ebay auction ..just wondering on this Cooke Anglic

[sun of sand]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280434402269&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I happened upon this one while browsing ..it was already at $305 so I decided to watch it to see where it would end up

I've seen these cooke 158's sell for much, much less
and now this one is all the way up to $500+ this morning ..yikes!

Is the TTH lens case that valuable? I haven't seen one before ..but then again I don't look for those things
I can see it selling alone for $75 or something in great shape ..more? In good shape along with the lens I guess could boost it up a bit
Is it "worth" $300?

Is there anything special about this lens over other 158's?
I notice there is no period in the VIIB ..others have it marked as VII.B
I don't know about #SN but this seems to be a "later" lens.
The glass isn't perfect so doesn't seem to be related to that

The seller took his listing photos using a blue light which perhaps could make one think the lens has been coated giving off a colored reflection ..but it's easy to see there is blue light falling onto the barrel itself

Just wondering whats up with it
:confused:


I'm actually building a 4x10 P&S around one of these 158's right now
..to take advantage of its wideness on the format since my 90mm on 4x5 doesn't do it for me

But that's not why I'm curious.


Sun of
My first homemade camera kind of looks like a birdhouse
Sand

[Gene McCluney]

Thats not "blue" light, as much as the seller used a combination of tungsten and flourescent, and the color balance of the image was for the tungsten, which makes the flourescent light quite blue, as it is more daylight in color spectrum.

[sun of sand]

That's a good effort but I have to correct you it's actually a greenhouse grow lamp so it is very much blue light and not just a white balance issue
The best photographers use blue lamps

[Dan Fromm]

TTH claimed Ser. VIIb covered 100 degrees. Many users, e.g., Jim Galli, say that the lens has a distinctive and very pleasing look.

In other words, it is a cult wide angle lens. That's why the price is so high. I have no idea why equivalent 4/4 double Gauss lenses from, e.g., Dallmeyer, Meyer, and Wray, don't sell as high. I do know that Wide Field Ektars, which cover 80 degrees, are also prized, but not as much as Cooke Ser. VIIbs.