Introduction: Officine Galileo Repho 66.5 mm f/4.5 enlarger

[kathala]

Hi everyone,
I recently came by this little cutie as a by-product with another lens, and it seems not too well known.
So if you're interested, you now know of the Officine Galileo Repho 66.5 mm f/4.5, which is an enlarger lens and has a flange distance fit for an SLR.
It's not M39, 'm guessing M40 or 39.5.
I was not aware that this company lived beyond making Leica replicas after WWII. This lens is certainly younger. Turns out, there's an array of focal lengths in the Repho series.
I haven't adapted it properly, but handholding suggest decent sharpness.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6

[simple.joy]

Very nice shots and thanks for showing that lens! I was aware of Officine Galileo, but didn't know about the Repho series. Do you think they might have been used for Repro-Photography, given the name? They look a bit similar to some of the German makers like C. Friedrich, Liesegang or Czech Meopta enlarging lenses. Certainly interesting, and the unique focal length might suggest that it was made for a specific device or purpose. Some of the Polaroid MP3/4 lenses have a 40x0.75 thread, I believe - perhaps it was used for that.

I've got a Officine Galileo lens as well, which is called Aerostigmat, which makes me think it might be one of those lenses used on planes, like the Aero Ektars etc. Have never tried it though... not sure if it's still capable of delivering any decent results because it isn't in a good shape overall.

[simple.joy]

Found an older thread - one of their enlarging lenses (series?) seems to have been called "Ingra":
http://forum.mflenses.com/officine-galileo-ingra-3-5-5cm-enlarger-lens-t15525.html

Makes sense given enlarger = ingranditore in the Italian language. 😉

Looks a bit like a lens modeled after the early Leitz enlarging lenses.

EDIT:

Seems like you're right! At least the shorter focal length Repho was used in an (subminiature) enlarger: Marco Cavina has some information here:
https://www.nocsensei.com/camera/tecnica/marco-cavina/marcocavina/officine-galileo-repho-30mm-14-per-ingranditore-gami-16/