Find here some interesting lenses present in my collection. I dedicated more attention to “big glasses”, that means, large format photography lenses, because that is where the most important designs made their contribution to the endeavour of transforming light into images.
Launched in 1878, this lens was such a success that it practically saved one of Germany’s most traditional photographic lens manufacturers from being swallowed up by the competition. It took a new generation at the helm of the company to create a new generation prestige optics.
Petzval-type lens, but from the end of the 19th century. Manufactured by Darlot, a French company, and distributed in the United States by Benjamin French & Co. of Boston. A good example of the longevity of the Petzval concept spanning decades and decades in photography.
This lens, designed in 1881, was one of the highlights in photographic optics development prior to the introduction of crown barium glasses that allowed anastigmatic lenses.
A lens originally developed by Hermagis and launched in 1903, the Eidoscope is one of the highlights of soft focus optics. This sample was manufactured later by SOM Berthiot, which kept Eidoscope in its catalog after acquiring Hermagis in 1934.
One of the most commonly used large format lens at the height of analog photography, Symmar follows a 1903 concept named plasmat and has been adopted as a standard lens by many thousands of photographers.
Anticomar is a somewhat controversial lens. Designed on the basis of a Tessar, it is able to bring many details and definition. However, in this version of Plaubel, it brings also a reasonable level of flare that creates a slight halo around bright objects.
Lens from Carl Zeiss, designed in 1890/ These samples were produced in 1926/7. The Protar V is an super wide angle lens capable of excellent results although very small and light weight. A desirable optics for large format photography.
One of the best wide-angle lenses ever made, Schneider’s Super Angulon f / 5.6 has a slightly asymmetric optics and delivers perfect results with ease of use. Find here specs, photos of the lens and an urban picture taken with it.
Three Dagor lenses, 75, 120 and 240 mm are shown, all from Series III having lens aperture of f/6.8. With lens design developed in 1892, the Dagor, remains a very usable lens. See recent pictures made with them. At the turn of the century, with other anastigmats, Dagor contributed greatly to the creation of a high end market for hand held cameras.
Article with brief history of the house Lerebours et Secrétan as exemplar of the transformations brought by the bourgeois and scientific revolution. Includes review of a landscape lens with a focal length of 255mm and an image made on a dry plate using the same lens.
Small lens whose design is among the first anastigmatics. The Collinnear, sometimes referred as Kollinnear, created by the Voigtländer firm in 1893, using the newly developed glasses in Jena was, among others of the same type, a step change in photographic optics.
Review of a Rapid Rectilinear lens from the very beginning of Wray’s production, with comments on the firm’s entrance and contribution to the history of photography. William Wray was very important in the diffusion of iris diaphragm for photographic lenses and recognised as a high quality lens maker. Features also a portrait made with this lens.