LF Camera or Enlarger Lenses?

[tom thomas]

Hi, I'm Tom Thomas, Jenks, Oklahoma, just joined your group to see if I can find out what kind of lenses I have. I'm more of a 35mm, 2 1/4, and digital camera person who happened to scratch his nose at an antiques auction Saturday while holding my bidding card and now I'm the proud owner of five monster lenses and some accessories that were sold together in a big cardboard box.

Boy, is my wife mad at me as I'm prohibited already from any more E-Bay purchases of "junk" cameras as she calls them. I'd wanted to start a new hobby a couple years ago so kinda went nuts buying on E-Bay. After all, I need a new hobby for my retirement. Now I have one, but no time as my "honey-do" list is very long in summer months. Winter is coming though. CLA time.

At the auction, I never saw the cameras these lenses may have fit however. We left early after my wife and friends had won all they had desired amongst the Persian rugs, porcelain, and pottery, and many thousands of items remained to be sold.

A retired studio photographer was selling off all her "antique" studio equipment, one piece at a time so I got "lucky." My wife of course disagrees as I've already collected too many old 35mm, 120, 620, 127 format cameras off E-Bay which I tenderly CLA to bring back to life. One day, I'll shoot with them too. I love the old Rollei's, Yashica, Zeiss and Voightlander TLR's as well as the old Zeiss Contaflex SLR's. Also the Prakticaflex SLR series with flip-up view finders. And folders too.

Here is a list of the lenses that I found in the cardboard box:

Kodak Portrait Lens 405mm (16 in) f/4.5 RC265 (L) mounted on a Burke & James 5 3/16" square face plate. Aperture 4.5 to 22.

Goerz Celor F:5.5 Series Ib Focus 12 in. US Pat No 635472 No 170684. C. P. Goerz Berlin New York on barrel. Aperture US 2 to 128. Mounted on Burke and James 5 3/16" square face plate. Solid brass construction.

Pinkham Bi-Quality 14 inch, Lexington, Mass, Aperture 4.5 to 32. Number 114 stamped on aperture ring barrel. Mounted on 1 1/8 in thick mahogany stained wooded base plate 6 in square which is then mounted on a Burke & James 5 3/16" square face plate. Has chrome lens cap lined with purple velvet with cap labelled Pinkham Bi-Quality.

Wollensak Verita/o f-4 Diffused Focus 8 3/4" No. 13388. Aperture F4-45. Screw mount, on a 4 7/16" square metal face place. Has Niko 60-62 adapter with 62 to 8 Adapter Ring and two additional accessory rings. Came with a sliding barrel screw to bayonet plastic lens tube, apparently to give adjustable focus capability. The bayonet mount is 2 15/16" diameter. Tube adusts from 6 1/8" to 9"

Wollensak 14 Inch (356mm) f/6 (W) Veritar No 809632, with Alphax Synchromatic Shutter. Aperture f6 -32. Shutter T/B/50/25/10/5/2, X/M Switch, two posts apparently for flash attachment. Has remote release adapter and shutter lever. Lens is mounted on a Burke and James 5 3/16" square face plate with 1 1/2" deep barrel.

Overall, the lenses are in very good condition for their age. Glass looks good, some minor cleaning marks and dust but look bright. Aperture movement smooth, no oil on them. The Goerz Celor has dent on the outer ring from being dropped at some time in the past but looks good otherwise. It appears to be quite old.

Do they have any use or should I put them on a window ledge to reflect light into the room, hopefully without burning the curtains? With the huge lenses, the light patterns should be interesting, especially if I mount colored filters on them. Please dont' ask how many filters I "won" on E-Bay!

Thanx for any help I can get,

Tom Thomas

[Dan Fromm]

They are all taking lenses. And they all have some value.

Suggest that you use the forum's search function, then eBay's search on closed auctions, then Google as broadly as possible for Pinkham & Smith. The results may surprise you.

[tom thomas]

Dan, thanx for your reply. I have been "googling" a bit after posting my query and am truly surprised as you said. I found a 2 year old posting on another photo board about the Pinkham and got some history on it. Apparently made after Pinkham and Smith broke up. The submitter thought there were only 50 or so of my lens made but if the 114 on mine is a serial number, would indicate that more were made than he thought. But still, it sure is interesting researching them. I didn't realize that these type lenses were still in demand but I've not been a large format follower, but an admirer of some of the great landscape shots taken apparently with lenses of this type.

I did find the Goerz lens listed in a 1913 Goerz catalog online. Gee, it cost $126.50 without shutter at the time. Probably as much as a car back then. I'm amazed that it is still in such good condition. The photographer must have really appreciated it.

Guess, I'd better gently put these lenses on the shelf for the moment and appreciate them as they of works of art that they are. I now wish I'd have looked more carefully at the photo stuff before the auction began. I wonder what kind of camera the seller had in her studio which had been open for years and years according to the auctioneer. We left before any cameras were offered, but after seeing backdrop curtains, tripods with reflectors, etc going for many hundred dollars, I knew I couldn' t scratch my nose anymore.

