Voigtlander Lens Question

[darter]

A colleague offered to sell me a Voigtlander 20cm (200mm) Tele-Dynar lens. This is a somewhat peculiar size for a telephoto design, but it appears about 60+ yea rs old. The optics are really clear and the Compur shutter appears accurate. I have no idea whether this lens is any good, whether it was designed for 4x5 or what to offer for it. Anybody have any experience with this lens or one like it ?

Thanks in advance,

Phil

[Richard Knoppow]

The Tele-Dynar is a five element lens with the same element arrangement as the Dynar. This lens is probably meant for a 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 or 6x9cm camera. It is unlikely to cover 4x5. I've never seen one of these so I don't know anything about its optical quality. However, Voigtlander in general made very fine lenses so there is a good chance this one is also. The Dynar and the Heliar are related. Both lenses are based on the Cooke Triplet lens. Hans Harting, of Voigtlander, thought he could improve the Triplet by compounding the outside elements. His first attempt had cemented pairs with the negative part facing out. This was the original Heliar. The lens did not work very well so Harting tried reversing the order of power and put the positive element facing out. This arrangement worked a lot better. At first it was called the Dynar but Voiglander liked the name Heliar so the name was changed. This lens has a similar arrangement of elements to the Heliar but with much different spacings and powers to make it a telephoto. An interesting lens.

[Arne Croell]

Richard has covered already most of the points. Voigtänder listed it indeed for the 6x9cm format, with about 30-35 degrees coverage. It will certainly not cover 4x5. It was made approximately from 1928-1935 and came in a Compur 0 shutter, in barrel, or in a focusing mount. Compared to the original Dynar/Heliar, the central biconcave lenses has been shifted to the back side of the aperture close to the cemented group on the back.