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Really old Zeiss lens
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:32 pm    Post subject: Really old Zeiss lens Reply with quote
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64955411@N06/6435303657/in/set-72157628457014421

May have been posted before, but it has to be worth another look.


PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:14 pm    Post subject: Re: Really old Zeiss lens Reply with quote
Alternate Internet ID wrote:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64955411@N06/6435303657/in/set-72157628457014421

May have been posted before, but it has to be worth another look.


Interesting. As J. G. Motamedi remarked in the flickr discussion, the s/n makes it 1919. After the 1911 redesign of the f/6.3 Tessar. Regardless of vintage, 75/6.3 Tessars are scarce because they're for a format smaller than most in use before the f/6.3 Tessar sort of faded away.

Not that it matters to anyone, but I have a 130/6.3 Tessar, s/n 140274, in Compound and a 150/6.3 Tessar in barrel s/n 154420. Both very usable lenses from 1912. Also a tiny B&L 85/6.3 Zeiss Kodak Anastigmat (= Tessar) s/n 2064387 in Compound, not so good. No later than 1915. Fortunately I have a B&L 85/6.3 Tessar Series IIb s/n 2839901 in Compound that has a different mechanical design -- can't swap cells between the two shutters -- and that's much better than 2064387. Post-1915.

These old crocks aren't that rare or hard to find. Folding Pocket Kodaks are good places to look, so are Premo #12s.


PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I believe the 130/6.3 Tessar was a fairly common lens in the US, being made under license by Bausch&Lomb for several Kodak models, I think the No. 2A specials. IIRC these may have been available with Compound shutters also, if not with Wollensak Optimos.


PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I just sold a 1912 6.3/16.5cm Tessar, sadly missing aperture blades.


PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
luisalegria wrote:
I believe the 130/6.3 Tessar was a fairly common lens in the US, being made under license by Bausch&Lomb for several Kodak models, I think the No. 2A specials. IIRC these may have been available with Compound shutters also, if not with Wollensak Optimos.


They weren't as common as I want them to have been. They were expensive lenses, typically top-of-the-line or next to it, in expensive shutters. Zeiss Kodak Anastigmats from B&L didn't have focal lengths engraved, they had numbers, 1 through 5. These didn't correspond to the numbers B&L engraved on lenses they sold as B&L Tessar IIbs. All very confusing ...

EKCo used lenses from a variety of makers. My 130/6.3 CZJ Tessar came from an FPK #3. Most of the lenses used by Kodak Rochester were sourced from B&L, but in addition to that CZJ Tessar I also have a TTH "Cooke Kodak Anastigmat," a Cooke triplet in Compound that came from another FPK #3.

If you want to go blind looking at EKCo catalogs, this site http://mgroleau.com/catalogues_kodak/ has a heap of them. I did the exercise, found that Kodak Rochester cataloged Tessars for #1, 1A, 3, 3A, 4, and 4A FPKs. 5 inchers were fitted to #1A and #3 FPKs.

Kodak UK put all sorts of lenses on FPKs well into the 1920s. There used to be a site that listed lenses sold with #3 FPKs. It has, alas, vanished.
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