Voigtländer Heliostigmat f/2 23.5cm - What is this... ?

[jocl123]

Hi,
got in my hands a monster.
quite big and very heavy.
Nearly 5KG without flange.

Serial Number 235419
Should be around 1925 or so.
I can't find any information on the web.
It has an iris aperture so it should be a taking lens.
May for Repro ?
Could it be used as a nice soft/fast wet plate lens ?
(Sure it can but would it make sense)

It is really a mystery lens.

Thanks for any info.
Jo

[Dan Fromm]

Not a repro lens, much too fast for that application.

The VM says that the Heliostigmat is a narrow angle reversed tessar type that covers 35 degrees (up to 100 mm focal length for cine cameras ) or 30 degrees (longer). So yours will do for quarter plate.

"It was described as sharp, colour corrected and especially good for child photography"

[Tim Deming]

Nice find! These are uncommon, especially in a larger size, like yours. Smaller ones were for cine cameras

Cheers

Tim

[Louis Pacilla]

Here's what Voigtlander had to say about their Heliostigmat and Cine-Heliostigmat. From the 1931 catalog.