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Thread: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

  1. #1

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    Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    LF Forum posts and other internet references indicate that some Wollensak process lenses can be used successfully as taking lenses. Examples include the Apo Raptar f/10, the Graphic Raptar Wide Field f/6.8, and the Pro Raptar Enlarging f/5.6.

    I’ll let others speak to performance of these process lenses as taking lenses if they wish. This post is intended to serve as a technical reference of Wollensak’s own specifications, and to disperse some of the fog surrounding these poorly-documented process lenses.

    I’m not out to chronicle all things Wollensak - my Lens and Shutter Compendium deals only with Wollensak products designed for commercial, still cameras- but I’ll make other Wollensak references available as I find them. To that end, here is a ~1962 brochure entitled Wollensak Lenses for the Graphic Arts. Sincere thanks to the Smithsonian Library’s Trade Literature Collection for making this brochure available.

    This brochure is the only authoritative reference I have seen on the design of late Wollensak process lenses and one of the few publications I have found from Wollensak's nine years as a 3M subsidiary.
    Last edited by Whir-Click; 3-Dec-2023 at 11:48.

  2. #2

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    Thanks for finding and posting this brochure. Good information - just the cutaway lens diagrams answer several questions about the designs of the different lens types. For example, the f/9 - f/10 Apochromatic Raptars are double Gauss, not dialytes like an Artar/Ronar. The f/8 Amaton is a dialyte. The Graphic Raptar Wide Field came in two different varieties, the f/12.5 are double Gauss, and the f/6.8 (as, I guess, previously rumored) is similar to a Dagor.

  3. #3

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    Updating with a link to a better scan for posterity: https://alphaxbetax.files.wordpress....aphic-arts.pdf

  4. #4

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    Nice. They did also make a 299mm Wide Field Graphic Raptar at some point. I have one. It's quite sharp.

  5. #5

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    Thanks, Karl, I had no idea about the 299mm Wide Field Graphic Raptar. Also f6.8?

  6. #6

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    Yes.

  7. #7

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    A belated confirmation that the 299mm f/6.8 Wide Field Graphic Raptar is also a Dagor-type design. It looks like it was added to the series in late 1963, after the aforementioned Wollensak brochure was published.

    My experience matches Karl’s: it is a very sharp lens.

    Click image for larger version. 

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  8. #8

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    I think most of us recognize that Wollensak made some useful, high quality lenses. Their "Ex. Wide Angles" are excellent. Nobody ever built a better example of the Protar design aka "Series 1a." But when it comes to enlarging lenses, people on line often turn up their noses.

    This morning, before reading this thread, I tried out for the first time the 190mm enlarging Raptar I've had for years. I'm using it on 5X7 negatives. Plenty of contrast and razor sharp edge to edge; I don't know what else one could want from an enlarging lens.

    Thanks for posting the link to this resource.

  9. #9

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Crisp View Post
    I think most of us recognize that Wollensak made some useful, high quality lenses. Their "Ex. Wide Angles" are excellent. Nobody ever built a better example of the Protar design aka "Series 1a." But when it comes to enlarging lenses, people on line often turn up their noses.

    This morning, before reading this thread, I tried out for the first time the 190mm enlarging Raptar I've had for years. I'm using it on 5X7 negatives. Plenty of contrast and razor sharp edge to edge; I don't know what else one could want from an enlarging lens.

    Thanks for posting the link to this resource.
    "Enlarging Raptar" or "Enlarging Pro Raptar?"

  10. #10

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    Re: Late Wollensak Process Lenses: Designs and Specifications

    The regular non-pro version.

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