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View Full Version : Something exciting: Stienheil 56mm F1.9 LF lens



koh303
23-Jul-2014, 14:26
Just managed to liberate this lens from an old and massive oscilloscope camera.

It is a Steinheil 56mm F1.9 Multicoated lens in a copal #0 press shutter. The camera assembly had a 4X5 graflock receiver, and was originally intended for magnification of 1:1.5 all the way up to 1:1, where it indeed covers 4X5 (and maybe more), and is incredibly sharp around the edges.

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In real life, at infinity, i had to push the two standards together on the Canham to get it to focus, and the image circle is a modest 5 square CM wide open. Still the angle of view is crazy, as this is still a 56mm lens...

At F1.9 i cant think of many other lenses that are faster but i guess this is a unique thing altogether, designed to do something very specific and far from an everyday LF shooter lens, that said - if you ever wanted to do some emmet gowin style work on 4X5 rather then 8X10 - this would be the tool.

Tried to find some info about this lens online but not much luck...

goamules
23-Jul-2014, 16:30
Actually, F1.9 isn't very fast for a 56mm lens. F1.5 and faster is.

Arne Croell
24-Jul-2014, 10:32
It might not say it on the lens, but it is an Oscillo-Quinon 56mm f/1.9, an eight-element lens. There was a 75mm f/1.9 version, too. Steinheil made about 18000 Oscillophot cameras between 1962 and 1985, so its not exactly rare. I would expect some visible field curvature wide open since they were optimized to image an oscilloscope screen, which usually had some curvature, onto flat (Polaroid) film.

koh303
24-Jul-2014, 10:47
I guess i consider this rare as i have only found one other unit for sale, about 2 years ago... and indeed it is a oscillo quinon lens.

F1.9 is not very fast for 56mm and probably is not that bright when at full magnification due to bellow draw... Still its cool to see a lens, mounted on an LF shutter that is that bright.