Goerz Dagor 19" Lens

[Tracy Storer]

Yeah, $500-$600 is a ridiculously low estimate. When things were hot a couple years ago, a nice clean 19" Dagor was bringing closer to $2K. The longer f/7.7 Dagors, 16.5" and longer, are just not as common as 14" and shorter.
They are not quite as sharp or as contrasty as some "newer" designs, but they are excellent "all-arounders" especially for big negatives for contact printing, exhibiting generous angle of coverage, good sharpness, fairly fast max aperture, and really decent contrast even in uncoated examples owing to the all-cemented design with a minimum of air/glass interfaces.

[Leigh]

I am guessing that this is made in the US, since the focal length isn't in MM.

Not a valid assumption.

I have an 8 1/4" Gold Dot Dagor that was made in Switzerland.

- Leigh

[Leonard Robertson]

Yeah, $500-$600 is a ridiculously low estimate. When things were hot a couple years ago, a nice clean 19" Dagor was bringing closer to $2K. The longer f/7.7 Dagors, 16.5" and longer, are just not as common as 14" and shorter.

I was thinking of revising my $600 upward. I haven't been paying attention to LF on eBay for quite awhile, so I'm obviously thinking in the past. I do believe I saw that ancient Berlin 19" sell on eBay for around $550 or thereabouts. It was cheap enough to somewhat surprise me. It may have had more serious issues with the glass than I remember. I also based my $600 on being in barrel rather than shutter. The OP didn't say which he had, but I was picturing a barrel mount in my head. I have no idea what the price spread might be with/without shutter for these lenses.

What is the newest 19" Dagor you know of?

Len

[goamules]

I've seen several of the F7.7 Dagors (14-19") sell recently for well over $1,000, so there are always a new group of ULF photographers seeking them.

[Leonard Robertson]

I've seen several of the F7.7 Dagors (14-19") sell recently for well over $1,000, so there are always a new group of ULF photographers seeking them.

Do shutter mounted F7.7s seem to sell for a lot more than barrel mount? Are these mostly eBay sales? That is the only place I ever check. I suspect there are more long Dagors being sold on the forums or at ULF gatherings than ever show up there, but don't really know.

Len

[Hugo Zhang]

It seems that only in rare occasions, as least I don't remember that many, that Dagor lenses from 16 1/2" to 19" have been sold below $1,000 in the last 10 years.

I had a chance to purchase a poor man's 19" Dagor not long ago. A goerz lynkeioskop series C No. 8 and it covers my 16x20 with some movement and out-of-focus areas on the ground are just so creamy wide open.

[John Schneider]

What is the newest 19" Dagor you know of?

755,xxx, factory-mounted in an Ilex #5

[Leonard Robertson]

755,xxx, factory-mounted in an Ilex #5

John - Thanks for the information. After I posted my question, I went over here to look for a serial number on one of mine:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...c-experts.html

I found these entries I hadn't seen before:

19" dagor #757427 1938
ser iii 480mm #174429 1904

It would be interesting to know what photographers in the 1930s were buying 19"ers for. 12X20? 11X14?

Len

[David Lindquist]

About a year ago one of the galleries in Santa Fe had a show of photographs of photographers. One was of Brett Weston with his 11 x 14 camera. You could clearly see the engraving on the lens bezel, it was a 19 inch Goerz Dagor. Mounted in a Compound shutter, pretty sure it was a No. 5.
David

[David Lindquist]

About a year ago one of the galleries in Santa Fe had a show of photographs of photographers. One was of Brett Weston with his 11 x 14 camera. You could clearly see the engraving on the lens bezel, it was a 19 inch Goerz Dagor. Mounted in a Compound shutter, pretty sure it was a No. 5.
David

Found my original notes on this. Photograph was done by Richard C. Miller, February 1948.
david