Dallmeyer 3B

**Mark Sawyer** · 25-Sep-2018, 19:09

Originally Posted by Two23

No. The elements need to be screwed firmly together. You focus by moving the bellows, i.e. the whole lens moves.

But the soft focus involves some unscrewing.

**karl french** · 25-Sep-2018, 19:14

Ah, that spot is where the missing pinon for the rack & pinon focus would be. It seems to be quite common for these parts to be missing. Gone on my example as well. As already mentioned, just about everyone is focusing with the camera rather than the lens these days.

Waterhouse stops are pretty easy to make with some black card stock & circle cutter.

**blue4130** · 25-Sep-2018, 21:52

Everyone is giving you some advanced advice. Since you are new to large format, I highly recommend finding someone local to you with experience. It will make things go much smoother. Not to say you can't do it solo, but with a shutterless and apertureless lens (and no camera) its an uphill battle.

**Steven Tribe** · 26-Sep-2018, 00:52

The red ring area in the first photo is where a tangential drive used to be fixed with 4 screws in the outer sleeve. This matched a gear train in the lens barrel (perhaps not visible at the moment. Focussing was achieved by moving the barrel in relation to the "fixed" outer sleeve and flange.
The are signs that this lens has had a later use as a projection lens on some kind of magic lantern. It is now time to do a bit of unscrewing to check the condition and completeness of the two lens cells!