Colored Rings on Rodenstock Lenses

[Scott Fleming]

What year did Rodenstock start putting the colored rings on their lenses? Did this practice coincide with the beginning of use of 'environmentally friendly' glass? Thanks.

[Scott Fleming]

Hey! C'mon folks. A little help here please.

[Frank Petronio]

Paging Bob Salomon!

Early 1990s is my ballpark...

[Scott Fleming]

Thanks Frank.

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

I believe the earliest use of the colored stripes on Rodenstock lenses was late 1992, coinciding with the introduction of the APO-Sironar-S line (red stripe) at Photokina in September 1992. At that time, they added the APO prefix to the Sironar-N line and a snazzy silver stripe and a yellow stripe to the original APO Sironar line and a -W suffix to distinguish it from the other two APO-Sironar lines.

The APO Grandagon series was introduced at Photokina in September 1994 and has had the green stripe from the get-go. They also added the green stripe to the Grandagon-N series at that time.

APO Ronars appear to have acquired their stripes (blue) a bit later (probably in the 96 time frame).

For further reference, I have the following Rodenstock brochures:

"Lenses for Large Format Cameras" dated 11/91 - none of the lenses pictured have colored stripes.

"Lenses for Large Format Cameras" dated 2/93 - The only lenses pictured with colored stripes are the three APO-Sironar (-N, -S and -W) lines - as stated above.

"Lenses for Large Format Cameras" dated 6/95 - In addition to the three APO-Sironar lines, the APO Grandagon and Grandagon-N lenses pictured sport bright grren stripes and the APO-Macro-Sironar has an orange stripe. No stripe on the APO Ronar or Imagon samples pictured.

"Lenses for Professional Photography" dated 8/98 - The APO-Sironar-W series is no longer listed in this brochure (too bad, they are/were great lenses with 80 degree coverage). The APO Ronar pictured features a blue racing stripe. The only member of the APO-Sironar-Digial line (at that time), the 90mm f5.6, has a purple stripe. No stripe on the Imagons.

Hope that helps,
Kerry

[Scott Fleming]

You are a prince Kerry.

Anybody know around what years Rodenstock started using the new glass?

[Bob Salomon]

The first price lists to indicate the colored rings is dated June 26, 1993. This is the first USA price list to include the Apo S, N and W and to offer closeout pricing on the Apo Sironar and the Sironar N MC that the Apo N and Apo W replaced. So the rings were added very slightly earlier.
Rodenstock did not make any claim or mention of 'environmentally friendly' glass. They only claimed the use of ED glass with the Apo Sironar series which first became available in 1989 and were introduced at the 1988 Photokina.

The first use of the colored rings on a Rodenstock poster showing lens coverage is 9/94.

[Scott Fleming]

Thank you very much Bob. I appreciate all the detail.