[LargeFormat] Elgeet Anastigmat?

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Davenport" <w7apd@attbi.com>
To: <largeformat@f32.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 5:50 PM
Subject: [LargeFormat] Elgeet Anastigmat?


> I just acquired an f/4.5 10" Elgeet Anastigmat lens... all
I know about it
> is that it's a focal length I'd like to have.  Got it on
the cheap, so I
> won't be too upset if it's only good as a paperweight.
That said...
>
> Can anyone tell me anything about this lens?
Construction?
> Reputation?  Will it even cover 4x5?
>
> It's in an Alphax Synchromatic self-cocking shutter
(Wollensak.)
> Stops down to f/45.  The shutter adjustment is pretty
stiff, and I
> don't know if the speeds are accurate; B and T work OK so
it'll
> probably be fine for what I generally need...
>
>
  I can't tell you anything about this particular lens but
can give you some history of Elgeet courtesy of Rudolf
Kingslake.
  The name is an acronym for the initials L-G-T for London,
Goldstein, Terbuska, the founders of the company. London
came from Kodak and the others from Ilex. The company was
founded in 1946 and made mostly lenses for 8mm and 16 mm
movie cameras. Elgeet began to make lenses with aspherical
surfaces much earlier than most other manufacturers. Many of
their Cine-Navitar series lenses had one or more aspherical
surfaces. They also made projection lenses for movie
projectors and slide projectors. I have a Navitar lens for
my Kodak Carousel projector and find it extremely sharp.
Elgeet also made good enlarging lenses.
  Elgeet also made other types of lenses but I don't have
any catalogue data for them.
  Elgeet purchased the Steinheil Optical works in 1962 but
ran into financial difficulties and sold it to Lear Siegler.
Elgeet was reorganized in 1964 and sold to MATI. I am not
sure if the Elgeet name continued to be used.
  One of the founders of Elgeet, David Goldstein, later
bought out the remaining assets of the old Gundlach
Manhattan Optical Co and formed Dynamic Optical Co, later
named D.O. Insdustries and eventually Navitar Inc.
  Since tripping a double action shutter like the Alphax
includes cocking the shutter in the same action its likely
to feel a little stiff. This is one reason that the highest
speeds of this type of shutter are slower than those of
single action, or cock and then trip shutters. There is a
limit to how strong the spring can be before the "trigger
pull" becomes too great.
  The Alphax is a very reliable shutter, better IMHO than
its Ilex counterparts. None of these shutters is very
accurate but they can be made to be fairly close to the
marked speeds by careful balancing of the springs.
  It think its really a necessity to have a shutter tester
if you have many old shutters. The little unit sold by
Calumet is quite satisfactory but I understand the price is
currently about $100 US. When I bought mine a few years ago
they were only $60 US, that's a pretty steep rise.
  You can tell something about the general construction of a
lens by shining a small flashlight into the cells and
counting the reflections. For uncoated lenses the glass-air
surfaces will be very bright. For coated lenses they will be
dimmer but usually quite visible. Cemented interfaces have
very dim reflections but visible. Single coated glass air
surfaces will be substantially brighter than cemented
surfaces. For multi-coated lenses it may be more difficult
to tell the two apart.
  Check each cell separately, and if possible, from both
sides since a steep surface may be hard to spot from one
direction but not the other.
  The reflections will tell you how many elements there are
in each section, and how many cemented vs: air surfaces. It
may also give you some clues as to the steepness of the
surfaces and how many are positive vs: negative. This often
enough to determine the generic lens type.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com