Relative rarity of dallmeyer Petzvals?

[robk331]

Hi All,

I've been search for a thread here about the relative rarity of the various Dallmeyer petzvals. I can't find it and I beginning to wonder if I imagined it...

The post stated (I think) the the 3B's are pretty common in comparison to the 4B's and 3A's. Does anyone have this information handy or point me to the thread?

Thanks

Rob

[CCHarrison]

Try http://antiquecameras.net/softfocuslenssales.html


Dan

[Steven Tribe]

This is something I was thinking of doing in about a weeks time! But I am more interested in actual production, rather than apparent availablility in the marketplace.

There is now an on-line Dallmeyer archive which is working well. I thought about taking a couple of years in the lens ledger and tallying up the exact number of the Patent Petzvals (including also the C series) for particular years (perhap 1870 and 1880?). The lenses were made as batch productions - apart from the larger sizes - so it is not too much work.

It would be nice to come back from an Easter holiday to find out that someone else has already done it?

[CCHarrison]

Steven

Its hard to imagine availability in the marketplace doesnt mirror acutal production, but I would sure like to know. Especially interesting would be to see production over time.

Dan

[Steven Tribe]

Especialy interesting would be the ratio of 2B patent, 2B and 2B long non-patent and the CdV 1B types.

A first impression was:

-Not many C's and they were made to order.
-Not many larger sizes than 3 made in large batches and always to an order.

There is also often a completion date and a "dispatch" date which differs by quite a few months for the larger batches.

[goamules]

I believe you'll find it changed over time. In the mid 1860s, I hypothesize more small ones were made, because small cameras were the entry point for new photography studios. carte de visites (CDV) were very popular, but only about 2 3/8" x 4 1/4", so the 1B or other small lenses would do. A decade later, Cabinet Cards (4 1/2 x 6 1/2) were the popular size, so studios needed bigger lenses. Wetplate required faster lenses so the B series probably sold well still, but it was more expensive than the A. I believe you'll find the A series started outselling the B at some point. By the time of dryplates, wholeplate and 8x10 had become a popular studio size. So even larger lenses were sold by the 1880s.

So production would have shifted over the decades. In 1865, a "mammoth" size would not have been ordered but a few times. A large A probably a little more, a large B a little more, then most of the orders would be medium sized lenses. In 1895, a lot more larger lenses, probably the A series would have been sold.

This is just my educated guess, and the ledgers need to be researched to confirm.

[fecaleagle]

This is something I was thinking of doing in about a weeks time! But I am more interested in actual production, rather than apparent availablility in the marketplace.

There is now an on-line Dallmeyer archive which is working well. I thought about taking a couple of years in the lens ledger and tallying up the exact number of the Patent Petzvals (including also the C series) for particular years (perhap 1870 and 1880?). The lenses were made as batch productions - apart from the larger sizes - so it is not too much work.

It would be nice to come back from an Easter holiday to find out that someone else has already done it?

Do you have a link to this archive? I do a lot of web-scraping at work. This means that I often write software that automatically parses and extracts information from web pages. I'd be interested in having a look at the resource and seeing if it would be feasible.

[fecaleagle]

I found the archive and see that the ledger pages are not flat scans, and that the handwriting changes at various points in the ledgers. I will see if there is any processing I can do to isolate individual rows, but that will prove difficult as well given the curvature of the open pages. Let's quickly extinguish any hope my last post may have inspired.

[robk331]

Yes this is what I had in mind, production rather than current availability. I could've sworn that someone posted something along these lines a while ago, specifically mentioned the relative production rates of 3B's compared to other Dallmeyer lens.

Just anecdotally, I would say that the 3B isn't in fact all that rare, followed by the 3A and 5D. Rarer lenses would be the 2A and 4B. But that's just by observing the frequency with which these lenses appear for sale.

Rob

This is something I was thinking of doing in about a weeks time! But I am more interested in actual production, rather than apparent availablility in the marketplace.

There is now an on-line Dallmeyer archive which is working well. I thought about taking a couple of years in the lens ledger and tallying up the exact number of the Patent Petzvals (including also the C series) for particular years (perhap 1870 and 1880?). The lenses were made as batch productions - apart from the larger sizes - so it is not too much work.

It would be nice to come back from an Easter holiday to find out that someone else has already done it?

[Steven Tribe]

When I get round to it, l'll try and give an idea of how production numbers of Petzvals (not the stereo petzvals, though) compare with RR's and landscapes numbers.
The 3B was an exceptionally popular studio lens in some countries in the days when every town had competing Studios. The big retail buyer was Anthony in the early years.