Process Lens??

[jonesp]

Have had this lens in an ILEX #4 electronic shutter for awhile. There are no distinct marking on the lens itself, only numbers on the front lens. The lens seems to have been originally purchased in 1978 from the marking on the box top. Plan on buying a standard ILEX #4 shutter to put it in. Anyone have an idea as to what lens this is? Thanks in advance.

[Dan Fromm]

For Kenro? Process lens. Do you have a controller for the shutter?

[jonesp]

Never got one Dan. Bought it on a whim. If it's a decent lens, I'd like to put it in a standard #4 ILEX.

[Mark Sampson]

850 Hudson Ave. in Rochester is the address for the old Wollensak Optical plant. Wollensak went under c.1972, so JML must have been a successor, making optics for the trade, not consumers. (There are still quite a few high-tech optics shops in Roch, none of which have any public presence.) I was working as a photographer there back then but never saw a JML lens or even heard of the company. 6-1/2" f/8 suggests a wide-angle copy lens for a vertical process camera, but that idea could be way off. I will bet that it's pretty darn sharp, whatever it was meant for.

[jonesp]

Thanks Mark. Guess I'll find out when I get another shutter.

[Steven Tribe]

JML was a very well known maker of lenses for process equipment. You can find a lot through a standard google search.

[Nodda Duma]

JML is still around and is now a well known optics manufacturer in the industry. They have a manufacturing facility in the Rochester area and over in China, leveraging one or the other depending on the customer and their needs. Their lens manufacturing capability is pretty good, and even the US-site prices are cost-competitive.

They went away from making assemblies in the past but are trying to get back into it..although probably not for the consumer market.

JML is on Linden Ave, on the eastern edge of Rochester. They rented space in the building at 850 Hudson from Optical Gaging Products, which acquired the building to consolidate after Wollensak folded. JML acquired and moved into an old Ilex facility in ~'79. I don't know if that's the same building they're still in or if they moved again.

OGP as a division of QVI is still in Wollensak's old building on Hudson Ave.