that lens, and now plan to sell this one (maybe). While looking it over carefully, I noticed that it has an adjustment scale on the front cell. As you rotate it along the scale between numbers 0 and 5, the front of the cell moves out a tiny bit. If you look at the top of the photos I'm including, you can see that it does not move much, and the scale is pretty fine, as you must turn the quite a distance to go from 0 to 5.

I've owned folding cameras where the focusing is done by rotating the front lens, but on those cameras, the lens moved much more than this one does. Can anyone tell me more about this?

Here it is at the 0 setting. Notice that there is no spacing between the front of the front cell and the back of it:





Here it is at the 5 setting, and the two parts of the front cell have separated a bit:

[ottluuk]

Adjustable soft focus as described here: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...nfo-and-Images ?

A quick google brings up a couple of posts saying that Conley rebranded some of their lenses from Wollensak, so it might actually be exactly the same as a Velostigmat series II for practical purposes.

[Paul Kinzer]

Adjustable soft focus as described here: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...nfo-and-Images ?

A quick google brings up a couple of posts saying that Conley rebranded some of their lenses from Wollensak, so it might actually be exactly the same as a Velostigmat series II for practical purposes.

Fascinating! Thanks.

I had already read about the Conley/Wollensak connection, and wondered if this might be a re-branded Wollensak of some type. Someone in that thread wrote that the adjustment feature was abandoned in the 1920s or early 30s, but mine clearly looks coated, so that cannot be right.