Eastman Kodak Portrait Petzval.

[Jim Galli]

US = Universal system (which didn't end up being so universal) 16 is 16. You count stops from there. 8 is 11 4 is 8 2 is 5.6 1 is 4 etc.

[C_M]

US = Universal system (which didn't end up being so universal) 16 is 16. You count stops from there. 8 is 11 4 is 8 2 is 5.6 1 is 4 etc.

Thanks Jim.
Tomorrow I will post more pictures.
And really a bargain. People are focused on the petzval of cult and misleads these jewels.

[goamules]

Should be a great lens. B&L and Wollensak made a lot of good portrait Petzvals in America. Many other countries did too.

Just because one is an F4 petzval design, whichever way the rear glass is configured, doesn't mean "it's a Dallmeyer 3A copy". It's just one of the two basic Petzval designs that all the others were. Dallmeyer didn't invent them, though they invented reversing the rear glass and letting the owner adjust the air gap. It's a Petzval copy, if anything, Petzval invented the design. Not much really changed from the original 1840 Petzval design, Voiglander stealing it in 1841, Lerebours optimzing it for actinic light in the 1840s, Ross making it in the 1850s, then letting Dallmeyer start up their copies, then optimizing it with the "soft focus" adjustment in 1867, then Voigtlander optimizing it some more in the 1870s...and so on.

Levavasseur invented the V8 engine, but you wouldn't call a 1950s Chevy a Ford Flathead V8 copy.

[Jim Galli]

Thanks Jim.
Tomorrow I will post more pictures.
And really a bargain. People are focused on the petzval of cult and misleads these jewels.

I may have owned that one a few years ago. I had an identical one, but it's long gone. Garrett is right, a petzval is a petzval is a petzval. I don't pay much attention to who's name is on it. But those are big, substantial and pretty for sure.

[C_M]

Should be a great lens. B&L and Wollensak made a lot of good portrait Petzvals in America. Many other countries did too.

Just because one is an F4 petzval design, whichever way the rear glass is configured, doesn't mean "it's a Dallmeyer 3A copy". It's just one of the two basic Petzval designs that all the others were. Dallmeyer didn't invent them, though they invented reversing the rear glass and letting the owner adjust the air gap. It's a Petzval copy, if anything, Petzval invented the design. Not much really changed from the original 1840 Petzval design, Voiglander stealing it in 1841, Lerebours optimzing it for actinic light in the 1840s, Ross making it in the 1850s, then letting Dallmeyer start up their copies, then optimizing it with the "soft focus" adjustment in 1867, then Voigtlander optimizing it some more in the 1870s...and so on.

Levavasseur invented the V8 engine, but you wouldn't call a 1950s Chevy a Ford Flathead V8 copy.

Nothing to say. Totally agree...
It was just a way to identify the lens by the configuration of the rear elements.
Thanks.

[C_M]

I may have owned that one a few years ago. I had an identical one, but it's long gone. Garrett is right, a petzval is a petzval is a petzval. I don't pay much attention to who's name is on it. But those are big, substantial and pretty for sure.

I only meant that people are more focused on names like Voiglander, Dallmeyer etc.
I have followed your comments in this forum and I am sure that you do not take this into account, I do not consider it either

[lucaas]

Is the front achromatic lens missing? I can't see it on eBay listing photos.

[C_M]

Is the front achromatic lens missing? I can't see it on eBay listing photos.

... No, the front cemented crown/flint is badly placed between the iris and the last part of the lens body. The correct fit is between this last part and the hood. Very dirty in the photos but glass is in perfect condition.

[karl french]

In 1866 Dallmeyer introduced the Patent Portrait Petzval. Flipping the rear air spaced pair and slightly changing the curves of the elements. Also allowing the two rear elements to be separated to introduce diffusion. Many people copied Dallmeyer's changes. Those copies are rightly called "Dallmeyer copies" as an easy way to identify them in comparison to the "standard" or original Petzval design.

In fact this lens is a Dallmeyer copy. Not by the mere fact that it's an f4 lens, but because it has the flipped rear elements and diffusion control at the rear.

[russyoung]

For the benefit of readers who are not familiar with both lenses, here they are together. The enrgaving on my Eastman Kodak lens is oriented opposite from the original poster's lens, i.e., it reads properly for the sitter rather than the photographer, as do most (but not all) lenses.
Russ