New Resource for Wollensak Lenses and Shutters

[Whir-Click]

I have compiled a Wollensak Lens and Shutter Compendium, a guide to all Wollensak commercial lenses and shutters made for still cameras from 1899 to 1972, including basic product specifications and production date ranges. This is available at https://alphaxbetax.com/wollensak-lens-and-shutter-compendium.

As background, I find Kodak’s CAMEROSITY production year code to be one of the most satisfying nuggets in large format photography. Knowing when a trusty or valued lens was made seems to enhance my enjoyment just a bit by adding some historical context and perspective.

As I have come to enjoy and appreciate Wollensak lenses and shutters more and more, I hoped to find a similar Rosetta Stone of Wollensak production information. Unfortunately, I have concluded that if such a Wollensak production ledger or serial number master list ever existed, it is probably lost to the ages.

But in the course of seeking Wollensak production documentation, I amassed a bibliography of Wollensak literature from personal, public, and research collections. All of these Wollensak catalogs, brochures, price lists, etc. which can be freely shared in the public domain are now available at https://alphaxbetax.com/wollensak-catalogs-etc. Although I link to the Camera Eccentric collection as the backbone of early Wollensak references, I am pleased to note that I have posted scans of over 100 additional Wollensak resources hitherto unavailable on the web.

The Compendium is a work in progress. Doubtless there are errors I have not caught and products I have omitted. The gaps in available Wollensak catalogs make many production dates uncertain, though they are pretty well constrained. I will continue to refine the Compendium as more Wollensak references trickle in.

If you have comments or corrections, please do not hesitate to let me know. Alternately, if you would like to make available Wollensak resources not yet encompassed by the study, I would be very pleased to incorporate them with due credit. Lastly, if you have suggestions for the Series Notes section of individual lenses or shutters, I would warmly welcome concise factual summaries of your favorite Wollensak products. I confess that the scope of trying to encompass all of the products left me unable to concentrate on giving great insight into any one product.

[Renato Tonelli]

Fantastic resource. Thank you for putting so much time an effort in compiling it and for sharing it.

[Mark Sampson]

You've created a marvelous resource- congratulations.
The empty Wollensak factory still stands on Hudson Ave. in Rochester; I'd meant to photograph it, and wondered what might be left inside, but life got in the way and I moved first to Virginia and now Arizona...next month when I return to my home town I'll take a look.
There is a long thread on this forum, from some years back, attempting to find out the age of Wollensak lenses by serial#. Without much success as I recall. Perhaps you can find some useful information there.

[Mark Crabtree]

Nice resource.

I do see a mistake in that the Velostigmat series 1 is not a double Protar like the 1a, but air spaced cells said to be much like the later Cooke triple convertible. I doubt that information shows up in Wollensak information, but Kingslake mentions it in various places. Plus, I think several people here know a fair bit about those. That was one of the designs they got with the Royal line, and is thought likely to be a design by Ernst Gundlach. I've not had one, but always found it intriguing. It seems like a safe assumption that the change to all cemented design like the Protar came with the 1a designation, but I doubt we can know that with absolute certainty.

[Whir-Click]

Thank you for your kind words, Renato and Mark.

I took the forum thread on Wollensak serial numbers as my starting point several months ago, and back in January I spent hours combing through all the documents Fred Lamothe (Surplus Shed) had pulled out of 850 Hudson after he purchased the building in the 2000’s. Many interesting optical drawings (Surplus Shed sells a CD with scans), Fastax documents, etc., but not a ghost of factory production documentation.

I thought I’d try for one more crack at whatever Fred hadn’t removed from 850 Hudson, but I was too late- conversion of the building into affordable housing units is already underway. No real opportunity missed, however, as the kind folks at the Urban League of Rochester (financing the re-purposing into housing) informed me that the building’s roof had collapsed years ago and there was nothing salvageable inside.

All this convinced me to stop looking for a magic bullet of Wollensak production information and instead gather together the existing product literature into a single resource. The Compendium is my attempt at making Wollensak products accessible to newcomers and giving the company their due as a longtime, innovative cornerstone of the Rochester Optical industry.

[EH21]

Excellent, thank you!

[Whir-Click]

Mark, thank you for the correction and I’ve already made the fix. I’ve had a Velostigmat Series I apart in my hands and it is two pairs of cemented doublets in each cell. Larger image circle than the 1a and slightly (I think pleasantly) more mellow image quality, but still plenty sharp.

[Mark Crabtree]

Mark, thank you for the correction and I’ve already made the fix. I’ve had a Velostigmat Series I apart in my hands and it is two pairs of cemented doublets in each cell. Larger image circle than the 1a and slightly (I think pleasantly) more mellow image quality, but still plenty sharp.

Nice to know about the coverage. It would have been interesting to see how that design held up once lens coating came along. The Cooke seems to have fared well as an uncoated lens though.


The 1a is a fine lens also. They don't seem to have documented the speed of the individual cells in their literature, but I have a 1a Velostigmat 13/20/25 1/2 with equal speed cells of f12.5 like the Protars. Most 1a's I've seen have an f12.5 rear and an f16 front. I'd be curious if that was common across the line, and changed at a particular point. I think the change was likely to allow fitting into a smaller mount/shutter since the front gets disproportionately large at 12.5, and the overall speed of the combined lens is limited by the smaller/shorter focal length rear cell. The practical difference would mostly have been a bit brighter image for focus with the front cell, since most everyone stopped them down for use.

[Whir-Click]

I mis-typed 850 Hudson Ave above when I meant 872 Hudson Ave in Rochester.

190202

[Dan Fromm]

Your page on Alphax and Betax shutters has more information about them, in particular tube lengths and threading, than you put in your new compendium. Suggest that you replace the Alphax and Betax sections in the compendium with a link to that page. Also, I think -- could well be mistaken -- that Deltax and Gammax shutters were made to the same standard as Alphax and Betax. If I'm right, ...

[Whir-Click]

Thank you, Dan, for the suggestion. I’ve supplemented the Alphax and Betax Compendium descriptions with a link to the detailed dimensional information.

Good question about whether the small Deltax and Gammax shutters share thread dimensions with the same-sized Alphax and Betax shutters. I don’t have technical drawings for Gammax/Deltax, but maybe I can find some lens cells to try swapping around.

[Tin Can]

I cannot find anything in your lists or elsewhere about this lens.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/33759891058_529d92d842.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Trfgrd)Wollensak 12 (299MM) f6.8 W Graphic Raptar Wide Field Lens (https://flic.kr/p/Trfgrd) by TIN CAN COLLEGE (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tincancollege/), on Flickr

[Whir-Click]

Sorry, Randy, Wollensak's process and enlarging lenses are a separate, even more abstruse subject and are out of the scope of the Compendium, which focuses on still camera lenses and shutters.

[goamules]

Good menu based site to quickly see some old catalogs. Thanks. I believe there were shorter Verito's than 5" though. Mark Sawyer would know.

[Whir-Click]

I haven’t found documentation of a Verito shorter than 5”, but if any one has such a reference, I would be happy to incorporate it.

[Duolab123]

This is great. This helped me date a barrel lens in a Packard shutter that came with my V8 Deardorff. Based on the camera and the lens 1941 to 45. Such beautiful stuff
Thanks.

[Mark Sawyer]

On page 134 of The Cinema Handbook, (Austin Celestin Lescarboura, 1921), there's a reference to "Verito lenses of 2-inch and 3-inch focus":

https://books.google.com/books?id=5eg6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=%22motion+picture%22+verito+lens&source=bl&ots=JRoatAvfd3&sig=ACfU3U0UN3VZCGc62nI76rmYIzrr3LZb8A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWtOjho-ThAhUEsJ4KHfIQC0AQ6AEwA3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22motion%20picture%22%20verito%20lens&f=false

[Mark Sawyer]

Mind you, the MP Verito (MP for Motion Picture) had a periscopic design:

[Tin Can]

Very noticeable when used in old movies.

The women are always SF and the men sharp.

[Keith Fleming]

Randy,

I have a 210 mm f6.8 Graphic Raptar Wide Field lens I bought from Dagor 77 at least 10 years ago. He had a number of them he was selling on eBay. They were late production lenses Dagor 77 acquired after the factory closed. I had mine mounted in an Alphax shutter for use on both my 4X5 and 8X10 cameras. Mine has an image circle of about 15 inches, so it does work as my "wide-angle" on the 8X10. I was told it is a Reverse Dagor design. I find the lens to be compact and very sharp. I would assume your longer version is an up-sized model with the same positive characteristics.

I hope this answers at least some of your questions. I certainly am not a technical expert.

Keith

[Dan Fromm]

Keith, I suspect you're right about f/6.8 Graphic Raptars. But there are also f/4.5ers. I have a 138/4.5 Graphic Raptar. Tessar type, lousy.

[Tin Can]

Thank you Keith, I will test it sooner or later on 11X14 1 to 1 and at infinity on 7X17.

I got it from the Estate of a collector. He was active from 1950 to 2000 and had a bit of everything.

[goamules]

Boy, I'd love to have a 2" verito for 35mm.

