Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

LF Forum posts and other internet references indicate that some Wollensak process lenses can be used successfully as taking lenses. Examples include the Apo Raptar f/10, the Graphic Raptar Wide Field f/6.8, and the Pro Raptar Enlarging f/5.6.

I’ll let others speak to performance of these process lenses as taking lenses if they wish. This post is intended to serve as a technical reference of Wollensak’s own specifications, and to disperse some of the fog surrounding these poorly-documented process lenses.

I’m not out to chronicle all things Wollensak - my Lens and Shutter Compendium deals only with Wollensak products designed for commercial, still cameras- but I’ll make other Wollensak references available as I find them. To that end, here is a ~1962 brochure entitled Wollensak Lenses for the Graphic Arts. Sincere thanks to the Smithsonian Library’s Trade Literature Collection for making this brochure available.

This brochure is the only authoritative reference I have seen on the design of late Wollensak process lenses and one of the few publications I have found from Wollensak's nine years as a 3M subsidiary.

Thanks for finding and posting this brochure. Good information - just the cutaway lens diagrams answer several questions about the designs of the different lens types. For example, the f/9 - f/10 Apochromatic Raptars are double Gauss, not dialytes like an Artar/Ronar. The f/8 Amaton is a dialyte. The Graphic Raptar Wide Field came in two different varieties, the f/12.5 are double Gauss, and the f/6.8 (as, I guess, previously rumored) is similar to a Dagor.

Updating with a link to a better scan for posterity: https://alphaxbetax.files.wordpress....aphic-arts.pdf

Nice. They did also make a 299mm Wide Field Graphic Raptar at some point. I have one. It's quite sharp.

Thanks, Karl, I had no idea about the 299mm Wide Field Graphic Raptar. Also f6.8?

Yes.

A belated confirmation that the 299mm f/6.8 Wide Field Graphic Raptar is also a Dagor-type design. It looks like it was added to the series in late 1963, after the aforementioned Wollensak brochure was published.

My experience matches Karl’s: it is a very sharp lens.

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I think most of us recognize that Wollensak made some useful, high quality lenses. Their "Ex. Wide Angles" are excellent. Nobody ever built a better example of the Protar design aka "Series 1a." But when it comes to enlarging lenses, people on line often turn up their noses.

This morning, before reading this thread, I tried out for the first time the 190mm enlarging Raptar I've had for years. I'm using it on 5X7 negatives. Plenty of contrast and razor sharp edge to edge; I don't know what else one could want from an enlarging lens.

Thanks for posting the link to this resource.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kevin Crisp

I think most of us recognize that Wollensak made some useful, high quality lenses. Their "Ex. Wide Angles" are excellent. Nobody ever built a better example of the Protar design aka "Series 1a." But when it comes to enlarging lenses, people on line often turn up their noses.

This morning, before reading this thread, I tried out for the first time the 190mm enlarging Raptar I've had for years. I'm using it on 5X7 negatives. Plenty of contrast and razor sharp edge to edge; I don't know what else one could want from an enlarging lens.

Thanks for posting the link to this resource.

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"Enlarging Raptar" or "Enlarging Pro Raptar?"

The regular non-pro version.