Hello,
I just picked up a big brass lens, marked CC Harrison(2nd lens). It is missing the gear drive for the focus, and I am going to be looking for replacement or a fab of some kind. Any advice on this lens? I am pretty new to these lenses, and have a line on a couple other lenses.
There was a guy in Oregon, Larry Linville, who is known for making new radial drives for old American petzvals. Lovely work, not cheap. I think he is still working but I don't have contact info for him.
CC Harrison is sometime a crap shoot...If you get a good one keep it...but some are not, they are handmade so it's hit and miss.
Originally Posted by SteveFoote
Lens looks like a RR to me, and would not have had a geared focus. Am I missing something?
Kent in SD
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
Yup...looks like a RR, all you need is some waterhouse stops to control your aperture...by the looks of it I'm guessing it is a f8 lens for a 5x7 but may go up to 8x10 but you can only tell if you put it up to a light and some white paper to see the back focus distance to see if it can fill the image. Good for portrait and landscapes. If plan to wide open then you will need a shutter at around 1/250th of a second. If you don't have one you can just use two film holder fins and do the Jim Galli shutter method, if your camera doesn't have a universal packard shutter.
...it says: 'The Portrait' and ... for 20x24" , so must be huge coverage for portrait anyhow
and not a radial drive lens
It is the lens in the second photo that is described as being originally fitted with radial drive. It is the lens lurking in the background in the final (4th) photo. The OP has managed to not show us the sleeve with the radial opening. This could certainly be a Petzval, which has obviously lost it’s brass lens hood.
Unless the OP returns with a better image we can get no nearer an informed guess!
Oh sorry just had a look at the first picture (why is that one posted first?)......all these pictures make it not very clear for which lens he is actually asking questions <edit> although he says clearly for the 2nd (not clear pic)..should have read it better :-(
Last edited by Ron (Netherlands); 5-Feb-2021 at 11:15.
A couple of points here. CC Harrison never made a Rapid Rectilinear anyway.
Steve, ALL CC Harrisons I've ever had have been excellent quality. It's not a "crap shoot" unless someone has monkeyed with the glass, or replaces some of it. Reading the periodicals throughout the 19th Century until the 1920s, CC Harrisons were always considered the top lens for portraits. Oh yeah, he also won a medal to that effect at the Crystal Palace. His lenses were of the same quality as Dallmeyers across the pond. They cost considerable money, and he died during the Civil War. His foreman continued making them for a couple of American photographic equipment companies, but they couldn't compete with the much cheaper French lenses coming into the country. They (and almost all American portrait lenses) petered out by the early 1870s.
Garrett
flickr galleries
Garrett I am not guilty!
The remarks about quality of CC were made by Carlylee2002 not me - see #3.
- who, I suppose, might be another Steve in this thread,
I know better than to comment on the pioneer makers and if there are problems with quality it is due to age and adapters, not these pioneers.
Steven
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks