Need help with lenses

[Diane Maher]

I visited a former photo studio locally and found a lot of lenses. Some of them were enlarger lenses and I will put those in another thread. Can anyone tell me anything about these lenses, like what format they might cover?

Goerz Dagor Ser. III f/6.8; 7 in. No. 2

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar f/4.5; 16.5 cm in Compur shutter.

Wollensak Varium 19 in. f/4; No.5 Studio shutter (this one has a Packard shutter attached to the back of the board.)

Voigtlander and Sohn; Wien, Braunschweig (old brass lens); 7 (at the top of the barrel, closest to the lensboard); it has a slot for Waterhouse stops. Waterhouse stops- what are the numbers at the top on the paddle handle?

Carl Zeiss Jena Protarlinse VII f=69cm; f/6.3 on a Compound shutter

Diane

[Ole Tjugen]

The dagor is good for at least 70 degrees, so the 7" will cover 5x7" with movements.

Tessar 165mm was made for "postcard size", or 10x15cm. Covers 4x5" with movements.

Wollensak? No idea.

Voigtländer: That's an old one! If it's a #7 of whatever type, it will be a big brasss thing made to cover 12x16"... The numbers at the top of the "paddle handle" are - numbers. It's much safer to assume that they don't correspond to any known aperture numbering system, but are just numbers to tell the stops apart.

The "Protarlinse" is a Protar, each cell is a Protarlinse. Top notch convertible lenses. f:6.3 means that both cells ghave the same focal length of 690mm, for a total focal length of 345mm. That one should also cover more than 12x16"!

[Gene McCluney]

The dagor might cover 8x10 stopped down.

The tessar should cover 4x5 with a little movement room.

The Varium would be a nice head and shoulders portrait lens for 8x10, but might cover 11x14.

Hard to tell on the old Voigtlander lens....how big is it?

The protarlinse 69cm should cover 11x14 if my info is correct.

I am just learning, so don't take all my comments as gospel.

[Diane Maher]

I have a few more:

Kodak Anastigmat no. 35; 10 in. f/4.5

Goerz Dagor f/6.8

CP Goerz Am Opt. Co. Dagor 9 ½ in. f/6.8; No. 3 Acme shutter

Schneider Kreuznach Retina-Xenon 5 cm; f/2.8 (there are two of these – maybe for a stereo camera?)

And here are the Enlarger lenses too:

Eastman Projection Kodak Anastigmat 7 ½ in. f/4.5

Wollensak Enlarging Raptar 90 mm f/4.5 (has a W inside of a C on the lens)

Kodak Enlarging Ektanon f/4.5 161 mm (has an L inside a circle on the lens)


Diane

[Diane Maher]

Thanks Ole!

The brass lens, the Varium, and the Protarlinse are all on 9 in. boards.

Gene, the brass lens has a front diameter of 5 7/8 in. (approx.)

Diane

[erie patsellis]

Diane,
Sounds like you've been having fun, any chance of some pics?


erie

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

The Wollensak Varium is a relatively uncommon soft focus triplet, probably made in the 1920s. The 19" f4 was designed for 11x14, but will in fact cover about 62 degrees (14x17). It is slightly better corrected than most other SF lenses. I find that a Varium open wide has about the same amount of halation and diffusion as a Verito at f5.6. These don't come up for sale very often, but I did notice a 19" f4 which sold on eBay a few months back.

And, as I am sure you see, it is a pretty huge lens. I have the slightly faster 16" f3.5 model, one of my favorite lenses.

[Jim Galli]

I visited a former photo studio locally and found a lot of lenses. Some of them were enlarger lenses and I will put those in another thread. Can anyone tell me anything about these lenses, like what format they might cover?


Diane

Goerz Dagor Ser. III f/6.8; 7 in. No. 2

This will cover 6 1/2 X 8 1/2 nicely.

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar f/4.5; 16.5 cm in Compur shutter.

4X5 lens. Yawn.

Wollensak Varium 19 in. f/4; No.5 Studio shutter (this one has a Packard shutter attached to the back of the board.)

Now this is a lens for your 11X14 Century 8 Studio camera when you get one. It needs a giant camera just to hold it up. It was a Cooke Triplet type and is sort of softish wide open and can be sharp stopped down. Besides the softness, the depth of field at f4 is millimeters and the bokeh is excellent.

Voigtlander and Sohn; Wien, Braunschweig (old brass lens); 7 (at the top of the barrel, closest to the lensboard); it has a slot for Waterhouse stops. Waterhouse stops- what are the numbers at the top on the paddle handle?

This is probably a Euryscope Rapid Rectilinear before they started putting the name on. They were in a fuss about patent issues and the earliest rapid rectilinears didn't say anything. Just the number. I have a similar #2 like that. I could tell from a picture of it. Gorgeous lens! A number seven is like 26" or something. It would probably cover 14X17 nicely. I have a #6 and of course would love it if a #7 came along. Actually iirc I have #2 #5 #6 having recently sold the #4. That picture of mine in the View Camera Magazine was done with the #6.

Carl Zeiss Jena Protarlinse VII f=69cm; f/6.3 on a Compound shutter

This is actually a 15 1/2" lens that is a convertible with 2 69cm (27") components. Protar VII's that large are rare and desireable. It would cover 14X17 with movements. I have one of the very earliest ones in the brass 2 piston shutter which is pretty unreliable.

[wfwhitaker]

Diane,

The 9" boards would go on the Century 8x10 which I think you mentioned they have also.
Get that camera. And get the Varium and the Voigtlander lenses with it.

[Diane Maher]

Will,
I have to wait until I get paid this week before I can buy the camera/lenses from the guy. One of the lights that he has plugs into the front of the camera. The camera also has a thing that lets you do two images on a 5x7 sheet of film as well as an 8x10 back. I told him I was interested mostly in the cameras and lenses. I'd have to let him know about any of the lights. They are big too.