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monkeymon
27-May-2009, 11:06
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-Liquid-Lens-E-F-Gruns-Patent-6-inch-Focus-No-215_W0QQitemZ400052044326QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item5d24f5c226&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A10%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Well how about that? Someone buy it and lets see some photos with it!

Anyone experimented on liquid lenses? I tried ones, just by filling a sphere shaped bottle with water.. only shot one frame, didn't have a proper way to fasten it to a lensboard. I think something like purified gasoline or lighter fluid would be better than water anyway.

After the experiment, i googled and found one water lens.. it was made of two half sphere elements with the air space filled with water.

http://www.novacon.com.br/odditycameras/sutton_arquivos/image002.jpg

Sutton's Patent Panoramic Water Lens, 1859

Peter K
27-May-2009, 11:20
Well how about that? Someone buy it and lets see some photos with it!
Without the oil it's a Petzval lens.

Kingslake mentioned Dr Grün's lens as a joke.

Walter Calahan
27-May-2009, 12:00
Very cool.

Mark Woods
27-May-2009, 12:01
Fill it with KY Jelly (un-flavored and un-colored). It is optically clear and it's water soluble.

goamules
27-May-2009, 12:04
Or fill it with napalm jelly, and stick a fuse in it....

Sevo
27-May-2009, 12:24
The Sutton's Panoramic in your picture was a truly new design with spectacular properties at its time (at 125° coverage it is quite a wide wide angle even by modern standards), and even though its issues meant that it never became a success, it pioneered wide angle design as a whole.

Dr. Grüns "invention" on the other hand is a mere gimmick, a fourty year younger variation on a already severely outdated design (and a stupid one at that - its critics claimed that the dry lens outperformed the liquid filled one).