Hugo Meyer 5¼" (120mm) Wide Angle Aristostigmat coverage

[IanG]

Does anyone have any experience of this lens, it's the older f9 version. I picked it up yesterday quite cheap (£20/$31) and optically it's in excellent condition with a smotth & accurate Dial-set Compur. It may well have been serviced/repaired and uncollected as it's had a new cable release socket fitter and is from the stock of a retired repair man. The shutter also has a dual aperture scale as the lens can also be split.

Meyer's sales literature from 1927 states it covers whole plate - 6½"x8½" - wide open with 4" rise, it seems to cover 10x8 as well which has surprised me.

If anyone else has one I'd appreciate some photographs of the aperture scales as the paintwork on the shutter's in poor condition. The top scale for use as a wide-angle is all there but some of the scale used split has worn off. The other scales on the bottom are worn away completely.

Ian

[IanG]

5¼" is equivalent t0 135mm not 120mm as I put in the title.

Are these lenses that rare ?

Ian

[Dan Fromm]

Ian, they're discussed at length in the VM. And www.cameraeccentric.com has several Meyer catalogs. Meyer claimed 100 degrees, a 100 degree 135 mm lens will cover 316 mm.

[IanG]

Thanks Dan

I'd looked on the Camera Eccentric website but the Meyer adverts in BJPA's have more detail. I have the 1928 & 35 copies referred to in the Vade Mecum in Turkey but the adverts are similar to those in other copies I have here in the UK and give greater details of the coverage.

The 1927 & 29 Meyer adverts give the coverage of the 5¼" as 6½"x8½" (Whole plate) with 4" of rise at full aperture, this is intriguing because assuming that's landscape mode it would indicate the lens can cover 8½"x14½" that needs a circle of coverage of approx 426 mm based on 6½" + the 4" rise + a corresponding 4" fall and 8½" wide.

Even forgetting the corners that 14½" top to bottom or side to side is 368mm. I'll test it in the next week or two.

Ian

[Steven Tribe]

Sorry, this is late - but I didn't notice the 120mm mistake at first!
I have one of these in barrel, 1588085, F9, no.1a, 135mm.
These were as popular for WA as Busch's series D aplanat were for normal RR in the early years of the century.
My (barrel) aperture is marked, 9,12.5,18,25,36. This final value still has an opening of about 5mm - it will not go down below this point.
No experience in use!

[Dan Fromm]

Steven, not directly relevant but I've tried out a coated (late 1950s) 100/6.3 Aristostigmat on 2x3. The f/6.3ers replaced the f/9ers. f/6.3 is for focusing, f/11 and smaller for shooting. I think this is the nature of 4/4 double Gauss wide angles, the WF Ektars excepted, perhaps.

I have contrastier normal lenses for 2x3, but then the 100/6.3 wasn't made to be used as a normal lens on 2x3.

[IanG]

Mine's earlier than Steven's if the serial numbers run consequetively and dates from roughly 1928. The Wide Angle Aperture scale is modern f9, 11,16, 22, 32 possibly f45 but thats under the new cable release socket. The second scale is f5.6, 6, 8, 11, then rubbed off and possibly f32.

Meyer do state "Gives critical definition at full aperture f9".

Ian

[renes]

Jiri Vasina (also a member of this forum) have a few of them and took some beautiful landscapes with Aristosigmats (http://www.vasina.net/?page_id=60). I have also three: 80/6.3, 120/6.3 and 180/6.8, hope to use them this summer.