French madness - World's biggest (photographic) lens?

[CCHarrison]

ooops...forgot to add this reference:

"Two Zeiss patent lenses were especially made by the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company of Rochester, NY. One was a wide-angle lens of 5½ ft equivalent focus and the second one, which was used to make the train photograph, was a telescopic rectilinear lens of 10 ft equivalent focus." Times-Herald, 24 October 1900. URL: http://robroy.dyndns.info/lawrence/mammoth.html#fn12

Dan

[duff photographer]

I would like to have seen the train. Anyone know of an image available online?

Here's a link to the whole story published at the time in The Harmsworth Magazine with a photo. Scroll about halfway down.

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/199777/2197909.aspx

[Emil Schildt]

Here's a link to the whole story published at the time in The Harmsworth Magazine with a photo. Scroll about halfway down.

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/199777/2197909.aspx

this is very cool!

(where did the lenses go?)

[duff photographer]

this is very cool!

(where did the lenses go?)

Dunno :-(

I checked around a while ago but didn't find anything. Perhaps the camera and the lens went to the railroad company as I assume they paid for it all. Might be hidden in some back room of some dusty building, although I can't imagine that nowadays, or maybe it was destroyed as part of the deal. Pure conjecture on my part. ;-)

Further to the link I provided, these might also be of interest...

http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-200...2summer130.pdf
http://robroy.dyndns.info/lawrence/mammoth.html

...and is the only published material on the camera I know about (other than that already linked above), although there must be more.

DF

[Michael Clark]

That Lawrence fellow was really an inventive person. The shutter on the Kite cameras he used to photograph the San Francisco earth quick and fire is pretty interesting in having the gap between the two shutter curtains at different widths from top to bottom to compensate for exposure between the foreground light and sky light.Those camera's were huge. Nice link duff.

Mike

[Jim C.]

duff, very informative read thanks for finding those links.