[LargeFormat] Adon Lens

[Guy Glorieux]

Hi Philip,

I'm afraid that I don't have a straight answer to your questions and the
workings of this lens have always been a bit of a mystery to me.  But
I've grown accustomed to mysteries...

What the booklet which came with the lens (date unknown - but the lens
had an indicated  selling price of 3 Pounds 10 - 0...  ) says is the
following:
Camera extension           Focal length       F/value
      Inches                       Inches
           5                          14.5                    13
           10                         24.5                    24
           15                         34.5                    34
            20                        44.5                    44
There are of course values in between.

So basically this is a "zoom" lens" with a focal extending from 14.5 to
44.5 inches.  The F/values are used to work out the actual F-stop when
you open or close the iris by the number of stops you choose to use.

At full aperture, the images are quite soft but they sharpen quite a bit
as soon as you stop down by a couple-three of stops.

I still don't have full mastery of the lens by any means (which proves
to be costly, since I usually do need to do a Polaroid shot or two
before getting the exposure right).  I bought the lens because of it's
zoom feature but also because I like to work with soft lenses (hey,
after all I'm mostly into pinhole photography) and I'm quite happy with
it.

I remember that at the time I bought it, Pam Nadermeyer who was on the
list (are you still there, Pam?) also got one from the same eBay seller.
I don't know anybody else with one, but it would be interesting to hear
if anybody else on the list has one.  A quick Google search produced
only a few entries with the following URL showing a diagram of the lens
(top image).
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9379/dal/dall1.htm

I don't know much about Dallmeyer lenses but I noticed on eBay that
there is a chap selling a 508mm Dallmeyer lens for Hasselblad.  An
impressive piece of optics.  He post a "Buy it Now" price in excess of
US$7,000.   Wahooooo!   Anybody interested...?

Cheers,

Guy

P.S.  The booklet claims that the lens will cover 15 by 12 inches but I
still have to test that...

----- Original Message -----
From: "philip Lambert" <philip.lambert@virgin.net>
To: <largeformat@f32.net>
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 2:58 AM
Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] Adon Lens


> Dear Guy, Could you tell us more about the Adon's range of focal
lengths,
> maximum aperture and whether all images are soft focus or just max
aperture.
> Is it a 5x4 lens ? Philip
> >  the one I have has a signature of Dallmeyer.  It is basically a
"zoom"
> lens and  I use it on my 4x5 Linhof field.  I found it on eBay from
England
> and paid probably too much for it but I get some rather interesting
results
> out of it.> > I was able to get a step-ring machine-tooled here in
Montreal
> to fit it on a Ilex 3x shutter with a dedicated lens-plate for my
Linhof.
> It is a bit tricky to use in terms of working out the proper exposure
times
> but I get some really nice soft-focus images from it.
> >