Taylor Hobson Cooke VIIb

[Tony Lakin]

Hi
I have a few Taylor Hobson lenses including a 158mm VIIb for which I paid approx. £50 ex shutter, when I saw the price this went for I was shocked:eek: :eek: :eek: , does anyone else think this is crazy.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rare-Taylor-Hobson-Wide-Angle-V11B-8-Inch-F6-5_W0QQitemZ250126852575QQihZ015QQcategoryZ101642QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Walter Calahan]

Crazy man, but the marketplace does find its level.

[Hugo Zhang]

With a coverage over 100 degrees, it is a rare lens and a perfect WA lens for 11x14. It might even cover 7x17. Lens and Repro has a 8" WA Ross asking for $1,500. I am not at all surprised at the ending price. WA lenses of 150mm are not hard to find.

[Struan Gray]

Kerry isn't usually noted for wild irrationality. Perhaps he'll chime in. :-)

Some of the single coated British lenses from the 50s-60s are sleepers. The revival of larger sheet film sizes being used in the field is waking them up. Lucky for those with good car boot sales in their area.

[Tony Lakin]

Hi again
I had not noticed thet Kerry was the winning bidder so I guess that the price is ok, my only further comment is that I have a 210mm computar in a Copal shutter which covers 11X14 but with no movement for which I paid approx. £300, will the VIIb have greater coverage than this?

[CP Goerz]

I've had a few of these lenses from the smaller 160mm to the 212mm version that Mr Wisner gave hs stamp to and found them all to be very low in contrast, I mean flat ! Good luck to anyone who shoots with that pig.

CP Goerz

[Jim Galli]

I have 3. 158mm 200mm and 222mm. I've used the 6 1/4" the most. I would note mixed results. For low contrast scenes it has a fine sharp look but with a very bright scene it flares badly in the center. It is a lens that would take on an entire new personality with even single coatings. I'll be interested to follow Kerry's findings. Both my 6 1/4 and my 8 3/4 have had the flare problem. Who could you send these to for a modern coating?

[Tony Lakin]

I have 3. 158mm 200mm and 222mm. I've used the 6 1/4" the most. I would note mixed results. For low contrast scenes it has a fine sharp look but with a very bright scene it flares badly in the center. It is a lens that would take on an entire new personality with even single coatings. I'll be interested to follow Kerry's findings. Both my 6 1/4 and my 8 3/4 have had the flare problem. Who could you send these to for a modern coating?

Hi Jim
unfortunately in the UK we do not have an equivelent to S K Grimes for shutter mounting of barrell lenses, aperture engraving etc., however we do have an excellent re-polishing and coating service, I bought a Computar 210mm on the bay which was a bit cloudy so I sent it to them and had it stripped recemented, repolished and a single layer coating applied to the outer surfaces, the cost was very reasonable and the results are superb, incidentally a few Months ago I conducted a survey on this forum to ascertain how much interest there would be in a modern version of the Cooke 158mm VIIB, this may yet happen, these thing take time (the lens would not be manufactured by Cooke).
Here is a link to Optical Instruments (Balham) Ltd.
http://www.optil.co.uk/
Best wishes

[Jim Galli]

Hi Jim
unfortunately in the UK we do not have an equivelent to S K Grimes for shutter mounting of barrell lenses, aperture engraving etc., however we do have an excellent re-polishing and coating service, I bought a Computar 210mm on the bay which was a bit cloudy so I sent it to them and had it stripped recemented, repolished and a single layer coating applied to the outer surfaces, the cost was very reasonable and the results are superb, incidentally a few Months ago I conducted a survey on this forum to ascertain how much interest there would be in a modern version of the Cooke 158mm VIIB, this may yet happen, these thing take time (the lens would not be manufactured by Cooke).
Here is a link to Optical Instruments (Balham) Ltd.
http://www.optil.co.uk/
Best wishes

Excellent resource, thank you. I will look into it plus I have a WA Dagor that has gone to pieces and is probably worth de-cementing - re-cementing because of the value of the piece. To address your original question I think the VIIb would have some more useful coverage that the 210mm Computar. I believe the Computars are near 90 degrees to the Cooke's 100.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I had a very bad experience with Optical Instruments, and would recommend extreme caution before sending them anything.

I have recently been using Arax in the Ukraine (http://araxfoto.com/) for recoating and can recommend them, with the usual caveats that both recoating and the postal system are risky. Of course, for a valuable lens you can't do any better than Focal Point (http://www.focalpointlens.com/)

[CP Goerz]

I have to say I have had very hit and miss work from Optical Instruments Ltd in the UK. It took them over a year to coat three lenses and when I got them back they forgot to coat the inside elements! They are currently fixing that order and have had the lenses now for almost nine months...and this was a job they were doing because they refused to release my lenses until I paid VAT ...and I live in the US and am exempt from that tax, Talk about blackmail!!


I'll certainly give this other company a try, I didn't know they existed and felt like I was over a barrel which I kinda still am as they have a bunch of my fave lenses in their hands.


CP Goerz

[Kevin Crisp]

I used Optical Instruments to recement a 19" protar, and coat it. I separated the elements myself and other than a final cleaning they were ready to go. It took a long time to get them back and they also demanded VAT. The work was very well done, though. Focal Point can do this, as well, but you sure better love a lens before doing this, because it gets expensive.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Just today I receieved a package from Arax. It took them a bit under two months (including travel time between the US and the Ukraine) to remove the old (and failed) balsam, polish, coat, and recement two doublets and polish and coat two singlets. For this, including shipping, I paid less than $200. Note that you have to remove the elements from the housing yourself, and this can be difficult with some lenses which are burnished.

OIB took over two years to do similar work on two elements and when they finally returned my glass they had incorrect centered one of the elements, rendering it useless. Amazing.