How to remove heavy casing from 24" Aero Tessar

[36cm2]

Sorry for the bother, but does anyone know how (and whether its worth it) to remove the very heavy casing from a Bausch & Lomb 24" Aero Tessar? I'd like to use the lens, but would prefer to drop the weight presented by the casing. I assume that would take at least a couple of pounds off. Anyway, if anyone has ideas or experience on this, it's greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Kind regards,
Leo

[Dan Fromm]

Leo, I'm sorry that I have no experience with that lens. But I've had other similar monstrosities and I've looked a pictures of 24" Aero Tessars.

Don't bother. The cells should unscrew, if you can get a grip on them. But once they're out you'll have two cells with no barrel to separate them and no diaphragm between them. And then what will you do?

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I have one, and Dan is correct, the cells just unscrew from the barrel. For what it is worth, the barrel for this lens and the Kodak 12" f2.5 and the Eastman 13.5" f3.5 aerial lenses are the same.

[LabRat]

There is a couple of small set screws holding cells from rotating, so remove them first...

Steve K

[36cm2]

Thank you all. This is extremely helpful. I’ll see which direction I want to take. Much appreciated.

[Dan Fromm]

Thank you all. This is extremely helpful. I’ll see which direction I want to take. Much appreciated.

Your choices are very limited.

Use the lens as is.

Remove the cells, fabricate a sleeve the right length to hold them, cut a slot in the sleeve for Waterhouse stops. The 36"/9 B&H (yes, Bell & Howell) lens I was given had such a sleeve, but without the slot. Your lens will still need a shutter to be usable. Good luck finding one.

Use the lens as a doorstop.

Just walk away from it.

I have a small heap of lenses extracted from aerial cameras, have sold off others that I couldn't use or chose not to use on my cameras for my purposes. The majority of lenses fitted to aerial cameras are, as the VM remarks, unusable on regular cameras. This doesn't stop dreamers from trying to use them and, mostly, failing.

[Bernice Loui]

Does this lens have a Fairchild K38 shutter? Many aero lenses from that era did.
Regardless, these are enormous lenses that simply do not do well on common sheet film cameras for a long list of realities.


Bernice

[LabRat]

I ended up with one of these 10 years ago for about $5... I had gotten the lens cells out without too many problems, as I loosened the set screws, but 1 cell was a little stuck... I put a rubber strip around cell, then a S/S hose clamp around that, then tapped the clamp area through a wooden rod with a small hammer... It came loose without trouble...

I ended up cannibalizing the electric harness parts like microswitches etc that are in other projects now...

Was trying to find an application for this lens, but have to be very creative... Best thing I figure would be for a small camera obscura, telescope, or for light projection (maybe one of those Thomas Winifred light machines)... Still waiting for inspiration...

Steve K

[36cm2]

Your choices are very limited.

Use the lens as is.

Remove the cells, fabricate a sleeve the right length to hold them, cut a slot in the sleeve for Waterhouse stops. The 36"/9 B&H (yes, Bell & Howell) lens I was given had such a sleeve, but without the slot. Your lens will still need a shutter to be usable. Good luck finding one.

Use the lens as a doorstop.

Just walk away from it.

I have a small heap of lenses extracted from aerial cameras, have sold off others that I couldn't use or chose not to use on my cameras for my purposes. The majority of lenses fitted to aerial cameras are, as the VM remarks, unusable on regular cameras. This doesn't stop dreamers from trying to use them and, mostly, failing.

Thank you to everyone for the input. It's very helpful. Dan, this was what I was intending to do:

"Remove the cells, fabricate a sleeve the right length to hold them, cut a slot in the sleeve for Waterhouse stops."

This lens would only be used for wetplate on a very large studio camera with long bellows. In that element it seems it could make sense if I can get the weight down and establish some stops. I don't need a shutter given the extremely slow nature of the process (ISO 1). I could probably just use it wide open, but I expect it will perform a little better down a stop. Anyway, it's a project within a project. For now, I'll probably just leave it where it is. I'm not even sure how to fabricate a sleeve that would fit. PVC? Don't care if it's ugly, just don't want to stress my standards unnecessarily, although they could probably easily take the ten pounds with a little jack stand style support up front.

I'm probably just one of the dreamers noted above, and will likely end up with the suggested not good results in trying! Anyway, always great help from everyone. I appreciate your time and insight. Have a great day and stay safe.

[Bernice Loui]

These BIG aero lenses can be used to make telescopes. Number of these have been used as the basis for a refractor telescope by hobby astronomy folks. Have a few of these sitting around, none were ever intended to be used for sheet film photography. All are hobby telescope projects.



Bernice