Bausch and Lomb Display Piece

Hi All. I scored this Bausch and Lomb lens and Unicum shutter of the bay for less than fifteen bucks. The shutter was pretty much grenade and the aperture blades were completely missing. I thought I would clean it up as a display piece. I love polished brass. So that's what I did. I cleaned the shutter mechanism but one of the blades is broke and it would jam so I removed the blades for now but hope to acquire so parts in the future. The missing timing cylinder I simulated with a piece of golf club shaft and a top I machined out of a chunk of aluminum. Lacking a screw the pin is a peened finishing nail. Also hoping for future parts.

The glass is really clean and appears to have a focal length of about 11 1/4". I hope to get some shots at some point with a digital adaptor but really wish I had the aperture working. Once again maybe in the future. It seems pretty sharp. Not sure if some of you may have seen a similar lens in the past. The only markings on it are some scribed serial numbers on the inside of the front and rear lens pieces.

Either way it looks great hanging off the front of my Newton New Vue.
Attachment 187897 Attachment 187898 Attachment 187899

It looks nice. Any idea what it is? BTW, many of us shoot old lenses with just lens cap exposures, and often wide open, so it is not impossible to use it. For instance shooting paper negatives where you need a lot of light.

Good luck with your projects.

Probably an F.8 RR. In an unusual mount for a Unicum.
Unicums do have the problem of non-metallic blades - basically scrap when the iris needs work.

The next generation of shutters were much better. I don't know if shutters like the Betax etc. have the same range of sizes, threads and distances?

I have a wonderful Busch RR/Aplanat Unicum casket set which is idle because of a scrap Unicum - and a number of reserve Unicum shutters with exactly the same problems!

I certainly would use it, probably wide open with lith film.