21 1/4in Kodak Anastigmat -- flipped lettering

[Dirk Rösler]

Hi, received this lens today. Any ideas why the lettering on the rim is mirrored? I know it is a copy lens... is this common for them?

Dirk

[Struan Gray]

Graphics arts lenses often were sold with a prism on the front, so a copy could be made without inverting the original. I assume this was for making plates, which you can't look at from the back. The lettering is mirrored so that you can read it without taking the prism off.

[Dirk Rösler]

Hi, thanks - that explains it. My fear was that someone had taken it apart and back together in the wrong way :)

Any idea how this kind of lens does for pictorial use?

[Brook Martin]

Very sharp lens.

[Mark Sampson]

These lenses were later called "Copying Ektanon". Yours is from 1942.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

This is a great lens. It is very sharp indeed. I am using mine on my 8x20 and it has coverage to spare. This one is one of those sleeper lenses in my opinion. I have an Ilex 21 1/4" lens for my recently finished 11x14.

Jim

[Dirk Rösler]

Thanks everybody. Sounds like a fine piece of glass with plenty of coverage for my modest 8x10.

[Ernest Purdum]

Putting a prism on the front is a very old idea. It was used on daguerrrotypes (some, noit all). Since then, it has been occasionally done for timtypes and other direct positive techniques.

[Ernest Purdum]

I should have added that if you have a document, birth certificate military discharge, etc., which has white lettering on a black background, you have a "photostat", once a very common application for copying lenses with prisms attached. One more direct positive application and pre-Xerox a very common one.

[LFstudent]

I use this same lens on a 12x20 - no issues. Try it and see if you like it.