The most beautiful lens you have........

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Full disclosure: I took a year-long course in lathe and mill operation, both hand and CNC. I also own a medium-small hand-operated lathe: 19" bed with a 10" swing as I recall.

Now as far as beautifully machined lens barrels (and their focusing rings and aperture rings, etc.) go, yes it is possible to do a brilliant job with a very good lathe. At my school, we had leftovers and donations. One of my favorites was a giant lathe -- had about an 8-ft. bed and it had a brass tag indicating it was US "War Dept." property. Well the US War Department existed from 1787 until 1947, where after it became the US Dept of Defense. I suspect, however, that it was older than 1947-ish. It was a marvelous old beast, and most of the other students didn't like using it because of its size. But I didn't mind, and I was able to crank out amazingly small projects on it. Just had to be able to center well whatever the project was in its 12" or so chuck jaws.

So anyway, I've produced pieces with mirror-level shine and with accuracy to within 0.001" (which is all my lathes could produce). And I can deeply admire these old lenses -- and many other finely machined items -- because I know they were produced back in the day when everything was done by hand. Even machining is an intensely hands-on process.

But nowadays it is all CNC and I can't help but marvel at how well an automated lathe or mill can crank out an item that I've designed and that the resolution of the item is determined solely by the resolution of the machine I've fed the program into.

So even though it's all CNC nowadays, there is still pleasure to be derived -- by the person who wrote the program that produced that item -- and admiration to be had by folks who understand what it took to write the code to produce that item.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I think we tend to forget just how many people were highly skilled in manual labour in the past. my dad, for example, can fix almost anything or fabricate almost anything out of anything or build anything, our house is nice only because he's built and rebuilt most of it over 40 years.

I come from a place where it was all heavy industry for over a century - shipbuilding, aircraft manufacture, hovercraft manufacture, all kinds of heavy industry and lots of smaller industries too.

Then during the world wars there were all the women who were trained to turn out all kinds of weapons and equipment.

So i doubt this lens modification and appreciation thing is a modern fad, I bet there were a lot of amateur photographers who could operate machine tools with skill in the old days.

Michael, now you disclosed that gem I have to admit if you weren't thousands of miles away on another continent I'd have to befriend you as I have a ton of lenses that require mounting or modification!

Anyone in the north of England with a lathe and the skills to use it? lol

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Ian, there are at least a couple of very active groups on Yahoo for cutting machines, especially lathes and mills. Here are a few I drop in occasionally and take a look at:

An active group for the small lathes like the one I have:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/9x20Lathe/

All sorts of machines for the home machinist:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/home_machinist/

Specializing in CAD and CAM but can be useful for other stuff, especially questions.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO/

Anyway, you might be able to find somebody in your area who subscibes to one of these groups. Only way to find out would be to join and ask. The only other thing I can think of is joining one or more newsgroups. I guess people still participate in them these days.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I keep thinking of getting a small lathe, never used one though.

Thanks for the info, I'll see what I can turn up.

mmelvis · Expire: 2015-05-09

Angenieux 10x18 j1 (18-180 F2.2)

My beauty, just a raw lens

Arninetyes · Expire: 2013-03-26

One of my favorite lenses, and probably the prettiest one I have, is an old Zoom Nikkor 25-50/4 Ais. While not as pretty as some of the others shown in this forum, it was built back when Nikon still had some pride in the quality of their products. To me, it's a prime example of industrial art. I looked around to see if I had a better picture of it; I don't, so this one will have to do.

I have a gorgeous old Micro Nikkor 55/3.5. I should take a couple pix of it.

uhoh7 · Joined: 24 Nov 2010 Posts: 1300 Location: Idaho, USA

Love those two zooms above Smile

well I just put up a thread on this, but I think it may qualify here

I call it "the lens from U.N.C.L.E"

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Just got a package today I was eagerly expecting...

S-OPTON stands for S-ORTHOPLANAR as Zeiss West was in legal conflict with Zeiss Jena, so the full lens name
could not be used, nor the name ZEISS!

Another one of the milestones in Zeiss' lens design, done by Zeiss Chief lens designer Prof Glatzel; the highest
resolving ZEISS medium format lens I am aware of (for white light, not just monochromatic) with excellent correction
of all lens errors.

exaklaus · Expire: 2011-12-02

Didn't even know about it's existence... Confused

Congratulations!!!!

Klaus

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Thanks Klaus, appreciate it. I knew about it, but could only locate one a few weeks ago.
Quite a rare lens actually anyway in both versions and this one is MINT and looks unused.

I had made an adapter and special focusing helicoid for it, so maybe I'll give it a try soon...

exaklaus · Expire: 2011-12-02

Looking forward to seeing the results

Klaus

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

In the eye of the beholder? My 135mm Series 1...

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Well, a bit of TLC and it'll look much differently, as I can't see mechanical damage.

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Klaus! Holy Cow, how do you FIND these marvels? Shocked

This is a medium format lens, you say?

It just EXUDES some kind of mystery and provenance.

Your collection is staggering. Surprised

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

woodrim - I LOVE that well-used lens. It definitely has character to it!

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

vlousada · Joined: 11 Dec 2010 Posts: 345 Location: Portugal

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Most welcome Vitor!

uhoh7 · Joined: 24 Nov 2010 Posts: 1300 Location: Idaho, USA

this thing just showed......

the hood:

I have to do some work on adapters before I can shoot...

should be interesting Smile

exaklaus · Expire: 2011-12-02

Kilfitt or Zoomar lens!
Looks promising.Show a bit more

Klaus

uhoh7 · Joined: 24 Nov 2010 Posts: 1300 Location: Idaho, USA

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03