AM Goerz Trigor production made by Kern?

[mhayashi]

Thanks John for your comment.
I will try shooting with some color transparencies.

[mhayashi]

I just found the old for sale thread which mentioned about the same topic for the record.
https://www.largeformatphotography.i...ghlight=trigor

I also found an ad in the internet archive.
60 degree image circle corrected 1:1 and usable between 10:1 and 1:10.


https://archive.org/details/sim_grap...q=trigor+goerz

[SimonMaddock]

I bought a barrel Trigor 14in 7 months ago and it became an instant favourite. Not because of the sharpness but because of the general rendering. I'd love to see some sample shots from the shorter focal length versions if anyone has something to share, or even get confirmed the existance of the shorter versions mentioned in the ad in the previous post.

For anyone curious or confused I can add that the barrel is "artificially" limited to f11. The screw connecting the aperture selector ring with the aperture mechanism itself follows a slot in the barrel body. The length of the slot limits the travel of the screw and it's the only thing stopping the aperture from being fully opened. I have played with the idea of lengthening that slot but it's a little too complicated for me at the moment.

[Hugo Zhang]

I can confirm the existence of 9 1/2" and 12" Trigor lenses. They behave the same as the 14" one: sharp as process lenses and cover a bit wider than Dagor lenses.

[Drew Wiley]

I suspect the majority of Trigor lenses were simply thrown away along with their old process cameras. I've always been hoping to stumble onto a 14 inch Blue Dot in some local architectural salvage outlet where such cameras turn up from time to time dirt cheap. The coverage of the last of the 14 inch Dagors was limited by the no.3 Compur shutters they were put in. But these weren't wide angle design either, and I can't recommend them for formats larger than 8x10. The old f/7.7 14-inchers had more coverage, though probably not in an ideal sense towards the limits of the circle, although contact printers probably wouldn't see much difference.

I don't know when ULF shooters discovered the magic in the 14 inch Trigors, but do remember back when Lens & Repro in NYC began selling them at cult lens pricing.

[Hugo Zhang]

I use my 14" Trigor for more than 80% of my 11x14 landscape shots. It covers that format at infinity with sharp corners and some room to spare. My 12" Trigor actually covers 11x14 format quite well too. The only lenses that cover more are Zeiss-Dagor F/9, Protar IV F12.5 and Protar V F/18 lenses, plus some other extreme angle lenses.

I don't know much about lens design and my experience is based upon my actual use with my camera and careful examinations of my negative. Of course, there are sample variations among the same lenses.

I put a 9 1/2" Dagor lens and a 9 1/2" Trigor on my 16x20 camera, the latter has a slightly larger circle on the ground glass. Then I compared a 12" Dagor and a 12" Trigor, again the Trigor has a slightly larger circle. But not by that much.

[John Layton]

Hugo...I'd also used my 14" (Kern-built) Trigor for most of my 11x14 work. And yes, as you've mentioned - sharp at infinity with room to spare.

I'd earlier owned a 14" (Kern-built) Dagor - which I'd used successfully for 8x10, but found that with 11x14 it displayed a bit of field curvature. Possibly a sample variation - but I seriously doubt this as Kern certainly had the chops to deliver a quality product with good consistency.

[Hugo Zhang]

John,

I had the same issue with my 14" gold dot Dagor with my 11x14 camera. Used during a trip to Bryce Canyon and nearly all pictures had blurred corners. That experience taught me to use that Dagor lens only on 8x10 or smaller cameras.

[John Layton]

...speaking of using the Trigor in Bryce Canyon - many years ago I captured some wonderful 4x5 color chromes (Fuji-50 as I recall...or was it E-100? I'll have to find them) in Bryce, with that 14" Trigor. Stunning rendition - particularly of those reds in shadow...filled with sunlight reflected from below.

[neil poulsen]

I don't know if this relates, but in '88 or '89, I attended a Photo West Conference in LA and stopped by the Schneider Optics booth. They had a brand new 14" Gold Dot Dagor MC lens on display mounted in a Compur shutter. The salesperson there told me that their purchase of Goerz included a pallet of optics. They used these optics for the 14" MC lenses by coating them with the latest MC technology, and then mounting them in the best available shutter.

At the time, I thought this was pretty classy of Schneider to make that kind of a special run.