How rare are Karl Struss pictorial len's?

[Jim Galli]

Single meniscus lens, fused silica glass? You can't get much simpler than that!

The only question is the curvatures...

Ole was faster than me. Here's the diagram at Eric Beltrando's wonderful site.

Did they mess with the curvatures to make them non achromatic? Don't know. I have an 1860's Darlot landscape meniscus that I use wide open at f6 and the effect is very nearly identical to the high priced spread.

puff balls

[Ole Tjugen]

Jim, that's a doublet meniscus. From what I can find, Struss' lens was a single meniscus, which is really what you have in a cheap pair of reading glasses...

The page you linked to on Beltrando's site shows a typical Landscape lens. An Achromatic doublet. I believe the Struss lens is closer to this: http://dioptrique.info/objectifs6/00250/00250.HTM

[Jan Pedersen]

Would the double meniscus not be the layout of the Kodak Portrait 12" and 16" lenses?

[Brian Bullen]

Here is what the Vademecum says:
"Struss, K.
Sold by Fredk. W. Keasbey, Box 303, Morristown, N.J.,USA.
Struss Pictorial lens f4.0 This was a simple meniscus lens. Some information was given in Photominiature No184, and some biographical information in Modern Photo. 02/1977 p61. Struss was the camera man for "Ben Hur" in Hollywood, and developed the lens when still quite a young man. The initial design seems to have been glass.
Later versions in 1922 were made of 'natural' fused quartz, and were said to work at f5.6. One barrel could take a number of lenses interchangeably, or later there were up to 4 barrels for 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5in and elements for 5.0-21in focus. It was described as 'very soft but with firm delineation and sharpens up on closing down'. It was suggested to use 18in for 5x4in. (B.J.A. 1921, p782)."

[Jim Galli]

Fair enough and I don't have one to evaluate so for now, do a search on Mark Sawyer's 1F99 and 2F99 lenses. They would be the modern equivalent.

[jnantz]

what is the difference between a single meniscus lens like this one
and one that can be harvested off of a box camera or folder,
aside from the fstop scale, and the aluminium cannon/barrel ?

is it the diameter of the lens cell ?
( i'm thinking about 4x5 format, not anything bigger ) ..

thanks!

john

[Ernest Purdum]

Mostly the aperture. Early box cameras worked slowly. Soft focus lenses provide more diffusion at large openings and lthis is nedded to get the effects mostl people want.

[Jim Galli]

what is the difference between a single meniscus lens like this one
and one that can be harvested off of a box camera or folder,
aside from the fstop scale, and the aluminium cannon/barrel ?

is it the diameter of the lens cell ?
( i'm thinking about 4x5 format, not anything bigger ) ..

thanks!

john

Nothing really. Most are behind a 'throat' that throttles them to f11 where they are only marginally blurry. If you take them out and use them wide open they are very soft. The Japanese were doing this with Kodak's in 1917! Most are pretty shallow ie. about 4 inches for most of the little old folders.

[jnantz]

thanks ernest and jim ..
i had a feeling you were going to say
what you said.



john

[goamules]

I think I've asked before, but can't find the answer. Is my Scovill Waterbury a single meniscus? It is throttled with a fixed washer stop, but that could be changed.....!