75mm-3inch f/1.9 Oscilloscope Lenses: Market is up . . .whats up with that?

[Drew Bedo]

Just noodling around on an auction site and finding that the lenses used for imaging oscilloscope traces seem to have jumped in pricwe point. These used to be a dime a dozen . . .well $50 each. Now I am seeing them at well over $150 and on up to $260 in some cases.

What is up with this? In years past, have been assured they are mediocre at best by knowledgeable forum members here.

Who is paying top dollar for these lenses and why?

[Dan Fromm]

Asking prices or sold prices? Remember, asking is easy, getting is hard.

[Greg]

Years ago acquired one for well under $50.00. I was after its mint Alphax shutter. Have read of some folks adapting similar lenses to their mirrorless camera bodies. Personally am in the process of adapting a 65mm f/1.0 De Ouder Delft to my mirrorless body. Did read an article of someone adapting one of these ultra fast optics to their Fuji GFX to shoot portraits with, sample images were very impressive.
Do see optics like these on eBay with asking prices of several hundred dollars but never saw one actually being sold.

[linhofbiker]

Back in the early 1980's I was buying a Technica V 4x5 outfit at a local camera store and they had one of these lenses. It will cover 4x5 they said, so I put it on to see the image circle at about 30 feet or so and it covered about a 6cm square image. 4x5 coverage was only at very close distances.

[Jody_S]

Got 2 of them in a box for $100 about 10 years ago, with a bunch of other stuff I actually wanted. I was going to steal the shutters, then for a lark I checked what they were selling for on fleabay. I sold them for over $200 each. I really don't know what people do with them, I'm sure if you search you'll find out.

[Jim Noel]

People do buy the lens for the shutter.

[Drew Bedo]

I have four of these lenses; "Oscillo-Paragopn", 3" f1.9. Two are in Ilex shutters and two are in barrel mount with iris. I have a shop-made ring and a shop-made flange.

I bought them in the 1990s mounted inside Tectronics oscilloscope cameras and salvaged them. I have made a few close-up macro shots on 4x5. They do only cover 6x6 cm at infinity.

Had quite a number of these back then and sold most off at the Houston Camera Show for $50-$80 each. Still have these four but now I am thining out my pile of gear to just what I can cary and use.