Cone Centralisateur - NOT

[goamules]

It said:

"Hello, and thanks for looking at my auction. I am selling what through exhaustive research appears to be a Cone Centralisateur brass lens..."

No, it's a basic magic lantern lens. I contacted the seller, told him it wasn't a Darlot Cone, and why. He wrote back something vague, didn't list my question, and let some poor suckers bid it up to over $400. Caveat Emptor.

OhBoy 120463450044

[CCHarrison]

Having said what you've said, that rear element does look to be from a Cone Centralisateur lens. The fact that it appears to cleanly screw into the remainder of the lens body would lead me to believe the rest of the lens was also made by Darlot....perhaps a Darlot ML lens or Petzal lens...

I am unaware of any ML Lens or straight Petzval Lens that had that cone shaped rear group....

reference image http://auction-team.de/new_highlights/2007_06/ph/016.html

Dan

[Kerik Kouklis]

Hmmm... Now I'm glad I didn't bid on it!

[goamules]

I still don't think it is.
1. Didn't Darlot always sign their better lenses?
2. Also, I've never seen a Darlot with a chromed barrel, I've always seen brass.
3. All the later Darlots with hoods like this have a knurled, black section right under the hood that holds the front element.
4. The hood should be flat at the rear, not a concave bevel.
4. The focus mount screws on Darlots I've seen are raised, not flush.

Now, the focus knob does look like Darlots, but that's about it, to me. This is all on memory, and I didn't research the way all real cone types look. But it just seems they would have marked the lens.

I have seen magic lantern lenses with cones in the rear. The two pics show his, and one of mine.

Garrett

[eddie]

it does not look anything like mine. i am with garrett.

[CCHarrison]

I would love to see a photo of another ML lens or Petzval with a cone shaped rear group....

Thanks
Dan

PS - Eddie, I'm not saying thats a Cone Lens, merely that the rear group may be from a Cone Lens...the rest of the lens is clearly not a Cone lens.

[eddie]

PS - Eddie, I'm not saying that is a Cone Lens, merely that the rear group may be from a Cone Lens...the rest of the lens is clearly not a Cone lens.

i can agree with that. the cone maybe original to a cone lens but the rest is suspect.

[Steven Tribe]

There is no doubt but that this is a magic lantern lens. I wrote to him too when it was listed - but he had obviously been blinded/duped by the cone rear section and the time he had invested getting more excited on the internet search. It will be interesting to see the eventual feedback given by the buyer - it hasn't come yet - at least he got a petzval with his bid. The advantages of a cone casing at the rear of a magic lantern objective - with the surface facing away from intense heat source - seems obvious. Use of nickle/chrome suggests an 1890's/1900's time frame.