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Daniel Stone
9-Aug-2011, 09:59
I just bought a 24" RDA, but dumby me, didn't check the serial # before clicking "buy it now"! I re-looked, and the # starts with a 787, I remember reading(IIRC, it was here on LFPF) that there was some "design change?" to the lenses starting with the 8xxx serial #'s.

basically, my question is this:

Is there a BIG difference performance-wise on a 7xxxxxx series Red-Dot Artar vs the "later" 8... series ones? Its been mounted into a Copal 3 shutter, and should be arriving in the next few days, but just wanted to get some more info on it if anyone's willing to share some.

thanks!

-Dan

John Schneider
9-Aug-2011, 10:35
Dan, RDAs made before s/n 788xxx are crap (and radioactive to boot), but I'll take it off your hands for a small fee. ;) I saw that listing, you got a sweet deal.

As I understand, Artars became RDA's when Goerz began coating at s/n 779612 (first Red Dot Artar, Oct 1953). Around that time, RDA's that were delivered in shutters had their spacing tweaked to optimize the performance at infinity, rather than 1:1. I'm not aware of anyone being able to see a difference in RDAs delivered in shutter and in barrel in a scientific test.

Well into the 8xx,xxx s/n's the barrel material was switched to aluminum, which makes for a much lighter assembly (on the larger 35" and up lenses, the brass barrels were a good quarter-inch thick and amazingly heavy).

Steve Hamley
10-Aug-2011, 03:59
There were certainly coated Artars before the Red Dot series. I have only one though,but a jpeg is attached.

Cheers, Steve

E. von Hoegh
10-Aug-2011, 12:26
They're not only crap and radioactive, but carry a curse from Asmodeus, Cthulhu, Shub Niggurath, and Pat Robertson working in concert.


Relax. It's a fine lens. :) You'll love it.

John Schneider
10-Aug-2011, 13:28
There were certainly coated Artars before the Red Dot series. I have only one though,but a jpeg is attached.


I have several coated, non-Red Dot Artars that came together with a process camera (s/n 755,xxx). Andrew Glover's take was that these were later coated, and probably returned to Goerz for the procedure. Yours (a beautiful example btw), being so close in serial number to the first RDA, may have been coated when manufactured.

Kerry L. Thalmann
11-Aug-2011, 14:56
There were definitely factory coated non-Red Dot Artars. I don't have a reference handy, but Goerz began coating their lenses sometime around 1946-47. This pre-dates the first Red Dot Artar by six or seven years.

Kerry