Wollensak 38cm Lens

[Jeff Morfit]

I recently purchased a Wollensak Tele-Optar 38cm lens. The lens must be a fairly modern version of this lens because it is coated, cannot tell if it is single or double coating, though. What I find interesting is the fact that the front lens element barrel and shutter are polished unpainted aluminum. I have seen other Tele-Optar lens for sale on EBay and other places, but all those were solid black elements, barrels, and shutters. Is there something special about my 38cm lens, or was this the way that Wollensak/Graflex manufactured them? Was there a particular time frame that these silver lenses were produced? This is one of the prettiest large format lenses that I have ever seen. For whatever it is worth my lens's serial number is: G37869. Had S. K. Grimes mount it in a lens board to fit may Crown Graphic, and they did an excellent job. Thanks in advance for any information that can be provided about this lens.

[Lynn Jones]

Wollensak never made a multi coated lens, they were out of business before that technology. They were OK for the time frame but we didn't start to see the best telephotos until the low dispersion glasses started to be available, some time in the 1970's.

Lynn