Tiny Petzval = Big Score?

[Two23]

A few weeks ago I bought a very small Petzval on ebay and was wondering what the heck it is. Lens came from England and has no marks on it (not even glass edges.) Lens is 2 inches long without hood, and barrel is a bit less than 1.5 inches diameter. The elements easily unscrew. Note the flat focus knob. Note it has four screws to hold r&p mechanishm. It has factory slot on it too. Lens hood is short: 3/4 inch long. It is very finely machined and well built. Focal length is about 3.75 inches (measured from slot.) Coverage is at least 6x6cm and maybe more like 3x3 inches. I have some questions. First, I'm wondering what the age might be? I'm guessing it's from the 1870s. Second, what the heck kind of camera would it have been usied on? Could it have been an early quarter plate? I'm guessing that since it came from England and the English seemed fond of quarter plates. So, I'm calling out to the Petzval experts here!

Now for some more. I have a plan for this little beauty. I love Petzvals and now have six. This one is the tiniest I've ever seen! My intention is to send it off to SK Grimes and have them make an adapter for me so I can use it on my Nikon digital cameras. They did a larger one a few years ago in Canon mount:
http://www.skgrimes.com/whats-new/2011-2/6706-2

I think this would be seriously cool!
Are these enough photos to tell anything?
I paid $100 for the lens, and don't think I got hurt!


Kent in SD

[maurits]

Kent, 3x3 inches is typical for individual images on a 3 1/4 x 6 3/4 stereo card. This might be one of a stereo pair.

Check this one at the George Eastman House: http://www.geh.org/fm/toronto/htmlsr...00017_ful.html

Alternatively this could be a lens separated from an early Carte de Visite group of lenses. The older ones used mini-Petzvals with individual focus knobs instead of the later Gem- or Royal Mail type lenses where focusing is done for the whole group of lenses at once.

1/6th or 1/9th plate is more likely the right size for this lens. The small Dubroni wet plate camera also had these small lenses mounted. But usually those would be from well known makers or (later) branded Dubroni.

Try it with a medium format film back on your view camera!

Maurits

[goamules]

Good find. I always say the little ones are just as cool as the giants, and sometimes harder to find. Perhaps the tiny petzvals were lost, or weren't thought to be anything important to later generations, whereas the giants people knew had to be worth keeping. It's difficult to date yours without any markings. The flat focus knobs sometimes indicate very early lenses, but other times indicate just a cheaper manufacturing. I'd guess 1870s to 1880s, but could be off.

I've had a lot of Petzvals, but only about 6 or 8 smaller than 6 inches. I was shooting wetplate with a 3" the other day, and I use a 50mm on my micro 4/3 digital.

Here is one, a late 1850s - early 1860s Horne and Thorthwaite that is about as long as your finger:

[Jody_S]

I've experimented with Petzvals on dSLRs, it works quite well. I usually take later projection lenses in chrome barrels, because a lot of them are of a diameter that M42 threads can be machined directly into their barrel, so they can be used with macro bellows for focusing. I don't have any images handy, they're on another hard drive somewhere, Nice, but lots of flare. I still have 2 of them on a shelf upstairs.

[goamules]

Here's one I took on digital with a tiny Dallmeyer cine camera petzval, on m4/3. But it's a LOT smaller than the one you have.

[CCHarrison]

Voigtlander's # 1 Petzval had lens diameters of 1 9/16" & 1 5/8" and a back focus of 4" (focal length was 143mm). This size was intended for 1/4 plate and was also sold as a matched pair for stereo work. Ads from the 1870's also mentioned it was good for taking CDV's.

Dan