My grandfather , born in 1885, was a keen amateur photographer, and I am thinking for trying a project based around where he grew up and worked. I am therefore planning to have a go at trying an 'older look' using Vandyke printing, and decided (for better or worse) that using a vintage, uncoated lens might help give me what I am hopping for. So I have acquired a lens which has clear glass, and apart from a bit of dust looks pretty decent although it is a bit stiff. It's marked C.P.Goerz Berlin, doppel anastigmatic serie III/I f 150mm No 80992. It has apertures marked in f stops with a 12 blade iris controlled by turning the front ring. A brass knob marks a focussing scale marked in yards from 0.5 to infinity, and this adjusts the distance between the front and rear groups of cells. There are two notches on the front lens that allow you to unscrew it. It doesn't have a shutter and is not mounted on a lens board.
I know very little about older lenses, but from what I have gleaned from previous threads, this is a 'pre-Dagor' from somewhere around 1900 and I'm quite excited to see what look I get with it! However I have a few practical questions about this lens and how best to use it:
1) I understand this lens should cover 5"x4' wide open and 5"x7" stopped down, but the glass on this lens is tiny in size compared to my more modern lenses. Is this actually a lens for a smaller format? If it covers LF, how close is it to the final Dagor design, or were there further refinements for the final Dagor design?
2) I've only ever used a lens with a shutter. I would like to try out the lens before contemplating mounting it in a shutter or sourcing a camera like a Speed Graphic on which to use it. Can anyone give any advice on mounting options? The person I bought it from said they used a lens board made of corrugated cardboard and gaffer tape! I reckon I could find someone to make a lens board to size and mount it using the three holes in the lens but I am then left without a shutter, and timing an exposure using a hat or some other method will only work for longer exposure in lower light and using the lens stopped down, and I would love to see what I get with it wide open and what sort of bokeh it gives me! Any suggestions?
3) Can anyone give any advice on the best approach for focussing? Should I set the lens to a certain distance and then use the bellows, or would it work better to adjust the setting on the lens? If so, how should I do this? I have read about focus shift but at the moment this is all theoretical for me and I don't really know what I may have to do to deal with it! Any advice much appreciated.
4) How would you approach the issue of a shutter? Everything on the lens seems to move but it all seems a bit stiff. I would prefer to see what look I get from the lens before thinking about a shutter, or a CLA.
Many thanks,
Jenny
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