[LargeFormat] NEW SEPT Theme "Your rarest lens" (s)

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Les Newcomer" <LNPhoto at twmi.rr.com>
To: "f32" <largeformat at f32.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 10:28 PM
Subject: [LargeFormat] NEW SEPT Theme "Your rarest lens" (s)


> While I was on a roll, I sent this one two.
>
> My entry in this month's sub-theme is  a set of rare 
> lenses
> http://home.twmi.rr.com/lnphoto/lensgrpweb.jpg
>
> The telephotos showed up on ebay first. They were indeed 
> interesting as I thought that Kodak might be trying out 
> new lenses for the Miniature Speed Graphic. The focal 
> lengths were odd and the serial numbers  intrigued me.
>
> I wrote to Todd Gustavson at George Eastman House about 
> the serial number, and while he didn't say anything 
> concrete about them he did mention this camera:
>
> http://www.geh.org/fm/toronto/htmlsrc/mE13000625_ful.html#topoftext
>
> Essentially, the Teknar was supposed to compete with the 
> Linhoff  and other high end press cameras, but before it 
> could get off the ground Kodak shifted paradigms and bowed 
> out of the pro photography market.  At least one other 
> Teknar was made in Germany and bares  a slight resemblance 
> to this camera. I suspect they realized they couldn't 
> compete with cheap German labor after the war, so they 
> tried to farm this project overseas before they killed it 
> completely.
>
> In an email he noted that the camera was engraved for the 
> following lenses:
>  80mm f/6.3,
> 110mm f/4.5,
> 110mm f/2.7,
> 143mm f/4.5,
> 195mm f/5.6,
>  255mm f/5.6
>  338mm f/5.6.
>
> Okay so now I knew what I had and if I had any doubt, it 
> was erased when the 110mm f2.7 showed up the next week 
> (the lens at 6 o'clock in the photo).  Now this lens 
> doesn't really play by the all of the rules. The two 
> tele's are coated (one blue one straw-gold) both are made 
> in 1945 when the Teknar supposedly was in  R&D.  While the 
> 110 has the right focal length, speed, lensboard and even 
> shutter, is uncoated and made in 1940.
>
> Could the Teknar project been started that much earlier 
> but delayed because of the war?  Could this lens been part 
> of something else and got drafted into the Teknar project 
> like so many High School grads in the same year?   I don't 
> know and any paper work that might tell has yet to 
> surface.
>
> The 195mm lens was the last from the same seller, it 
> wasn't complete, I had to fight off several well heeled 
> japanese collectors to get the teles so I didn't bid on 
> the 195 and it went  cheap.
>
> The 143mm lens came from Jay Tepper who found it at the 
> same swap I was at and missed it.  He tried to sell it on 
> ebay and I bought it from him after two failed ebay tries.
>
> The prototype 80mm WF Ektar probably wasn't part of the 
> Teknar program by the time this one was made, but I 
> include it here because the 80  did come out of the 
> project.  This lens is a year later and has the notation 
> of "first single piece front mount"  I suspect this was 
> the beginning of the "rolled edge" method of securing the 
> glass to the mount. A very cheap and innovative method of 
> manufacture it just doesn't leave any chance for repairing 
> the lens or cleaning the air space later.
>
> So out of 7 potential lenses I have 5, one is half its 
> former self, and the other  is a slower duplicate of the 
> one I have.
>
> One of these days I'd like to see the lenses and the 
> camera united, but so far neither Todd nor I are budging.
>
> Les

   Note the bottom lens in the photo is in a Wollensak 
shutter.
   Kodak would have been in competition with Graflex as well 
as Linhof so I wonder whether this was intended to be a 
"professional" camera. Graflex was once owned by Kodak and 
they had a quite friendly relationship. In fact, Graflex 
built some of Kodak's cameras and all of its film holders.
   The name Recomar was used for a high quality folding 
plate camera Kodak had made in Germany, I think by 
Nagelwerk, who also built the Retina. The Recomar was 
competition for the several Zeiss folders. This looks like 
its aimed at a similar market. It looks like it has a focal 
plane shutter as well as a front shutter. Kodak, like AT&T, 
walked on egges for years over anti-trust. I doubt if they 
would have taken on Graflex. Along these lines they were 
always careful about stepping on Bausch & Lomb's toes and 
actually made film for Defender, both ploys to keep the 
government away.
   The difference in the lens coatings is interesting. By 
1945, when these lenses were made Kodak had considerable 
experience with lens coating. The right hand lens looks like 
it has much less reflection than the blue one next to it. I 
wonder if this is just a trick of the photo or if it could 
be an early experiment with multiple coating.
   There are numerous patents in LensVIEW assigned to Kodak 
that obviously not from consumer cameas. Some are obvious 
military lenses but others may be experimental designs from 
some project such as the above one. It sure would be 
interesting to know what they were up to.
   I don't know when spun, or burnished, edges began to be 
used to mount lenses. both of my ancient Bausch & Lomb 
Tessars have them on the rear element. These lenses probably 
date from the late 1920s to perhaps the mid 1930s judging 
from the shutters (assuming they are original). The oldest 
is in a Wollensak Optimo, a shutter discontinued in the 
early 1930's.
   I have had some luck in prying up and reseating the lips 
on burnished in lenses but I would not count on being able 
to do it, I think I was just lucky.

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