Bosun Higgs

Well, I've just bought a 150mm Elmaron, but somehow I don't think there's any chance at all that I'll be getting Elmarit quality images with it. Honestly, I don't quite know why I bought it as I ...

I was always a little confused by Leitz's naming scheme for projection glass. The Colorplan has almost the same 5 element Double Gauss(ish) layout as the 90mm f2.8 Elmarit-R, yet the 150mm f2.8 ...

That 600mm f3 is a manual focus lens, probably used for a fixed installation where the focus did not change. The one that really got me a salivating was the 300mm f1.8. This too was used in a fixed ...

It seems the Korelle were so popular that even British lens munfacturers catered for them. Dallmeyer made their Adon, Dalmac, Dallon and Pentac lenses to fit the Reflex and Taylor, Taylor and ...

Schneider, it just gets better! It also seems Ernst Ludwig made a 75mm Victar f3.5 (most probably a triplet)  for these cameras too. These must have been very popular cameras as there are many for ...

I came across a 1954 advertisment for Novoflex adaptors/lenses (yes, they are that old!) that mentioned a list of compatible cameras, amongst the usual Reid, Leica, Hassleblad, etc. was "Master ...

I meant "obsolete" only in terms of currency. Many of the optics I use regularly were made in first half of the 20th century, and many were not originally intended for taking pictures, whilst they ...

Has anyone compared the Canon FD 100-300 f/5.6 L to the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS ? The later lens lacks fluorite, but presumably has some of the exotic glasses that became available after the ...

When adapting lenses with no integral focusing mechanism and those intended for different purposes, we usually have to add things to the back of the lens to get them to stick on the front of the ...

No problem, back focus from centre of rear element to sensor at infinity is 77mm. Oodles of room for clamps and helicoids, etc., once you have trimmed the rear tube. Speaking of which, the rear ...

I posted some images recently taken with a 75mm P-Rokkor f2.5 projection lens that I am adapting, well, I took it out again and was really surprised by the differences in the new images. The ...

Recently in some of my posts I've mentioned some very expensive lenses, such as Dallmeyer SuperSixes, Septacs, Cooke Series-O and Speed Panchros, but today I got reminded that you don't have to ...

This would fit with some Kalee lenses I have with a design originally patented by TT&H. As far as I know, TT&H never used the design for production lenses, but it is used in several Kalee cinema ...

The OPIC was a 6/4 f2 Double Gauss design patented by Taylor-Hobson (Cooke) in 1920... ... but, it was designed by William Horace Lee - also the designer of the Speedic (Pulnar). As you don't like ...

I guess all roads lead to Rank! I have quite a few lenses from firms on those early branches. It seems really sad to have lost all of that diversity, especially as they are some of my favourite ...

Here is the layout of my 4" Otar:- 4" Hi-Lite Otar optical layout. Yeah, it's a classic triplet. It's quite a sharp lens with good contrast once fettled, but none of that Speedic bokeh unfortunately. ...

No, you're not alone, I really like the bokeh I've seen from Cooke Speed Panchros, but the prices for them are eye-watering as well, perhaps justifiably so in this case! You're right, of course, I ...

Ineffable - aye, there's the rub. I really prefered the rendering from the 4" Kershaw 250 and Pulnar over their 6" counterparts. The bokeh was similar, but there was just "something" about the ...

All of my lenses have the FL engraved in inches with the metric equivalent following in brackets. I wish! Actually my Holy Grail would be catalogues or product information guides from the time, so ...

You know, when I saw the "inverse" field curvature I suspected that this was deliberate to suit a screen surface curved "CRT" style. The 90mm f1 FJW/Varo lenses come in a bewildering plethora of ...