Gundlach lens ID help + shutter help

[Darin Boville]

Hello,

I just received a Busch Pressman for my thirteen year old daughter to use. It came with two lenses--one a 127 Ektar and a second in a Rapax shutter with writing on it that is somewhat hard to read. Magnifying the letters it says:

"Anast. F:6.8 Series II 214427 Gundlach Manufacturing Corp. Fairport N.Y. 4x5"

Can anyone help me identify this? Focal length? Coverage? Quality?

I can shoot a pict if that will help.

The second problem is the aperture setting. It seems to be "off"--when set wide open it is actually only half open, when set to about f/8 is is fulling stopped down. Is there a way to fix this?

--Darin

[Jim Galli]

Hi Darin. It's a Turner Reich convertible. About 165mm or so.

That shutter is broke. Don't know what to tell you on that. Good luck.

[CCHarrison]

Specs attached

[Darin Boville]

Hi Darin. It's a Turner Reich convertible. About 165mm or so.

That shutter is broke. Don't know what to tell you on that. Good luck.

Oh no! Not worth fixing, i assume? I guess we could just remark the f-stops--make it an f/8 lens or so...

Is the quality any good--anything special about it?

--Darin

[Darin Boville]

Specs attached

Wow. I googled for quite a while and couldn't figure out what it was--what a great chart. So this is a triple convertible-- 6 1/4 with both cells, 11 and 14 with just one?

Any thoughts on quality? Worth bothering with?

--Darin

[Fotoguy20d]

I have the T-R triple in 4x5 & 8x10 and the earlier Gundlach rapid rectilinear triple in 5x7. It's a nice lens with both cells and not quite as nice converted, but certainly usable as such, certainly for B&W. It's not as well corrected, and suffers from a bit of focus shift when stopping down, but I enjoy shooting with it.

What is the scale marking on the Raptar? I"ll try my cells in a Rapax/Graphex shutter to see if its a standard thread - I have awful luck with those shutters - I almost never get one that works right. It shouldn't be too hard to fix the aperture - I can point you to a disassembly instruction for it. Does the shutter work well.

My Pacemaker Speed Graphic can just barely focus the T-R on its longest focal length. Don't be surprised if the bellows on your Pressman are just a bit too short.

Dan

[Jim Galli]

I like TR's. It might be an easy fix. I wouldn't give up on it too easily. But you're right, it isn't really worth much.

[Darin Boville]

O.K., now that I have the right terms I found these two pages:

http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/006wLk

http://pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=rapax

The first is a photo.net discussion. My copy seems to be a late model. (The glass is perfect, by the way).

The second link is a discussion/photos on repairing the Rapax. Looks like something well beyond my capabilities--plus you don't get to the aperture mechanism until after pulling everything else out. Bummer.

It looks like I can easily use it as an f/8 lens. That will be fine, I think. I'll just mark the new stops with paper/pen. Too bad, though.

--Darin

[Darin Boville]

O.K., I'm back to thinking about this. A question comes to mind. I see bare shutters on e-bay all the time....will this lens screw directly into any of these other shutters? Maybe with the chrome ring that appears to adapt the Turner Reich to the Rapax? Any thoughts?

Image attached.

--Darin