What the heck IS this thing ? 200+/f/5 lens

[luisalegria]

Mystery lens !

Having a taste for both the cheap and bizarre, I could not resist buying this strange lens for a nominal sum.



I mounted the whole thing in an M42 T-mount, and I can almost get to infinity. It looks like its a little longer than 200mm, and stops are marked from f/5 to f/22. It focuses from just short of infinity (on a Pentax) to about 9 feet/3 meters. There are no markings other than "Accura" on the barrel section near the mount.

What on earth is it ?

Some facts - on the camera end it actually has an Exakta mount, broken but recognizable. Connected to the Exakta mount is a focusing extension tube, marked "Accura", in the M40 thread typical of Exakta extension rings. I know this because it matches my Extakta macro set. You can use the focusing extension tube as a focusing helical. I got the thing assembled this way, I didn't rig it. I happen to have an M42 Accura focusing extension tube also.

The lens tube is just a conical aluminum tube, with the only glass elements in the very front, and I think there are only one or two elements, in front of the diaphragm. The diaphragm seems to have been added on, the f-stops are just scratched on the tube.

I think someone just made a lens for his Exakta out of various parts - I'm guessing that he machined a tube out of aluminum, cut a slot for the diaphragm peg, put in a diaphragm and lenses, and attached the whole thing to an Accura extension tube. Voila, a lens.

It works - f/5 ISO 200 hand held -

[poilu]

superb portrait Luis! a beauty
_________________
Have a nice day

[Seymore]

There were a number of lenses rebadged Accura. They were also badged Spiratone and a few other names.

I had an Accura 12/8 FE at one time. Interesting lens but was really hard to get anything presentable, IMPO.


_________________
Seymore...
- smugmug

"One axiom I discovered proved to be of great value: the client seldom, if ever, knows exactly what he wants from the photographer. However, his pride does not allow him to give you any such ridiculous impression. The desire and need for interpretative work is usually uninformed and the client often looks to the professional for guidance in this respect.
Ansel Adams - An Autobiography

[blende8]

Very probably a prototype!

[luisalegria]

Accura was the trade-name of a Japanese photo products distributor, they sold all sorts of accessories like filters, tripods, extension tubes, flash guns - and lenses, on which they put their brand name.

They were pretty much in the same business as Spiratone. I think the only unique product they had was a reflex housing for Canon and Leica, their own version of the Visoflex. And even that may have come from some other source. When I saw this thing the first time I thought it may have been a lens intended for Visoflex, for that reason. If so, it would have been quite rare. But no, it is even stranger than that.

Which is why I think the focusing extension tube on this thing is just one of these components, and Accura has nothing to do with the lens.

It doesn't look like a prototype, it looks like someone with a lathe made his own lens. And its a pretty good lens ! God knows where the glass and diaphragm came from.

Since it came to me from Pennsylvania, I'm now going to call it a "Penntar".

[luisalegria]

It behaves like a very simple lens, which it is of course, just one or perhaps two (cemented?) elements. Sharp in the middle, soft and full of aberrations away from center, particularly when wide open. But then, this has some value as a "pictorial" lens, doesn't it ? It is however fairly sharp (at the center) even at f/5







The bird -



100% crop -

[Richard_D]

I'm amazed at the quality these simple optical designs can produce.
_________________
Richard

The interesting bit:

Nikkors: 20mm f2.8 AIS, 24mm f2.8 AIS, 28mm f2.8 AIS, 35mm f2 AIS, 50mm f1.4 AI, 50mm f1.48AI, 50m f2 AI,
55mm f3.5 AI'd, 105mm f4 AI, 135mm f2.8 AI'd, 135mm f3.5 AI'd, 200mm f4 AI'd .
Nikon E Series: 100mm f2.8 .
Soviet Nikon Mount: Zenitar 16mm f2.8, Arsat/arax/photex 85mm T&S f2.8 .
Other: Asahi Super Takumar 55 mm f2 (M42) ,Tamron 300mm f5.6 SP, Tamron 500mm f8 SP.

DSLR: Nikon D700. 35mm SLRsNikon FE, Pentax S1a.
TLR: Rolliecord II.
Sub-Minature: Pentax Auto 110, 18mm f2.8, 24mm f2.8, 50mm f2.8.

More to come...

[Farside]

I'd imagine whoever cobbled it together was quite pleased with the results. I wonder what it cost him in parts?
_________________
Dave

The Lenses of Farside

"The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and
prosperity is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious,
arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism."

-- Czech President Vaclav Klaus

[DSG]

I'd hazzard a guess that he was perhaps an engineer that was desperately after a sharp lens with good bokeh and because he could'nt find, or perhaps afford, a commercialy available lens for the job he decided to make his own out of bits and bobs from cheap lenses he perhaps bought on ebay?
Who knows?...All I know is that lens seems to have very nice bokeh.

[Ballu]

This is (My guess, but I am sure) large format/plate camera lens, must be from around 1910s time...

Chekc this auction, same aperture mechanism,

Click here to see on Ebay

I have used these lenses (some from that time, but mostly large format) with bellows and extension tube (small bellows doesnt help in reaching to infinity).

But, how do you control focussing, or this is fixed focus.
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-Ballu
http://balyanpage.blogspot.com/

[luisalegria]

When I got it it came attached to an Accura focusing extension tube in Exakta mount, which took care of focusing. Later I mounted it on my Exakta bellows. It was threaded M40, the same as the Exakta accessory thread - Exakta extension tubes, microscope mounts, etc. actually use this thread, so its easy to attach a mount.

I converted my Exakta bellows to work on my Pentax.

I think this may be another case of an ex-military optic converted to civilian use.
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Pentax K100D, SV, SP1000, SP500, LX, SF10, Mamiya 1000TL, Sears/Ricoh TLS, Exakta VX, VXIIb, Olympus OM-10, Nikon FM, Zeiss Contaflex B, Retina Reflex S, IV, Rolleiflex, Speed Graphic & Meridian 4x5, misc. rangefinders and folders, several dozen lenses and etc., et. al., ad infinitum.