Zeiss Tessar with 5 fl/aperture scalesÂ… Casket set lens?

[Embdude]

Did Zeiss ever offer a casket set with a Tessar? As far as I know the Tessar is not convertible/ combinable but here we have one found on a 1930Â’s Linhof 13x18 with no less than 5 scales! Perhaps someone was simply getting extreme economy out of a single shutter and various lens cells. What do you think?

[Dan Fromm]

Shutter swap?

[Embdude]

Shutter swap?

Well it has a line for the “4.5 Tess”… it just apparently shares the shutter with 4 other lenses…

[domaz]

Could have been a homebrew casket set why not? People have been doing one-off large format equipment for a long time, in fact they still do see SK Grimes.

[reddesert]

Some of the scales are marked for which lens, like one starts "Tess 4.5 ..." and another starts "47cm VL 9.5 ..." which might be a Protar, or a single cell of a Protar. Protars are convertible. Tessars are not convertible.

[J. Patric Dahlen]

Could "47cm VL" be for the 32cm with a Verlängerungslinse? A negative meniscus lens attachment that increases the focal length. Zeiss had the Distar, Schneider the Longar, and other manufacturers like ISCO and Agfa simply called them Verlängerungslinsen:

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4...4715_s_4_2.jpg

Using the Typ B, 1,5 would increase the 32mm lens to 48cm and need about one stop more exposure.

What does it say on the scale closest to the lens?

[Jody_S]

I may be wrong, but that does not look like a factory plate for the aperture scales. Any trophy maker/engraver could have done that over the years for a just a few $$, these days anyone with a hobby engraver from China could knock that off in an afternoon.

[J. Patric Dahlen]

I may be wrong, but that does not look like a factory plate for the aperture scales. Any trophy maker/engraver could have done that over the years for a just a few $$, these days anyone with a hobby engraver from China could knock that off in an afternoon.

Some convertible lenses had scales like that, so it might have been engraved by an optical company for the owner (probably a professional photographer/company).

[pjd]

The scales remind me of some I've seen on Perka (proto Linhof) cameras which were often equipped with Meyer Plasmat cells. 47 /32 looks like single cells of a convertible Meyer Plasmat (of which I have one, mounted in a compound shutter). Combined focal length of 22.3cm, f4.5.

[J. Patric Dahlen]

The scales remind me of some I've seen on Perka (proto Linhof) cameras which were often equipped with Meyer Plasmat cells. 47 /32 looks like single cells of a convertible Meyer Plasmat (of which I have one, mounted in a compound shutter). Combined focal length of 22.3cm, f4.5.

Ah! VL/HL, front and back lens groups!