[LargeFormat] Wide field and Commercial Ektars

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Hough " <k4sb at niia.net>
To: "f32 Large Format Photography Mail List" 
<largeformat at f32.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] Wide field and Commercial Ektars


> Les
> I dug them out. They are 1947 ES. The sales reciept for 3 
> of them is from
> March 1947. Do not ask why I have the reciept. I've seen 
> and heard of lots
> of 000 lenses since I got mine. I think they are salesmen 
> samples. Too
> many of them. Give Gustafson at GEH a call about it.
> Ken
>
> Very interesting. Does your '46 set say "Wide Field" or 
> "Wide Angle"
> Ektar.   I have a 135 and 190 also from '46 that say Wide 
> Angle, but
> these have a 000 serial number.
>
> While I'm still in negotiations with the owner, I'm aware 
> of a 14"
> Eastman Ektar.  Has all the markings and machining of a 
> Commercial
> Ektar (bright mount of aluminum, style of engraving) 
> accept its date
> code is EY (1940); hence the interest of the "Commercial" 
> introduction.
>
    The 1946 edition does not have either the Wide Field or 
Wide Angle Ektar, the WF is in the 1948 Third Edition. My 
impression, probably from old advertising, is that the WF 
was introduced sometime around 1947, it may be in some 
intermediate reprinting that I don't have.
    The Ektar series for press and medium format view 
cameras seems to have been introduced about 1940. I have two 
Ektars, a 101mm and a 127mm from 1941, both uncoated. I also 
have a much later 101mm which is coated and has less focus 
shift. This may be simply production variation or it may be 
a change in design or mounting. Kodak lists two or three 
different sizes of push on filter adaptors for the 101mm 
lens. The 127mm is very sharp, has little focus shift, and 
seems on a par with the later, coated, versions of this 
lens.
   Is it you that has the Wide Angle Ektar? Whoever has this 
lens please check it for reflections to get some idea of the 
construction. The Wide Field Ektar is a double Gauss lens 
with four air spaced elements and no cemented surfaces. Each 
half should have four bright reflections and no dim ones. If 
there is some other pattern its of a different design. I 
suspect the Wide Angle is a prototype of the WF. The Wide 
Field Ektar barely covers 90 degrees so its not really a 
wide angle lens. Some one at Kodak, maybe Kingslake, may 
have felt that it should not be called a wide angle lens. I 
will check with the fellow at GEH. Some one got the 
manufacturing records of the optical division of Kodak. I 
was told several years ago that it was RIT but no one there 
seems to know anything about it. These records would clarify 
a lot of questions about what Kodak made and when.
   The four element double Gauss was used as a 
medium-wide-angle lens by a number of manufacturers but I 
can find no specific data on any of them in either Smith or 
Kingslake. Both show the Topogon and Metrogon as examples 
but the narrower coverage versions are only mentioned. The 
Roosinov lens, patented in 1946 (Schnider Super-Angulon, 
etc), seems to have pretty much supplanted other wide angle 
designs since the 1950's.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk at ix.netcom.com