Hello friends,

Recently and by occasion I've acquired the old brass Taylor Hobson Cooke Anastigmat "Series III" 7 1/2 inches f/6.5 lens. The glass of the lens is in superior condition. In fact I didn't see such clear glasses without any disadvantages. But I can't say the same about the lens barrel which has the faulty aperture: I don't know why it was damaged, because aperture moves smoothly, but several of the leafs are jammed and some of the pivots are missing thus the leafs move incorrectly and don't form the regular circle of the aperture opening. The jammed leafs don't allow to move the aperture freely to the both ends (to fully open and to the f/64), so I could find that the only more or less right aperture opening is at f/11 (although even on this f/11 they form something like irregular figure between the circle and the ellipse).
I'd like to use this lens on my 1/2 plate camera, but I need to decide what to do with it. After some thoughs I see the following:
  1. Get rid of this lens and find something other in the workable condition.
  2. Use this lens at f/11 only.
  3. Find the same lens with a dead glass (for cheap) but with the working aperture.
  4. Remove the aperture leafs and cut the barrel to make the waterhouse stops.


I'd like to get your advices to help me to make the right decision. The questions (according to the list above) are:
  1. Is this series of the Cooke lenses worth to use them? I searched this forum and googled the Internet but didn't find any specific, except that Series III lens is intended for the general photography. So I guess they are good common lens without any specific features. Am I right?
  2. Somewhere I read that Cooke Anastigmats are best performers at their closed apertures. f/11 is far from the f/64 available on this lens. So using this lens at f/11 only probably won't give me all the lens could perform, will it?
  3. I don't know if there any good chances to get the same lens (especially with the dead glass) for the affordable price, taking into account the current "boom" prices on the old optics.
  4. This way will restore the full functionality of the lens (at the least 90-95% of it), but will take some precision work and probably some $$. Is it worth to go this way?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.