Thanx for the info. I'd love to find a good home for these lenses where they can still show their stuff. Tom Thomas

Were the lens plates basically standard sizes or did each camera have a unique size mounting. Mine all have the 4 5/8 square inner flange where they must have fit into the front of the camera.

[lenser]

Hi, Tom.

Tell your wife you darn well know what your doing and then buy her a whole bunch of nice diners out with the proceeds.

First of all, I second the search under ebay's completed listings function. I'm another ebay fanatic and camera collector (without the burden of a house mate to criticize my choice of decor), therefore, my hundred or so antique cameras are in places of honor.

Another place to search for value and even sell outright is KEH Camera Brokers in Atlanta. They have an on line offer function under 'sell you equipment' that should give you a ball park WHOLESALE value for what you've got.

I am relatively familiar with both the Kodak Portrait lens and the Wollensak Veritar. Each has some value. I think I remember seeing a few of the Kodaks go for over $400 on ebay. I've seen the Veritar posted for sale at about $650 on another site. I own a ten inch of the Veritar that I use for glamour head shots and it makes incredible soft glowing portraits.

The rest of the lenses I am less familiar with, but they all have well known names so I suspect their value may also be up there.

For info on the lenses, look at the links in www.flutotscamerarepair.com and the info link at www.cameraeccentric.com. Camera Eccentric has catalogs for dozens of products including ancient lenses and when you click on the cover, every page of that catalog with all its products shows up. The lens catalogs usually have detailed info on performance, image circles,etc. plus the usual advertising delights.

Have fun with these and let your wife know what a wise investor you are. Good luck.

Tim

[tom thomas]

Thanx for the info Tim. I'll check your recommendations.

I had a very deep cough when I found the Wollensak Verito lense at cameraeccentric and saw the asking price. Now, if restaurants would only accept lenses instead of credit cards, I'd take my wife to the Lido in Paris again. Probably get hair in my soup again though, actually it was feathers.

Although not "mint", ine has been lovingly used apparently. The previous owner had marked the sweet spots 6 and 8 with gold foil markers. Not just paper, but gold foil markers. They peel off though so don't worry. The numbering on the aperture ring is dim so the markers must have helped alot in the dim studio.

I'm willing to sell these lenses and would prefer they go to someone who would really appreciate them and use them. I'm shying away from E-Bay, I've bought, but don't feel comfortable selling, unless I open a special checking account as don't want E-Bay or PayPal accessing my family account. I'll look into it I guess.

If there is someone in this forum interested in one or all of these lenses, please contact me. I'll photograph them, any details you'd like, and post to the forum, if I can, so you can see what I have and it's condition. Should anyone want to buy one, I would later like to see a photo taken with the lens on your camera so I can better appreciate what they can do. Digital scan would be fine.

I did see a similar Goerz lens on E-Bay offered as "MINT" which was a real wreck compared to the one I have with I would call a 7 on 10 for at least it's cosmetics. The brass barrel is tarnished and has wear scratches from use but still a gem compared to the one I saw. And I hope I look that good at its age.

One note, the aperature on the Kodak lense is off it's mounting pins but the individual blades don't appear to be bent of damaged at all. With the exposed aperture ring in front of the lens, I imagine one of the auction staff picked it up wrong as a very bulky and heavy lens and unseated the blades with a fingertip. I doubt if the previous owner would have handled it that way. I was going to try to gently put them back but won't if a potential buyer prefers.

later, Tom

I did view the Pinkham lens cap thru the lens, wow, looks full size, actually enlarged, when focused (abt 10 inches behind) so must be a terrific negative to work with. Definitely not that 16mm stuff from Minox.

[lenser]

Hi again, Tom.

A good friend and I are looking into becoming ebay sellers and will be setting up a separate account for just the reasons you mentioned.

As to the blades on the Kodak, you might want to email or call Carol Miller at Flutot's. She has rescued several of my old lenses (and for many others from all the threads I have seen) and is extremely reasonable and pretty fast on turn around. I sure have no complaints except that she won't work on Hasse's.

This is a recent portrait I made with my 10" Veritar. The real print absolutely glows. Fun to play with this for pictorial landscapes and I've done a bit of editorial food work with it as well. One of the best investments I've ever made.

Forgot to mention the listings from Lens and Repro in View Camera Magazine. Yet another source for target prices.

Good luck on the sales.

[Rob_5419]

Now, if restaurants would only accept lenses instead of credit cards, I'd take my wife to the Lido in Paris again. Probably get hair in my soup again though, actually it was feathers.

I've found that it's better not to wear feathers in my hair a long time ago too. It really helps in Paris

I think you're right.....winter's coming - CLA time!

[Jan Pedersen]

PM sent for one of your lenses.

[Dan Fromm]

Um, Tom, if you don't want to sell the lenses on eBay yourself and want to get as much as possible anyway, contact Andrew Glover, who sells on eBay as dagor77. He told me a while ago that he's been reduced to offering consigned items on eBay. I believe that he charges 15% of the net from eBay.

[Jim Noel]

This may be a no-no to some, but join APUG for their modest fee, and then list them one at a time in their classified pages, and watch the sharks gather at the feeding frenzy.