75mm F/1.9 OSCILLO-ANASTIGMAT No C47616 WOLLENSAK-DUMONT

[venchka]

A member of the Texas Photo Forum was asking about this lens:

75mm F/1.9 OSCILLO-ANASTIGMAT No C47616 WOLLENSAK-DUMONT

Does anyone know anything about it? Image quality? Usefulness on another camera? The camera it came from was Polaroid based.

Thanks!

[Dan Fromm]

Useless for most purposes. The shutter, if it has more than one speed, may be useful for front-mounting lenses in barrel or even a pinhole. And I suppose it can be used to take really funky macro shots. Its designed to photograph traces on an oscilloscope's cathode ray tube. May be designed to image a curved field (the inside of the front of the tube) on a plane (the film), that claim's been made. In general, a paperweight. I hope member of the TPF didn't pay much for it.

[Nathan Potter]

I'll second Dans' comment. I've actually used this lens attached to the standard oscilloscope camera but backed in toward the film plane for subject distances of about 3 to 6 feet. Amazingly poor performance with Polaroid Type 52 film. I did co-worker mug shots for the fun of it.

Nate Potter

[IanG]

I have an f1.9 75mm Dallmeyer Oscilloscope lens, it's great as a loupe but not much else, the shutter's a Press Prontor, and excellent at all speeds.

These lenses usually have extremely poor coverage at infinity not much more than 35mm, perhaps just enough for a 645, and as Dan says they are computed for macro work, they wouldn't need to have particularly good definition or correction after all the CRT tubes used at the time the lenses were made were quite low resolution.

Ian

[Void]

Has some of You did use it for macro, especially 4:1? What was the result?

[IanG]

I tried mine on one of my 5x4's to check the image circle, it doesn't stop down very much at all, f8 I think (I don't have it with me), it wasn't practical to mount it on bellows for 35mm use. So I didn't try it as a macro lens because I'm sure the quality won't be very good.

Ian

[venchka]

Thanks everyone! I think he paid a $1 for the whole camera.

[Hollis]

I have one too and realized that normally, it would be a worthless lens but jsut tonight, I took the rear element off and sure as shit, it covers 4x5. I haven't shot anything yet with it and don't even know the focal length - I would say around 150-180mm.

[venchka]

There you go. Everything has value to someone.

[Hollis]

Here is a quick polaroid scan...

[Glenn Thoreson]

Nice distortion. I had one of those O-scope lenses laying around for years. I finally found a use for the shutter, which has no mounting threads on the rear. I think I still have the rear group. It might be fun to play with.

[Hollis]

yeah, go for it. My shutter is a bit slow at the slower speeds but at 1/10 and up it is right on, just needs a cleaning. I want to shoot some portraits with it as soon as I can.

[Murray]

Doesn't one of those Oscillo-whomever's have radioactive glass?

[jimi-the-jive]

Doesn't one of those Oscillo-whomever's have radioactive glass?

no thats the aero ektar, F1.7 i think, barrel lens not oscillio. supposed to a great portrait lens

[Bertrand Delonglee]

I have this objective too, monted on a 4x5 Bender photographic.
One other way to use it is after removing the rear lens , unscrew the front lens
and screw it on the rear of the obturator.
It works!!

[E. von Hoegh]

I got a perfectly good Alphax shutter off one and mounted a 9 1/2" Dagor in it by machining two adapter rings, getting the spacing from the defunct Compound it was originally mounted in. Cost $15.:)

[LF skier]

I have this objective too, monted on a 4x5 Bender photographic.
One other way to use it is after removing the rear lens , unscrew the front lens
and screw it on the rear of the obturator.
It works!!


Bertrand,

What is the obturator?

Thank you!

[Dan Fromm]

PMFJI. Shutter.

[E. von Hoegh]

Bertrand,

What is the obturator?

Thank you!

An obturator is a sealing device, used in artillery, and also an early type of piston ring (made of brass and very troublesome) used in early rotary engines.

In this instance the word is most likely used to mean "shutter". Probably a literal translation.

[Jody_S]

Welcome to a fellow Montrealer. Yes, the French for shutter is 'obdurateur'.

Ps: Phil, I'm pretty sure I saw you leaving Parc & Van Horne last winter as I was entering. Nice ramps!

[Dan Fromm]

Obturateur, Shrik.

[E. von Hoegh]

Obturateur, Shrik.

An obdurateur would be someone who practices the trait of obduracy?;)

[Dan Fromm]

E., when I learned French 50 years ago the Quebecois spoke a funny French. This was before big Charlie put his large foot in his large mouth and encouraged them to think of themselves as French rather than as Canadians. They may now speak and spell a more nearly Parisian French.

[Jody_S]

M'kay, I don't get to practice my written French very often.

[E. von Hoegh]

E., when I learned French 50 years ago the Quebecois spoke a funny French. This was before big Charlie put his large foot in his large mouth and encouraged them to think of themselves as French rather than as Canadians. They may now speak and spell a more nearly Parisian French.

I don't know, the Quebecois are pretty obdurate...

[Jody_S]

E., when I learned French 50 years ago the Quebecois spoke a funny French. This was before big Charlie put his large foot in his large mouth and encouraged them to think of themselves as French rather than as Canadians. They may now speak and spell a more nearly Parisian French.

I've had to think about this a little. I grew up during the revolution tranquille, in a farming community, and worked in construction from an early age. I would sometimes bring a sharpie into washrooms on construction sites and correct the spelling and grammar of anti-English screeds. The common story was of a man who went to school until the age of 10 or 12, then left to work on the family farm. The Quebecois joual was almost a language unto itself, practically incomprehensible to Parisians.

The difference now is that most complete their basic schooling and do indeed learn some correct French, though the spoken joual hasn't changed all that much in this time. It's just that most people are able to speak both now, instead of just the priests and notaries and the hippie bearded intellectuals. In fact, our bearded hippies from the 1970s separation movement are going extinct, in favor of younger hipsters who view themselves as not just Quebecois, but part of the international community.