Tiny brass 8x10 WA lens.

[Gene McCluney]

I have acquired over the years a couple of very tiny Wide Angle lenses intended for 8x10..little brass barreled lenses with circular stop wheels, where you turn them and various sized holes align themselves between the elements. These little lenses are about the size of a silver dollar. Does anyone have a clue what optical formula these are and their possible quality?? No shutter. Would have to use the hat shutter, or a packard behind-the-lensboard shutter.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Are these Berthiot Perigraphes? They usually come with wheel stops. I have a 120mm f:14 Perigraphe, and it's a surprisingly good lens. For full coverage on 8x10", you need to stop down to f:22 at least. I've had mine mounted in an Ilex 3 shutter.

Here's a Perigraphe 8x10" shot I've posted before (sorry I don't seem to have any more recent ones conveniently scanned)--

http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/photo/79bb.jpg

[Gene McCluney]

These are not a name brand, or rather they have names on them that represent a store or photographic supplies distributor, rather than a maker. I will look at them and post the names later today. (they are not here at home, rather at my studio)

[Ernest Purdum]

Early wide angle lenses tended to be very small, mostly because their apertures were very small. Unfortunately, they could be either wide angle variations of the "Rapid Rectilinear" type or one of several early anastigmat designs, both symmetrical and decidedly asymmetrical. You can narrow matters down a little bit by looking at the lens reflections from a single small light source. If the same front and rear, at least it eliminates the asymmetrical varieties.

[Gene McCluney]

There are two almost identical lenses.

One says:

J. C. Somerville St. Louis Mo 3726 8x10 No. 2
this one has a stop wheel with stops from 16 to 512

Another almost identical one says:

Schiller Extreme Wide Angle Anastigmat 8x10
this one has a stop wheel with stops from 16 to 256

And a larger one with iris diaphram..still brass though:

Seneca Camera Mfg. Co. Extreme Wide Angle 8x10
The iris is from 16 to 256

Any advice or information on these would be appreciated.

[Aaron van de Sande]

Just a guess but most of these wide angles are similar in construction to the zeiss series IV and series V protars. You can get plenty of information about these on the cameraeccentric site.

[Ole Tjugen]

Wide Angle Rectilinears can be surprisingly good. I have used a R.O.J.A. WW Aplanat No. 2 (150mm focal length) on 24x30cm film (9.5x12") with very good results, although it needs to be stopped down to f:64 to cover.

The Schiller lens is likely to be similar to the Protar V, since it's called an Anastigmat. The others may be the same, or they could be Rectilinears. It is very difficult to tell the difference.

[Mark Sawyer]

I have a couple of these too, a "Nehring 8x10 Extreme Wide Angle" and "The Compute Lens 8x10 Wide Angle". Both about 125mm, with surprisingly good contrast and as much resolution as the eye can resolve in an 8x10 contact print. I think both are aplanats, rectilinears or rapid rectilinears.

A nice little article on the history and such:

http://www.engr.udayton.edu/faculty/jloomis/eop601/notes/history/rapid/rapid.html