[Embdude]

Very nice work! Any info on the Oscillo-Raptor? I have the 88mm 1.4 and would love to see a lens diagram for it...
190518190519

[Tin Can]

What was it made for?

What format?

[Embdude]

What was it made for?

What format?

Oh sorry it is from an oscilloscope camera 1:1 on polaroid or 4x5...

[Tin Can]

I have 2 of those.

Never used them, they came in a bundle.

[Whir-Click]

The 88mm f/1.4 Oscillo Raptar drawing is included in the Surplus Shed CD of scanned Wollensak Optical drawings. The lens is symmetrical, each cell having four elements in three groups.

The CD is available at: https://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/W1005.html. It goes on sale occasionally.

Going back to the earlier Cine Verito post, thank you very much, Mark, for the reference and great detective work. For the purpose of keeping the scope and upkeep within my abilities, I’m going to limit the online Compendium to the original charter of commercial lenses and shutters for still cameras. However, I am thrilled to see other notable Wollensak references added to this thread.

[Duolab123]

The 88mm f/1.4 Oscillo Raptar drawing is included in the Surplus Shed CD of scanned Wollensak Optical drawings. The lens is symmetrical, each cell having four elements in three groups.

The CD is available at: https://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/W1005.html. It goes on sale occasionally.

Going back to the earlier Cine Verito post, thank you very much, Mark, for the reference and great detective work. For the purpose of keeping the scope and upkeep within my abilities, I’m going to limit the online Compendium to the original charter of commercial lenses and shutters for still cameras. However, I am thrilled to see other notable Wollensak references added to this thread.

Here's a quick question. I have a Wollensak 12 in Velostigmat barrel lens mounted to a Packard shutter. It came with a early 40's Deardorff V8. What are the lens flange specifications? I have a 12 inch Enlarging Raptar that has the same threads, fits the same flange. I know the costs would be prohibitive, but would these mount to a number 5 Alphax shutter? Are there flanges available? I bought the enlarging lens thinking the 2 metal lens caps were worth the 25 bucks I paid. Lo and behold I got a perfect Enlarging Raptar, looks mid 50's or newer. To make a lens like that today in the free world would cost 3000 bucks
Best Regards Mike

[Whir-Click]

Mike, sorry for the delay in replying, but both your 12” Velostigmat and 12” enlarging Raptar cells should fit directly into an Alphax (or Betax) #5 shutter, no adapter needed. Both should also take a standard Wollensak #5 flange.
S.K. Grimes makes these new for $65, or sometimes n.o.s. Burke and James versions pop up on eBay for about $30.

If you’re in the market for a shutter, you can send me a PM.

[Scott Sharp]

That Wollensak Lenses and Shutter Resource has been great the last couple of weeks as I am trying to date a number of my vintage lenses.

I have three lenses in Betax No. 4 shutters. I know you list 1921 as the date Wollensak introduced the Betax shutter,

Any idea when Wollensak stopped manufacturing the Betax?

Thanks, Scott

[Whir-Click]

Hi Scott,

Based on the available catalogs and price lists, it looks fairly certain that Wollensak discontinued production of the Betax #4 in favor of the new Alphax #4 in 1948. If you remove the rear cell from your lenses in Betax shutters, do you see a date penciled or scratched into the diaphragm assembly? This is the only place I consistently find specific Wollensak production dates.

[Scott Sharp]

You were right, a date was scratched into diaphragm assembly of: E 12 46

I have no idea what the letter E is for, but 12 46 it reasonable to guess at December 1946 for the shutter date.

That was very helpful information. Thank you.

[peter schrager]

who knows anything about the Wollensak Tasope 10.5 inch lens F/8
I'm thinking it might be a Rapid Rectilinear design
any info appreciated!!

[Whir-Click]

who knows anything about the Wollensak Tasope 10.5 inch lens F/8
I'm thinking it might be a Rapid Rectilinear design
any info appreciated!!

Depends on the era. You are right that pre-coating Tasopes were Rapid Rectilinear designs, essentially identical to Wollensak’s Voltas f/8 lenses. After the advent of coating the Tasope switched to a 4/4 air-spaced design.

241256

[Dugan]

Apparently, the Tasope lenses were originally intended for process camera work.
Tasope is an acronym for "The Aurora School Of Photo Engraving".

[peter schrager]

Depends on the era. You are right that pre-coating Tasopes were Rapid Rectilinear designs, essentially identical to Wollensak’s Voltas f/8 lenses. After the advent of coating the Tasope switched to a 4/4 air-spaced design.

241256

Thank you!!