Show Off Your (not so common) Lens!!

[Richard K.]

Are you the proud owner of a Nicoa Perscheid? Harrison & Schnitzer? Port-Land? Portric Knuckler? P & S Visual Quality? Grubb-C? Sigmar? Plasticca? Chevalier Double Objective Achromat? P & S Impaired Vision? etc. etc. Well most of us common folk have never even seen one let alone fondled one! Please post your photos of your treasure(s) so that we can share in the communion of drooling...

[Steven Tribe]

I have posted a "head on" image before" but this shows the rim and the short length. This is the big 600m Plasticca. As you can see, the yellow tinting of the glass is very slight.
The Port-Land/Portland had a thread with all the variations illustrated a short time ago.

[Hugo Zhang]

Aero-Xenotar 460mm f/4.5.

[Richard K.]

Oh you guys! I just drooled on the letter vvvvvvv...V!.....
What beauty lies there! What glowing loveliness! What....sorry...my dog just knocked over a bowl, disturbing my reverie! :D

[Gordon Moat]

Circa 1855 Holmes, Booth & Haydens 1/4 plate Petzval type lens with original lens hood and flange. Currently mounted on a Technika lensboard for use on my 4x5.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography (http://www.gordonmoat.com)

[Emil Schildt]

I have posted a "head on" image before" but this shows the rim and the short length. This is the big 600m Plasticca. As you can see, the yellow tinting of the glass is very slight.
The Port-Land/Portland had a thread with all the variations illustrated a short time ago.

As you (steven) know, I have a smaller version of the Plasticca, so I won't upload an image of that...

However, I'd like to see a few images taken with the lenses in question, so I upload a simple image taken with my plasticca. (last image)

And one of my favourite (rare?) lenses, is the Oskar Simon "Kronarette" with only full aperture possible, but built in a nice shutter - and then an image done with that..

(all actual images done on 13x18cm film.

[Richard K.]

I have posted a "head on" image before" but this shows the rim and the short length. This is the big 600m Plasticca. As you can see, the yellow tinting of the glass is very slight.

That's a beautiful looking lens, Steven. When and where was it born?

[Steven Tribe]

Dear Richard, there has been a recent Oscar Zwierzina/Plasticca thread too - with lots of data! Production seems to have stopped around 1932 and OZ disappeared. Speaking from memory, Oscar Simon seems to have continued production of a similar type in Dresden, whilst another Netherlands company made a third version. The Zwierzina family seems to have very culturally active and there were relations in Switzerland and the Netherlands ( a clue, perhaps, concerning the sudden new production?). There was an Oscar Zwierzina who patented something for a Bicycle in Switzerland around 1936 and an Oscar Zwierzina who entered the USA very late in the 1930's. I think the "pictorial" death in the 30's would have ended the Plasticca, though "National Socialism" might have helped kill off the Plasticca. It was, by the way, a very cheap lens.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Aero-Xenotar 460mm f/4.5.

Wow! Is it a 5/3 Planar like the lesser Xenotar lenses? How does it perform?

[Arne Croell]

An Angulon f/5.6, from the early 1950's. Yes, you read right, a humble Angulon by name, but not an f/6.8, and not a Super-Angulon either. And the construction is different from both the normal Angulon and the Super-Angulon. Its a Topogon-type with 4 deeply curved menisci. A Schneider prototype, they made 4 of it according to their manufacturing lists. I got mine off the German ebay some years ago, but Westlicht auctioned off another one in 2002 (http://www.westlicht-auction.com/index.php?id=13897&acat=13897&_ssl=off). It originally came in barrel, but I had S.K. Grimes put it into a regular Copal, manufacture a filter adapter and the aperture scale. Performance is much better than a regular Angulon, on par with an SA. Since this was made around the time shortly before the original f/8 SA came out, I assume it was the alternative to the SA. It is much smaller and lighter in comparison and has f/5.6 to boot. Why didn't they bring it to production? The coverage is a few degrees less than an SA (around 95° -100°) , the falloff is stronger (cos^4 vs cos^3), and the manufacturing costs for those delicate thin and steep menisci might have been too high.

[Jim Galli]

Interesting lens Arne. Looks like a cross between a Hypergon and a Biogon.

[John Jarosz]

300mm Metrogon on my 8x20. I made the mount to sandwich the lensboard. Waterhouse stops. 8x10 darkslide is the shutter. Mounted on board weighs approx 6#. There is a red and yellow filter that also compensates for exposure fall-off. Gives very nice images, it was a cool project.

John