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Thread: what lens is this?

  1. #1

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    what lens is this?

    picked up a strange lens the other day

    Marked Steinheil Munchen no. 40799 Patent

    physically it is 3.5" tall and 3.75" total diameter..3" glass diameter

    4 strong reflections

    the weird part is the aperture is marked in the old U.S. system - down to f1/2 (as shown)

    I kinda sort of calculated it out to be 16" or 17" and with an apparent aperture wide open of 63mm or so at the front glass

    in no way does that = f2.8 or whatever f1/2 is..so

    what is up??


    it's kind of a nice size between the 14" and 20" lenses I already have though and will shoot it next shoot







  2. #2

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    Re: what lens is this?

    This can't be the first Aplanat which Steinheil, made a few weeks before Dallmeyer made his RR, as he never got a patent for them.

    There was a range of models called antiplanets which Steinheil made later. I think he was still using the (missing) flange to engrave certain details. I am just a reader of Lens VM details which has quite a lot of info on the various series, which are basically fastish portrait lenses with thick glass!

  3. #3

    Re: what lens is this?

    its either a Gruppen Antiplanet or a Rapid Antiplanet. hard to say without seeing how the elements are arranged. also the flange would have been helpfull, since it was mostly engraved.

    i would guess its a Gruppen Antiplanet Series II No.6, having a starting aperture of F6.2, probably meant for the american market. it should be quite a nice lens with good image quality and a nice depth of view. should be really be heavy in weight, since they used serious amount of glass for the elements.

  4. #4

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    Re: what lens is this?

    Quote Originally Posted by studiochrom View Post
    its either a Gruppen Antiplanet or a Rapid Antiplanet. hard to say without seeing how the elements are arranged. also the flange would have been helpfull, since it was mostly engraved.

    i would guess its a Gruppen Antiplanet Series II No.6, having a starting aperture of F6.2, probably meant for the american market. it should be quite a nice lens with good image quality and a nice depth of view. should be really be heavy in weight, since they used serious amount of glass for the elements.

    it is really heavy - and the speed works out...but the aperture scale going down to 1/2? what's that about? and then how do I gauge the engraved apertures vs modern apertures?? (I know about matching up at 16 and counting up and down.. but that gives me f2.8 at marked 1/2)

  5. #5
    Jon Wilson's Avatar
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    Re: what lens is this?

    The aperture scale may be the US System scale. However, the chart I saw starts with f2 which would be f6.6

  6. #6

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    Re: what lens is this?

    US is compared best with the modern F scale in the bottom table of this link. I read this showing the Lens has a max aperture of well under modern F4. Which means it must be one of the versions of the Portrait Antiplanet. This is certainly uncommon and not well described.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number

  7. #7

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    Re: what lens is this?

    Quote Originally Posted by Steven Tribe View Post
    US is compared best with the modern F scale in the bottom table of this link. I read this showing the Lens has a max aperture of well under modern F4. Which means it must be one of the versions of the Portrait Antiplanet. This is certainly uncommon and not well described.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number
    yes..it seems..but when I do the math (focal length over perceived aperture size) - I get something like 6.3 wide open... I guess I'll just shoot some film and test

  8. #8

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    Re: what lens is this?

    Perhaps there is a lens component missing? This wouldn't be the first time a lens has lost a converging element, producing a longer focal length than expected. I remember a landscape lens discussed here that had lost the outer (third) part of the 3 lens cemented achromat.

    So the correct focal length should be about 20cm using the aperture scale and iris entry diameter.

  9. #9
    (Shrek)
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    Re: what lens is this?

    For comparison, a Steinheil Gruppen Antiplanet sold recently on fleabay, I looked it up when it was active, I think it was 360mm focal length.

    142265812050

  10. #10

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    Re: what lens is this?

    mines bigger physically..bigger glass... and has an aperture ring

    might be it..need to see a later example maybe

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