I couldn't resist, probably it's because of the Christmas time... i bidded low, and eventually won the lens.
Here is the engraving on my last brass toy:
Fa. Optische Werke Göttingen GmbH
Kiotar 1:2.2/120 Serie III
It's a small, fast projection lens (Petzval? Triplet? probably the former, from how it looks).
There is no mention of a "Kiotar" on the Vademecum, and i couldn't find if "Optische Werke Göttingen" has anything to do with Emil Busch, Isco, or other major lens makers.
IF it's a Petzval, it would be my first short one. I gave myself a good excuse to buy one: it could be the right focal for a 6x9 magazine.
I appreciate any information about the lens and its maker.
Here is a picture
my best wishes of an happy new year for all of you
I am sorry for the error i made in my first post.
Going by memory, i wrote that Busch and Isco could have something to do with the maker of this lens. Of course i was wrong: the two main Gottingen brands were Isco (which became part of Schneider), and R.Winkel GmbH (which became part of Zeiss, not Busch!).
I found other Gottingen optics makers, which were active before and/or after WWII:
W.Lambrecht
Spindler & Hoyer
August Fischer
Some are known for binoculars or other optical products, and never made a camera lens.
Maybe there are others, i just did a very short search, just to be certain that i goofed in my previous post
The Vademecum is of no help.
Sometime the city of origin could prove misleading: time ago i saw on the bay a big petzval wich had a similar maker's name, just the city was different, Munchen instead of Gottingen.
The lens was advertised as a probable Rodenstock product, but when i made a serious search i found that the lens was made, almost for sure, by a lens work that was later known as Fraunhofer Institute. The Vademecum reports some informations under "Fraunhofer", but there is no mention of the original name.
I feel sorry cause i can't read german books. There are nice studies about german cameras and lenses, very few (if any) were translated in english.
I can only hope for the help of some north-european member, which has access to those books.
Probably it's very old news, but i didn't read anything about it on this forum:
an italian gentleman published a book on french historic lenses.
The title is "Photographic lenses of the 1800's in France". It's printed by an italian publisher, in english. I don't know if there is an original version in italian, but i don't think so.
I don't know the author, i think he's a big collector, living in Tuscany.
What i know for sure is that other italian authors have done a very good job with their books. A very fine example is Danilo Cecchi's work about the history of Pentax.
Another very interesting publication was the magazine Classic Camera. IIRC it was bi-lingual. A very worthy purchase, if you can find a number with articles that suit your interest.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks