A Little ARS F Koristka on a lens board. £770, 393378467072.
A Little ARS F Koristka on a lens board. £770, 393378467072.
The market is strong for Karl Struss lenses. Both of these offerings lasted less than a day on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/14439901014...p2047675.l2557
https://www.ebay.com/itm/14439971046...8AAOSw90dh~zpr
When I shoot 8x10 about 90% of the time it's wet plate. I've been building up a few portrait lenses for it over the past two years. Right now I have a 14 in. Darlot Petzval, 360mm Heliar (standard), and a 12 in. Velostigmat (standard.) On the way I have a Verito 14.5 in. that I just paid about $1150 for at auction. The first three lenses I was patient and got them at slightly below average price. The Verito was a tad higher than what seems to be the average price lately, not sure. I tried an Eidoscope earlier this year but just couldn't connect with it. I ended up getting the Heliar which I love. I might buy a Velostigmat 12 in. II to replace the standard one I have at some point, but I am happy with the standard one. The only other soft focus lens that is affordable and intrigues me is the Unar. The irony is I very rarely shoot portraits, have no studio, and virtually all of my photos are taken outdoors and rarely of people. Soft focus lenses do work well for many landscapes though.
Kent in SD
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
Took about 12 years but this thread has hit over 1,000,000 VIEWS !!! Here's my original page: https://antiquecameras.net/antiquele...cuslenses.html
Antique & Classic Camera Blog
www.antiquecameras.net/blog.html
Graf Variable Anastigmat f3.8 - f4.5 EF 11-12.5 inch lens, serial number 30374 - US $1,384.00
NAMIAS ANACHROMAT DOUBLE LENS 1:5 F=40 ORTHO AESCULIN ( 284790129016 ) - in not well preserved condition and imo incomplete = EUR 2.560, wow.
The bidding for the Namias was quite ridiculous in the last few seconds. A very rare item - but identical with the more common anacromatique from Darlot, Ligney etc. An empty barrel for another Namias was offered at the same time - without any bidders. So perhaps someone was trying to assemble a complete lens from two “parts” lenses?
I think the chance of this being OK is rather small. The photos were absolutely unhelpful and the special natural product (horse chestnut ) UV filter unlikely to be still working - even it is present!
My bid was for 311€ and I was very doubtful about making a bid even at that level!
Another rarity yesterday! Hanovia Labs Kalosat.The quartz glass meniscus lens.
It was the most common size A (4x5) - but illuminates much more. It is the first series (F.4.5) with a serial number in the 100’s.
Hammer price was £3,200. Bidding was just a few seconds,so at least two people were very determined. Flints auction UK in a small/medium content dominated auction.
Note that auction fees are almost 1/3 so this will cost the buyer 5,000. Usd before the addition of postage costs etc.
Some auction houses in the UK are selling items from the EU, but have to add reduced import VAT on “collectors items” of 5% - instead of UK rate of 20%. We in the EU would have not to pay anything if the item was just passing through the UK.
This thread has been quiet for quite a while, but I just had a recent purchase arrive that some of the lens scholars might find interesting:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/125752664064
The price is a bit of an outlier, though. It's too short a focal length for me, but at $10, I figured what the heck... At 7 1/2 inches, the focal length is shorter than the Struss lenses listed in the catalogs and ads, which run from 9 to 21 inch. But I did find a note that:
"In the 2-inch diameter tubes, 7-inch and 8-inch focal length may be fitted to order, lens speeds being respectively F 4.3 and F 5. These focal lengths will at full aperture work with more diffusion than the regular 9-insch focus lens at F 5.5, but at times this is a very desirable quality, and more definition can easily be secured by stopping down till the proper quality is secured."
(from https://www.antiquecameras.net/softfocuslenses2.html, thanks Dan!)
It's in a sunken mount, which was made so it would fold into a Graflex SLR, and both the aluminum barrel and glass/fused-quartz cleaned up very nicely. The aluminum barrel has a yellow/brass cast to it, so I.m guessing they used a tinted varnish or lacquer meant for brass on it. The aperture works well and the original flange and a nice period lensboard were included. Serial number 751.
"I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."
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