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Tessar help
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2022 8:49 pm    Post subject: Tessar help Reply with quote
Hello.

I got this 8cm Tessar in m39 mount and I'm trying to figure out what it was used for.

Does anyone recognize it?



PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2022 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Maybe a 6x6 folding camera


PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2022 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
It has no shutter so it must be for a focal plane shutter camera in that case. But maybe its intended use is something else.


Side view


PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2022 11:08 pm    Post subject: Re: Tessar help Reply with quote
blotafton wrote:
Hello.
I got this 8cm Tessar in m39 mount and I'm trying to figure out what it was used for.


Enlarger?


PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 9:51 am    Post subject: Re: Tessar help Reply with quote
stevemark wrote:
blotafton wrote:
Hello.
I got this 8cm Tessar in m39 mount and I'm trying to figure out what it was used for.


Enlarger?


Ergonomics not ideal for that I guess. If it has a clickless aperture even worse. Horizontal repro cameras usually had longer focal lenses. Vertical would have the same disadvantage the enlarger use would show. For both uses the wide aperture at 2.8 is unusual as well.

My bet: 6x6 focal plane shutter camera similar to the Reflex Korelle.


PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:10 am    Post subject: Re: Tessar help Reply with quote
Ernst Dinkla wrote:
stevemark wrote:
blotafton wrote:
Hello.
I got this 8cm Tessar in m39 mount and I'm trying to figure out what it was used for.


Enlarger?


Ergonomics not ideal for that I guess. If it has a clickless aperture even worse. Horizontal repro cameras usually had longer focal lenses. Vertical would have the same disadvantage the enlarger use would show. For both uses the wide aperture at 2.8 is unusual as well.

My bet: 6x6 focal plane shutter camera similar to the Reflex Korelle.

Like 1 Friends

From Zeiss Lens Catalog 1933


PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:53 am    Post subject: Re: Tessar help Reply with quote
calvin83 wrote:
Ernst Dinkla wrote:
stevemark wrote:
blotafton wrote:
Hello.
I got this 8cm Tessar in m39 mount and I'm trying to figure out what it was used for.


Enlarger?


Ergonomics not ideal for that I guess. If it has a clickless aperture even worse. Horizontal repro cameras usually had longer focal lenses. Vertical would have the same disadvantage the enlarger use would show. For both uses the wide aperture at 2.8 is unusual as well.

My bet: 6x6 focal plane shutter camera similar to the Reflex Korelle.

Like 1 Friends

From Zeiss Lens Catalog 1933


@ Calvin: thank you for that information!

@ Ernst: at least Leica - around 1930-1935 - has been promoting the use of the LTM Elmar 3.5/5cm for use in both the camera as well as in the enlarger. I'm pretty sure some of these beautiful f2.8 M39 Tessars have been used in enlargers as well. A lens was quite expensive and valuable back then. Were there some special enlarger lenses available in the 1930s ...? I'm not talking about repro lenses here since they were (are) really slow ...

S


PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 2:31 pm    Post subject: Re: Tessar help Reply with quote
stevemark wrote:
calvin83 wrote:
Ernst Dinkla wrote:
stevemark wrote:
blotafton wrote:
Hello.
I got this 8cm Tessar in m39 mount and I'm trying to figure out what it was used for.


Enlarger?


Ergonomics not ideal for that I guess. If it has a clickless aperture even worse. Horizontal repro cameras usually had longer focal lenses. Vertical would have the same disadvantage the enlarger use would show. For both uses the wide aperture at 2.8 is unusual as well.

My bet: 6x6 focal plane shutter camera similar to the Reflex Korelle.

Like 1 Friends

From Zeiss Lens Catalog 1933


@ Calvin: thank you for that information!

@ Ernst: at least Leica - around 1930-1935 - has been promoting the use of the LTM Elmar 3.5/5cm for use in both the camera as well as in the enlarger. I'm pretty sure some of these beautiful f2.8 M39 Tessars have been used in enlargers as well. A lens was quite expensive and valuable back then. Were there some special enlarger lenses available in the 1930s ...? I'm not talking about repro lenses here since they were (are) really slow ...

S


Sounds familiar, in the 70's with no budget I opted for a Canon FL 50mm 3.5 macro lens to cover my needs for a standard lens, an enlarger lens and a macro lens for repro work. The lens adapted with a Canon FD<>39mm adapter to the recessed cup of the Durst M601. So I do not deny the Tessar designs as being usable on enlargers but the design of the lens discussed aims to another use in the first place. And this lens is at least dating back to before WWII.

Of course repro lenses, though slow, were also used for enlargers due to the magnification ratio they were designed for.

Just after WWII, Kodak, Dallmeyer, etc introduced enlarger lenses that were designed for enlarger magnifications and with the aperture numbers more visible sideways. https://www.camleyphotographic.com/shop/kodak-ektanon-f4-5-7-5inch-enlarging-lens-8308/

It is worth some research to find dedicated enlarger lenses designed before WWII. Could not find anything in a short search. Should I check my Ilford manual of Process Work of 1923? The Boyer Apo Saphir's of my Reinhel enlarger could have been of the 1950's or older. Sold the enlarger ages ago.

https://galerie-photo.com/boyer-lens-optic.html mentions before 1939 lenses for repro also used for enlargers. Next to the magnification some attention was paid to protection to chemicals and bigger aperture rings. Weight not being an issue.

A better EDIT: Part of the Dan Fromm' s text there: Taking lens or enlarging lens? Boyer sold Topaz and Tessar type Saphir lenses as taking lenses and as enlarging lenses. In addition, they sold plasmat type Saphir B and BX lenses exclusively as enlarging lenses. A Rolyn Optics sales brochure asserts that “Boyer are the first optical manufacturers to mass-produce lenses specially computed for photographic enlarging,” so DF found it reasonable to expect lenses Boyer sold for enlarging to perform poorly as taking lenses at distance. EB, however, reports that between 1935 and 1960 only special objectives, usually with name ending in “-B,” were specially computed for enlarging. In the Topaz and Tessar type Saphir lines taking and enlarging lenses were identical; Saphir BX lenses are identical to Zircon taking lenses. Only Saphir Bs were computed especially for enlarging; EB says they were optimized for 5x enlargements and were intended to be used at f/11. In the Beryl line, reprographic lenses, including the Emeraude, and taking lenses are identical.

Last edited by Ernst Dinkla on Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:11 pm; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
For Leica users, they can use the 5cm elmar lens as a m39 enlarger at no cost. Wink

Or they can use the VAROB for enlarging purpose.
https://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-wiki.en/index.php/VAROB_f_%3D_5_cm_1:3.5

Last edited by calvin83 on Wed Sep 14, 2022 4:19 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:01 pm    Post subject: Re: Tessar help Reply with quote
Quote:
calvin83"]


Thanks a lot! A normal google search could not find it!

So it has Sunk B mount. I guess mine with f/2.8 is not APO.

The aperture is clickless. And it has a lot of blades.[/quote]
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