Wheel Stop Lens

[TroyG]

Hello, all,

My local camera Guru let me borrow a lens to try out before I bought it and he has no idea what exactly it is. I didn't know "wheel stop" (if thats even the proper term) existed before I saw this lens.

There is no markings on the lens anywhere. There are etchings on the back of the wheel that read 8, 16, 32, 64.
Not sure if there's any way to know who made it or how old is, but thats why I figured I would post here!
By my measurements it should be a 165mm lens. Despite the etchings on the back, the larger hole on the wheel I measured as 5/8" which, if I did my math right, would be f10.4.
Any ideas on where one might learn about such a thing?

[Steven Tribe]

Wheel stops have many names - I usually call them rotary stops - but wheel is the most common one I think. There is plenty of discussion about them here and there are a couple of links at the foot of this page.

They were particularly common for simple achromatic meniscus lenses as well as wide-angled rectilinear lenses - especialy those with tiny lenses in larger front mountings where most of the "wheel" can be concealed.

They are/were superb for paired stereoscopic lenses, where precise holes garantee equal illumination.

Yours is definitely unusual in having so much of the wheel outside of the barrel and may be identifiable by somebody.

[Two23]

There are etchings on the back of the wheel that read 8, 16, 32, 64.

Sounds like the old U.S. system (Unified System.) That was common on American made lenses from 1900-1920-ish. On that scale, f16=f16, f8=modern f11, f32=modern f22, f64=modern f32. So, your measurement of f10.4 is pretty darn close to f11, which for me confirms U.S. aperture values.


Kent in SD

[jnantz]

the wheelstop i had was the STOLZE system ..
https://www.photo.net/photo/2531428

good luck !