Tidbit: Kodak Ektar Lenses

[Sevo]

I also ask because as far as I can tell the idea that only coated lenses are suitable for shooting color is another canard launched by marketers. Voigtlaender's, to be exact. There's a reason why all those nice pre-WWII Voigtlaender folders had built-in yellow filters; their lenses weren't well corrected for color, were acceptably sharp only with monochromatic light. After the war, when it became clear that color film wasn't going to go away Voigtlaender redesigned their lenses to improve color corrections and began coating. The two changes happened synchronously but independently, if you see what I mean, and the marketers conflated them.

Sounds nice - however I have never noticed worse colour rendition or chromatic aberration from pre war Heliars and Skopars compared to their "Color" brethren, which does not suggest a redesign.

I think it is more likely that the higher contrast on coated lenses was considered to be of particular relevance for colour work, given that the then common film types (even more so in Germany, where Agfacolor was dominant) already had very low colour contrast, and that any loss of contrast could not be compensated in printing like in b/w.

[Clarence Rhymer]

Hello Paul,

Kodak Process Ektar Lens
18 inch f/10 APOCHROMATIC ETxxx (1949)

Do you still have this lens? I have one, but am unsure about which way round the biconvex cells and the cemented triplets go (the lens is disassembled). I haven't checked if the biconvex elements have the same radius on both sides, so maybe they could go in either way. The cemented triplets appear to have one end element thicker/thinner. I am aware that the biconvex elements go at each end with an airspace next, then the triplets. I just don't want to get the groups in the wrong way round.

I couldn't find it in the vade mecum or on www.dioptrique.info but I miss a lot.

Thank you.

Cheers,
Clarence

[Lynn Jones]

At Kodak, the term "Ektar" was a quality standard in any given lens type. These included resolution, contrast, common abberations, color quality, etc. Some were tessar type, some of the best were heliar/pentac types, some were high speedmotion picture lenses.

Lynn

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Hi Clarence,

I will have to open it up and check, I'll get back over the weekend.

[neil poulsen]

Call me uninformed, but I learned only recently that Kodak optimized their Ektar lenses for shooting Ektachrome film. I thought this was interesting, and that it was worth mentioning.

I got this from a friend who passed away just over a year ago. He was a Hollywood photographer during the 40's through 70's.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Hi Clarence,

the biconvex lens has 2 curves, sharper faces out, flatter faces in.
metal spacer ring next.
triplet thinnest end element faces out
retainer ring.

both cells appear to be identical so don't mix-up the pieces.
fitting of the glass/cell seems to be air-tight, you may want to polish the interior of the cell for easier fit.

Hope it's a help

[Clarence Rhymer]

Hello Paul,

Yes, that is a great help. I had disassembled the lens and stored the cells in the proper order and orientation. But, as sometimes happens, they got moved and mixed up.

Thank you again.

Cheers,
Clarence