Need help with a Wheel Stop lens

[Christopher52]

Hello,

I have an old brass barrel lens, Rapid Rectilinear made by Beck, 101mm. It has the Wheel Stops for aperture adjustment. There are four aperture holes but they are marked with two aperture numbers per hole. I'm looking for help to properly read these numbers. They are labeled like this:

16 f 16
32 f 22-6
64 f 32
128 f 45-2

I took a photo of it here:

http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/...ry-d5u315w.jpg

Thanks for any help you all can give me. For now, I'm going to take a guess that each aperture is approximately between the numbers given. I've been using the first number for each stop and having good luck with it.

[Fotoguy20d]

The set ending in 128 is the old US system. The other set is the modern aperture scale. If you look up f-stop on Wikipedia, you'll find a nice cross reference table of various scales.

Dan

[Brassai]

The set ending in 128 is the old US system. The other set is the modern aperture scale. If you look up f-stop on Wikipedia, you'll find a nice cross reference table of various scales.

Dan

Dan is correct. This is a very slow rectilinear lens if wide open it is f16. If there is a set of glass elements at the front & at the rear, most likely is a rectilinera. If there is only the one set of elements that are seen in your photo, could be an achromatic doublet. My guess is late 1880s, into 1890s. "US" stands for "Uniform System," but it was mainly used in the U.S.

[Christopher52]

Thanks guys, that explains it all.

Yes, it's a Rapid Rectilinear made by Beck. Great lens. Used it in the studio recently and it was clear as could be. A friend said about 1880 also and the info I found on this type of wheel aperture system said they were in use from 1850-1890. I love it though. Shot with it today also in perfect sunshine. It's just wonderful.

[Jody_S]

Dan is correct. This is a very slow rectilinear lens if wide open it is f16. If there is a set of glass elements at the front & at the rear, most likely is a rectilinera. If there is only the one set of elements that are seen in your photo, could be an achromatic doublet. My guess is late 1880s, into 1890s. "US" stands for "Uniform System," but it was mainly used in the U.S.

Thanks guys, that explains it all.

Yes, it's a Rapid Rectilinear made by Beck. Great lens. Used it in the studio recently and it was clear as could be. A friend said about 1880 also and the info I found on this type of wheel aperture system said they were in use from 1850-1890. I love it though. Shot with it today also in perfect sunshine. It's just wonderful.

Actually, it's a WAR, Wide Angle Rectilinear, not a Rapid Rectilinear ('RR'). f16 is normal for these, as is that focal length which should about cover 5x7. The wheel stops on these were used well into the 20th century, for space reasons I gather, as these small lenses don't have a lot of room for bladed apertures.

[Christopher52]

Yes it does say Wide Angle on it, but at 101mm I never thought of it as a Wide lens. It covers my Sinar P 4x5 with plenty of movement. I can go up or down on the back standard for the full movement without hitting the edge of the image circle. Gotta love that!

[Roger Hesketh]

From the Vade Mecum

1888
Autograph Wide Angle 100° 3-9in WAR (noted 1888-1890)
They were made in 1889 with a rotating stop plate as :
No1 5x4 3in
No2 6.5x4.75 4in
No3 8.5x6.5 5in
No4 12x10 7in
No5 15x12 9in.

Christopher52 is your lens engraved 101mm?

Roger

[Christopher52]

The writing on the lens reads as this:

4 inch
W.A. RECT
R&J Beck
No 2534
W.H.
WALMSLEY
& Co
SOLE
AMERICAN
AGENTS

That's all I can find on it. I got the 101mm from a conversion of 4 inches.
This is really great info. Thanks for all the help you guys!

[Christopher52]

Here's a pic of the lens on my Sinar for a size reference. Very small lens but so sweet:
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/...ry-d5ny231.jpg

Here's a shot of my sister and brother-in-law I did last month for them. I did not have my behind-the-lens shutter at the time so I held my hat over it and uncovered it for 2-ish seconds. The exposure was about perfect on the negative. This is a scan of the print on RC paper in 8x10:
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/...ry-d5ruded.jpg

Here's a colour shot I did in the studio with strobes two weeks ago. The colours are beautiful to me. This is a scan of the 8x10 C-print on Fuji Crystal Archive II paper:
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...ry-d5tfcte.jpg

[Roger Hesketh]

]I have No. 2540 It came on a square bellows field camera I bought from Tasmania about 10 years ago.

Nice shots



Seeing as you have posted a picture of yours. I thought I'd post a picture of mine. My little lad decided to help.