Docter Optics 180mm Tessar

[Gary Smith]

A while back I managed to get a Docter Optics 300mm Germinar cell set courtesy of Kerry Thalmann. I have been using it for a while as a long lens on my 4x5, and have bee very very pleased with its performance. I recently was lucky enough (though my bank book disagrees) to win a new in box Docter Optics Tessar 180mm mounted in a Copal 3 shutter.

I don't have a lensboard for it yet, but this lens is big. I am wondering what the performance will be like. I have read about the 210mm version and it looks nice.

Any thoughts or comments on this lens would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx!

Gary

[Joe Forks]

Gary,
I was watching that auction with great interest. I didn't bid because mainly I'm a backpacker and the lens would not get much use. Anyway, I bet that you'll be very happy with that lens. Once you try it out I'd love to see some results wide open and stopped down.

That was the second 180mm Tessar that auctioned off in the last 6 months or so. The last one went two cycles on auction. The first cycle was buy it now at $450 or so with no takers. It was relisted and ended over $500 with a nice flury of bids at auctions end.

I think you'll be limited to 4x5 with that lens, IC is published as 187mm calculated and 220mm (Docter Value). The optimum aperture is stated as F22. (VC Sept / Oct 2003 by Arne Croell)

BTW can you tell if it is single coated or MC?

Forks

[Gary Smith]

Thanx for the reply. I appreciate the information about the lens. I have not bought a lensboard for it yet, but I am planning on it this weekend. The lens itself appears to be multicoated, but I am not exactly sure. Once I get it mounted I will post a few pictures of the lens. I have a hard time getting VC here in Japan, and sadly didnt have a chance to read that article, I wish I had.

Again thanx for the information!

Gary

[Arne Croell]

Gary, I can send you the manuscript as Word- or pdf file if you're interested. I doubt its multicoated - the Docter Tessars I've seen personally so far (210 and 300mm) are not. But it doesn't matter since the Tessar has few glass-air interfaces anyway.

Arne

[Gary Smith]

Gary, I can send you the manuscript as Word- or pdf file if you're interested. I doubt its multicoated - the Docter Tessars I've seen personally so far (210 and 300mm) are not. But it doesn't matter since the Tessar has few glass-air interfaces anyway.

Arne


PM sent.

[Gary Smith]

Finally got my hands on a lensboard for the 180mm Tessar, and took a couple of test shots. The lens is a beauty of focus with, the view on the ground glass is very bright. I am not 100 percent sure, the coverage seems more than stated 220mm, I can use alot of movements on monorail and full movements on my field camera, and the get complete coverage. I am going to have to do a little bit more testing.

I am attaching two quick test shots, one was made at f/4.5 and the other at f/32. Not really the best pictures, but a decent quick test.

Thanks again.

Gary

[Joe Forks]

Gary,
Thanks for posting these! Did you use front swing on those two posted shots? I'm just curious about the F32 shot mainly and the OOF areas.

Best
Joe

[Gary Smith]

Gary,
Thanks for posting these! Did you use front swing on those two posted shots? I'm just curious about the F32 shot mainly and the OOF areas.

Best
Joe

Hi Joe,

Honestly I was not paying attention, I do believe there was a little bit of swing, but not much.

Reagards.

Gary

[Jon Wilson]

Hi Gary, I finally was able to get a couple of scans using the 210mm Tessar which I was fortunately able to purchase from Kerry Thalmann via apug. Both use the central iris as the focus point and pic #1 was with f4.5 and pic#2 f22. What do you think? Jon

[Jon Wilson]

http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=15097&cat=500&ppuser=2399
http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=15098&cat=500&ppuser=2399

[Jon Wilson]

No wonder I hate posting things....I can never get them organized properly... The Bokeh 210mm Tessar shot was at f5.6 and it is pic #2 above and pic #1 was shot at
f22.

[Gary Smith]

Hi Jon

The 210 looks nice too, I am really sorry that I was not able to get my hands on one. So I guess I will have to settle for 180. Thanks for sharing those as well, I am glad to be able to compare the two.

Thanx!

Gary

[Bill_1856]

That's about the flattest stereo pair that I've ever converged on.