Darlot Rectilinears

[Two23]

Wondering about Darlot RR lenses (hemispherique.) What order were they produced? Some have rotary stops--I figure those are 1880-1890s. Then there are the ones with stops attached to levers
Finally there is another style that's sort of like a Petzval with sliding barrel sleeve, locking screw, and takes waterhouse stops. What order were they produced?

Kent in SD

[Mark Sawyer]

This one will have to be pieced together, most likely from dated catalogs and not-well-dated individual specimens.

The well-known 1890's Benjamin French & Co. Catalog shows the Darlot Wide Angle Hemispherical with the lever stops as a starting point...

https://www.antiquecameras.net/1890lenscatalogue.html

[goamules]

I also heard from Milan Z., a lens scholar, that the "earliest" lever stop Darlots were a different design than later. He said the first ones were more like a Harrison Globe. But I've never seen one that looks any different.

[Two23]

So why did they have 3 stops arrangement?

Kent in SD

[Mark Sawyer]

So why did they have 3 stops arrangement?

Kent in SD

It gave the photographer his choice of four different apertures, one for each lever, or wide open. It was a convenient and reliable arrangement; I've seen a number of the lever-stop Darlots, and have two myself, all in excellent working order.

[Two23]

OK, I was too ambiguous. Why did Darlot make RR lenses with Waterhouse stops, lever stops, and rotary stops? I was assuming that the Waterhouse sliding barrel style came first, maybe 1865- 187?, then the lever stops during 1870s, and finally the rotary stops up into the 1890s. Apparently there was a lot of overlapping?


Kent in SD

[goamules]

Darlot were innovators. They came up with a lot of interesting variations of technologies, if not outright patentable inventions. I went to the big Paris camera show twice, and it was amazing some of the strange lens concepts you'd find by Jamin or Darlot.