Extreme Wide Angle Anastigmat Up Nehring 8x10 lens

[Greg]

Just received a brass lens with the following engraving: Extreme Wide Angle Anastigmat Up Nehring N.Y. 8x10. Apertures from 16 to 256 and they are facing the back of the lens which seems odd to me since the aperture markings will be less than a 1/2 inch in front of the lens board and impossible to read. Focal length I'd estimate at around 150mm. Image does cover my 8x10's ground glass to the edges but will have to wait till the weekend to shoot some film with the lens.

Per Vade Mecum: "Up. Nehring, New York, USA. They are noted for a "Extreme Wide Angle" lens for 6.5x8.5in with iris f16-f256, probably a W.A.R. It does seem to have unusually flat external curves, and the glasses are placed quite close together."

Anyone have any experience with this optic?

thanks

[Steven Tribe]

Plenty of data here through ad. search. Mentioned in 9 threads. Relationship with the NY Scientific Lens company.

[Mark Sawyer]

Wouldn't being a "W.A.R." (Wide Angle Rectilinear) preclude it from being an anastigmat?

[Greg]

Plenty of data here through ad. search. Mentioned in 9 threads. Relationship with the NY Scientific Lens company.

Thanks... did a search with the correct spelling of "Nehring" and got same results.

Mounted the lens on a wooden board and put it on my 11x14. It looks like the focal length is close to 150mm. It actually covered the entire format with an image!!! Focused on a flashlight about 20+ feet away that had a grid of LEDs. When I moved the camera around to have the image of the LEDs fall into one corner, visually looked great!!! This weekend will shoot 2 11x14 negatives (one f/64 and the other f/256) and see how they look. Will post results once I get them.

[Mark Sampson]

Those aperture markings are probably U.S. (Universal System) stops, not the f/stops we use today. I have a lens or two marked that way (that I don't use) and IIRC '256' on that scale equals f/64. But someone who knows the whole story will step up...

[Greg]

Those aperture markings are probably U.S. (Universal System) stops, not the f/stops we use today. I have a lens or two marked that way (that I don't use) and IIRC '256' on that scale equals f/64. But someone who knows the whole story will step up...

I think that you are right on. The aperture opening designated 256 looked way, way too large for f/256 to me. Will compare it to f/64 on a 5.9" lens that S K Grimes mounted in a shutter for me.

thanks

[Greg]

Thanks... did a search with the correct spelling of "Nehring" and got same results.

Mounted the lens on a wooden board and put it on my 11x14. It looks like the focal length is close to 150mm. It actually covered the entire format with an image!!! Focused on a flashlight about 20+ feet away that had a grid of LEDs. When I moved the camera around to have the image of the LEDs fall into one corner, visually looked great!!! This weekend will shoot 2 11x14 negatives (one f/64 and the other f/256) and see how they look. Will post results once I get them.

Well the weather was mild today so finally went out and shot an 11x14" negative with the 5.9" RD Gray and another 11x14" negative with the Nehring Extreme Wide Angle. Fortunately waited till a car was passing by to shoot using the RD Gray, because side by side the negatives look exactly the same. look exactly the same. After I measured the images, found the Extreme Wide Angle Nehring to be all of maybe 1% more of a wider angle lens. Great... I was so hoping that the Nehring was a wider angle lens. Will now probably post the Nehring FS since My RD Gray is mounted in a Copal shutter. Image of the negative taken with the Nehring attached. To save time, the image of 11x14negative was shot on a lightbox with a handheld camera then inverted the tones, but you get the idea.

Image was shot at f/64 (marked as 256 on lens)