Repro Claron APO II (320mm)

[Greg]

Probably 4 or 5 years ago I saw a quite similarly described lens up on eBay. Buy it Now price was too good to pass up on, mainly because the optic was mounted in a pristine Copal #3 shutter with mounting flange. The seller I believe found front and rear mismatching groups of elements that he was able to screw into the shutter. I was never able to use the glass, but the Copal shutter alone was worth it. In the late 1980s, I was at Lens & Repro in NYC, and Stu or Jeff Kay spend a few minutes with me showing me how to ID real Golden Dagors as opposed to Dagors that had gold dots added on to them. He told me that is quite common for someone to come into his store and try to get him to buy a "Mongrel" optic.

[Lachlan 717]

The branding is the interesting thing here.

It is branded as being a “Repro Claron APO II”, SK and “1:3.5/320”.

Doesn’t strike me as being a Frankenstein; it’s quite specific.

And it appears the correct SK font, unlike those weird Schneider knock off lenses from 10-15 years ago.

[Drew Wiley]

The posting has been corrected. It's now re-listed as f/9. If it had been f/3.5 it would be as big as a horse and not fit any kind of Shanel shutter. Probably an innocent typo.
The "Claro" series was basically a process lens marketing category, with factory shutter mounted lenses being marketed for tabletop studio applications. But these caught on for other uses two, especially the late G-Clarons which many of us prize for even infinity view camera usage. Unfortunately, vintage lens dealers like Lens & Repro and knowledgeable sales people like Geoffry are rare themselves these days. Perhaps Linhof has some historical data base of the original version in Syncho-Compur shutter, most likely.

[Oren Grad]

I'm going to add the link, as this kind of use is allowed within our guidelines ("Links to active or inactive eBay (or similar sites) listings are allowed if the purpose of the post is to discuss or ask questions about a feature or the technology used in the product."):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144620210595

Still listed as f/3.5 because that's what the front cell has engraved on it. As Lachlan observes, the typography does look more or less Schneiderish, say '50s-'70s vintage. If I had to make a wild guess, I'd wonder whether Schneider ever OEM'd this sort of lens in barrel for use in something like copy machines. If so it wouldn't necessarily have ever shown up in catalogs aimed at photographic users. But the dimensions still seem not quite right for the FL/aperture combination.

EDIT: Went rummaging through my collection of digitized Schneider literature and re-discovered that I do have an old - I'd guess '60s vintage - catalog for the C-Claron series, lenses in barrel that were explicitly marketed for copier use. But the longest FL listed in that catalog is 240/5.6.

ANOTHER EDIT: For when the eBay listing scrolls off:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220626...m/144620210595

[Drew Wiley]

What is going on????? Whether it's a Franken-lens or not, I can't say; it certainly is a Franken-Ad listing. It's probable that the Seller is not familiar with lenses and doesn't understand the ramifications of combined or mis-matched elements. And in that case, nor do we know the actual effective focal length, but only that of the front set of elements. Interesting; but I certainly don't need it.

[Greg]

Schneider did in fact make many optics for copy machines. I had come across two of them over the years. Both of them were most probably excellent optics for copy work, but lacked irises. The one I acquired and I thought might be an excellent optic to use on my view camera... but mounting it into a shutter with an iris was very cost prohibitive and not guaranteed... I stuck to tried and proven shutter mounted G-Clarons.