Graflex.org

[disemjg]

I just got this little barrel lens and was wondering what may be learned about it; the "wide" part is especially promising. At about 160mm, if it is really a wide angle it must cover 5X7, for which it would be a modest wide angle.

[45PSS]

Digging and I mean Digging through the Lens Vade Mecum I found Hugo Mayer and Co., Gorlitz, Gremany, producers of....
Wide Angle Aristostigmat
This trade name was used for many years and probably represents a series of related designs, all of them
Gauss 4-glass and all wide angles but varying in aperture and angle covered as the years went by.
Wide Angle Aristostigmat f6.0 In 1909, this was a Gauss design. It was also made as an f6.3. It was rated
for 105° with stops to f36. It is a slight puzzle why it seems to have been replaced first by an f9 version, and
much later by an f6,3- possibly the f9 gave better correction initially and then new glass and design allowed a
return to near the original aperture.
Wide Angle Aristostigmat f9.0 3.125-10.75in A Gauss design, Mey018. It covers 100°; and it is suggested
to use 7.0in for 10x8in. This was quite an old design being 'new' in B.J.A. 1926, p315 in 3.125-10.75in , where
4.75in was used for 7x5in and 5.25in for 8.5x6.5in, and gave really wide coverage, possibly wider than the
f6.3. It was seen at Nos 209,58x, 226,66x, 484,17x, 484,17x, 484,73x, so it was made over a long period
from perhaps 1925 to 1950 (below). (in line with this, it was not noted in a 1914 BJA advert.) It must have
been used on many cameras, but one example noted at auction was a f9/80mm lens on a 1/4plate
Sanderson. These coverages are from B.J.A. 1935, p576 (and longest ones 1928, p667) and it must have
been being phased out in favour of the f6.3 version about 1935. Applications were:
3.5in 4.75x3.5in at full aperture.
4in 6x4in
4.75in 7x5in
5.25in 8.5x6.5in
6.25in 9x7in
7in 10x8in
7.875in 12x10in
9.5in 12x10in
10.75in 15x12in.
Most are in barrel mounts as for indoors this was no great problem with slow plates in the 1920's.

6.25*25.4=158.75mm and Wollensak has a 159mm Extreme Wide Angle the does cover 8x10. At any rate it should be a good lens and worth the try on the larger format.
Charles
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[disemjg]

Thanks, Charles. I figured this one was obscure and would require some digging.

I neglected to give the aperature in my original post; this lens is an f9. It is also evidently from the post war period of production you mentioned, as it is coated. The glass has some minor issues that probably will not matter. It is very small, about 38mm diameter over the aperature ring. I'm glad that it has a chance on 8X10 as I have not yet gotten anything wider than my 190 WF Ektar. I'll need to make a mounting flange for it since that is missing, and maybe a Packard shutter will answer as a simple solution for a shutter.

[45PSS]

I think it has more to do with the way the Vade is written, histories of companies and lens designers with mention of lens that a company made in groups rather than each. The way I read the text it is around mid 30's production and lens coatings were comming into use at that time.
Make a wooden lens board and drill the mount hole as close to the size of the threads as possible. If mount hole is the diamater of the valley of the threads then try screwing it directly into the lens board, if the mount hole is the diamater of the peak of the threads then wrap the threads with a layer of graffers tape and screw into the lens board, either should result in a firm fit.
Charles
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[Dan Fromm]

Charles, coating didn't come in for civilian applications until after WWII.

Meyer continued making lenses in what became East Germany after the war. And most of their post-war lenses were coated. Not directly relevant, but I have a 100/6.3 Weitwinkel Aristostigmat collecting dust in a drawer. By the serial number, made in '58 or '59, coated. A 4/4 double Gauss type much like a Wide Field Ektar. Its cells, unfortunately, aren't threaded to fit a standard (#00, #0, #1, ... ) shutter.

I'm away from home, can't look in my copy of the VM, but it says my f/6.3 covers 100 degrees. So the original poster's f/9 should have more coverage still.

Cheers,

Dan

[45PSS]

Dan, my first post is a direct copy/paste of Vademec 3f 008lm pdf page 53 as it sows up in Adobe reader 7 from the Vade Mecum CD that I have.
While coatings were not the norm until after the war it is possible to own a coated limited production or government issue today. I am not trying to argue but based my statements on the available information at the time I posted. Search for Aristostigmat will yeild 4 doucements with 70 instances while a search for Meyer will produce 19 doucements with 1090 instances.

disemjg,
What is the serial number?

Dan,
Where can one find the serial number date list for Meyer lens?

Chasrles

P.S.
I only looked it up as no other Knowledgeable lens person had bothered to respond and only posted once I found relevant information on the type of lens in question.
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[Dan Fromm]

Charles, the VM has many shortcomings. One is that it discusses the same trade name in several places, with each place referring to a different time period. It needs a good copy editor.

If you go to the end of the VM's Meyer section, you'll find a chronology. Another Meyer chronology, also much more information, is in P-H Pont's little book Les Chiffres Cles. If you want ordering information for it, I'll be happy to give it to you after I'm back at work.

Zeiss' first coating patents were in the mid '30s, but were not published because they were regarded as a military secret. TTH began coating during the war. But I stand by my statement that coated lenses for civilians were first produced post-war. Note, though, than many manufacturers offered a coating service for older lenses. So that a lens is coated now doesn't mean that it was coated when it left the factory.

Cheers,

Dan

Cheers,

Dan

[45PSS]

Geeeeee, I thought one had to be British to interpert the Vade fully.
I agree fully on the copy editor and thanks for the coating info.
Charles
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[Dan Fromm]

Charles,

You can get Les Chiffres Clés from a number of sources, for example:

http://www4.fnac.com/shelf/article.aspx?PRID=1098441

[disemjg]

The serial number of my lens is 398233, which seems awfully low unless Meyer numbered their lenses based on lens type instead of simply chronologically.

[Dan Fromm]

Per the VM, y'r lens was made before 1930. It guesses that 37772x was made in 1918. But this is possible.

Pont says that the Weitwinkel Aristostigmat was introduced in 1911; the VM thinks 1909. He doesn't agree with the VM at all about Meyer chronology, thinks that Meyer used s/n 300,000 around 1930 and 400,000 around 1933. This from the third edition of Les Chiffres Cles, published in 2000; I think this is the latest.

The VM says pretty clearly that all of the WW Aristostigmats were rated for around 100 degrees, also that yours should cover full plate. Try it out and tell us how it does.

My little 100/6.3 is wasted on 2x3, but that's what I shoot. Sooner or later I'll try it out as a normal lens.

Cheers,

Dan