History of Symmetrical Wides

[MAubrey]

If you know Italian or can survive the word salad created by Google Translate, Macro Cavina has an incredible article going through the history of symmetrical wide angle lenses beginning with the Hypergon. It's not all LF, but beyond his Hypergon discussion, he also covers a variety of LF Zeiss Hologon prototypes, and the famed Zeiss 75mm f/4.5 Biogon.

It's worth a read...again with the language caveats in place:

http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Hypergon_Topogon_Biogon_Hologon/00_pag.htm

[Taija71A]

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?115699-Super-Angulon-vs-Biogon-at-higher-magnifications

[MAubrey]

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?115699-Super-Angulon-vs-Biogon-at-higher-magnifications

Sorry for wasting your valuable time.

[Corran]

That is a good site, I've found it before looking for info about some of these designs. Even with the Google Translation it's understandable. Some of these designs are quite interesting, especially the older Hypergon, which even today is an unmatched feat of engineering in LF lenses.

[neil poulsen]

Doesn't hurt to have a reminder into that discussion. (Methinks.)

[Jim Andrada]

Thanks for the link - I hadn't seen it before. Gives me something interesting to read "in Italiano".

[EdWorkman]

Thanks for the Italian site
Google does well with Italian Spanish and French
google German is not "translation", more's the pity

[Jim Andrada]

Google Translate sucks at English <--> Japanese as well. Positively dangerous.