Gundlach RADAR Anastigmat

[Muggs]

Hello All,

This is my first post. I have been involved in Photography since about 1970 when, through a friend I developed my first roll of Kodak B&W Instamatic film. About 1980 I acquired an old 4X5 Graflex, and after falling head over heels inn love with LF, I purchased a Wista DX and "we" are very happy. I have however been out of photography for about 5 or 6 years due mostly to kids growing up and the like. Anyway...
All that for some background (if anyone cares!).

I was recently given an old 8X10 camera with a Gundlach 12" RADAR f:4.5 lens with a Wollensak BETAX No. 5 shutter.
Everything seems to work fine, but I have two questions:
1. What are the collective opinions of this lens for landscape work?
2. Is there a Copal shutter that would fit if I ever decide to upgrade the shutter?

Thanks,
Muggs

[Ole Tjugen]

I have no knowledge of the Radar specifically, but I do know that there is no modern shutter large enough to take a 12" f:4.5 lens without an expensive custom mount and a significant loss of speed. Betax or Compound #5 are about the only possibilities.

[Walter Calahan]

I think you need to go out and shoot some landscapes to report back to us how the lens is!

[Scott Davis]

That lens is probably better for portrait work than landscape (given the relatively fast speed of F4.5). That doesn't mean it is a bad landscape lens. Shoot a few sheets and see what you get. To borrow a phrase from Pirates of the Caribbean, "the (LF) Code isn't so much a Code as it is a set of guidelines...". Use the lens for what you want, and make the best images you can with it. You may find you like the "deficiencies" it has for one type of work in the way you do something else.

[CP Goerz]

Radar=Tessar, upgrading can take place but only if you buy a Goerz Dagor. ;-)


CP Goerz

[Ole Tjugen]

According to the Vade Mecum, the Radar is a Tessar-derivative with a triplet rear group instead of the Tessar's doublet.

So for CP Goerz' benefit, think of it as half a Dagor married to half a Tessar.

[tim atherton]

Radar=Tessar, upgrading can take place but only if you buy a Goerz Dagor. ;-)


CP Goerz

Radar=Tessar even in the case of the RADAR WA Extreme Anastigmat f16's?

[wfwhitaker]

The Gundlach catalog describes the f/4.5 Radar anastigmat as "a high grade speed lens" and suggests its use for everything from studio work to home portraiture, even to copying.

The name "Radar" is curious to me as it predates by a long time radio detection and ranging, its normal usage in our lexicon today. Clearly it has nothing to do with that. I'd even guess that when the lens was new its name was pronounced with a short "a" in the first syllable and not as we do, "ray-dar". Gundlach must have coined the name on their own. "-ar" is a typical lens name suffix. So who was Rad? Someone's initials? Gundlach seemed to like the name and applied it to a number of lenses in their line - not only one design - much as Wollensak did with the name "Velostigmat".

[N Dhananjay]

The Radar is a similar construction to the Tessar - all that was done was to split one of the elements. Thi was probably done to get around patent issues, something done by Gundlach with the Turner Reich lens as well (which is a Protar, but with one element split). So performance of your Radar would be quite similar to a Tessar, which is to say, pretty good. The Betax 5 is actually a pretty good shutter - it is large enough to make front mounting a whole bunch of lenses onto. So you could save a fair amount of money by buying barrel lenses and paying a machinist to front mount them onto the Betax 5. Cheers, DJ

[Jim Galli]

Would you be contact printing the 810 negs? Personally I like the Radar lenses very much, but it is a departure from the normal sterile world of modern plasmat / 4X5 camera negs. You would be far better served to use your 4X5 for the Ansel Adamsey stuff and try some things close in at semi wide aperture like portraits or detail shots on interesting things with the 810 and Radar. The glowing tonality may or may not knock your sox off. But that is what it will do best. Don't try to re-mount it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a properly working Betax 5. You're lucky to have it.