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View Full Version : Why is this lens not selling? I have no intrest and I am not the seller



Tin Can
9-Apr-2013, 09:20
I have been watching this lens drop in asking price.

I do not know the seller, and I have no connection with selling it.

I do have one like it.

Why would this apparentlt cheap lens sit?

If this is inappropriate for this site, please let me know, politely if possible.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151024921310&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

Dan Fromm
9-Apr-2013, 09:29
Randy, process lenses aren't going very high these days, except for really long ones. People are getting out of film, not into film. And the tiny chip digicam lens adapters aren't fascinated by long slow lenses; they seem to be much more interested in short fast ones.

He's offering it in "vintage lenses," not in "lenses - large format." I suspect that relatively few of the people looking for LF lenses look in "vintage lenses."

He doesn't say whether it is coated. If the s/n list here http://www.largeformatphotography.info/classic-experts.html is right it isn't coated. Coating matters, dialytes have eight air-glass interfaces.

E. von Hoegh
9-Apr-2013, 09:32
I have been watching this lens drop in asking price.

I do not know the seller, and I have no connection with selling it.

I do have one like it.

Why would this apparentlt cheap lens sit?

If this is inappropriate for this site, please let me know, politely if possible.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151024921310&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

It's missing the front ring, but "there are a few very minor cleaning marks or light scratches on it, but nothing that will hurt picture quality" - code for "the lens is trashed".

Sally Mann already has all the steelwooled lenses she needs.

John Kasaian
9-Apr-2013, 09:40
If I didn't already have a great 19" Apo Artar in a shutter, I'd be all over this one! If I knew that the threads would interchange, I'd pick it up for a spare( if it was cheap enough---its not.)
I....Must...Resist!

c.d.ewen
9-Apr-2013, 09:41
Not a Red Dot Artar.

Charley

Tin Can
9-Apr-2013, 09:55
Just curious, now let's see if the any speculators pick it up. I think they follow our posts. I know you are all convinced film is dying, but I do see an increased interest in LF among my Chicago peeps. Maybe not enough to stem the tide, but everytime I hit the street, somebody slams on the brakes, gets out, and does 20 questions.

Maybe we need some better looking people shooting LF.

It ain't me babe.

Jim Galli
9-Apr-2013, 10:04
It's a 19" lens with a 50 - ish degree angle of view. It WILL cover 11X14 . . cheaply.

It is a design with 8 air glass interfaces, and no anti-reflective coatings. Each air - glass interface removes approximately 4% of the image forming light and turns it into reflective bounce. So add that up. 32% of the light that passes through that lens fogs the film with no resultant image.

It isn't in a shutter. A couple of small scratches . . . really doesn't hurt, but we've all gotten these 'bargains' that have been scrubbed with a Brillo pad, so there's a certain amount of shell shock there. All these negatives remove buyers from your possible 'pool'.

It isn't that it is not a grand old lens, it's that the audience that needs it is pretty specialized and would probably rather wait for the "Red Dot" version which WAS coated and turned a rather ordinary low performer into a stellar performer. OF course prices reflect all of this. RD Artar about 2 1/2 times this ones price. RD Artar in a shutter, maybe 6 times this ones price, but those gains easily outweigh the significant price increases.

Tin Can
9-Apr-2013, 10:12
Well, Jim, I do trust your word.

I will throw mine away.

NOT!

I bought mine in shutter in a local package deal. Those local sell everything sales are always the best way to buy many things. The trick, as you all surely know, is patience.

Jim Galli
9-Apr-2013, 10:26
Local deals in Tonopah Nevada are few and far between. We're still at zero after 20 years of waiting. Lens mine? Nope. Little green men? Completely unreliable.

That said, if you found cells from an RD an put them in your shutter, you would throw the old uncoated ones away.


Well, Jim, I do trust your word.

I will throw mine away.

NOT!

I bought mine in shutter in a local package deal. Those local sell everything sales are always the best way to buy many things. The trick, as you all surely know, is patience.

Tin Can
9-Apr-2013, 10:55
Well, Tonopah is close to many great locations, including SF. I call local, a 500 mile radius. Notice I list myself as Midwest USA, but I have a studio in Chicago. I look for deals in a 500 mile radius, and when I find one, I go. I have been to the West and desert areas many times, locals often drive vast distances.

SF, may not have as many deals as small town Midwest, and I am sure you are glad LA is out of a 500 mile radius. I will never visit LA again, California and any other city, but not LA. My problem...