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disemjg · Joined: 10 Jan 2002 Posts: 474 Location: Washington, DC

What can anyone tell me about my "new" Taylor Taylor & Hobson Cooke Series V 6 1/2 by 8 1/2 (11.5" equivalent) lens? This is a brass lens mounted in a Volute shutter.

My guess is that this is a triplet, with perhaps the front cell pair being cemented. There is some interior haze and dirt in the front cell, and I'm hoping the pair is not cemented. If it is cemented then what I'm seeing is degradation of the cementing. I'll try to take the cell apart in the next few days to see what is going on.

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

Stolen fron an article by Barbara Lowry:

"The Cooke Series V, f/8 lens began its run about 1899 and was designed in continued collaboration with Dennis Taylor as an even more refined variant of the Cooke Triplet lens. It was offered as a Cooke process lens a little over ten years later because of its special clarity of definition. The lens was especially suited for commercial photography requiring microscopically fine definition in average lighting conditions. (In 1912, a Professor Pickering of the Harvard Observatory chose several of the Series V focal lengths to record nightly sky survey shots of the stars from Cambridge, Massachusetts.) Until about 1925, the Series V, f/8 lenses were made in these focal lengths: 9 inch for 5x8 format, 11 inch for 8.5x6.5, 12 inch for 8x10, 16 inch for 10x12, 18 inch for 12x15 and 25 inch for 16x18. In January 2002, an 11-inch Series V was listed on www.pgsys.com for $200."
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disemjg · Joined: 10 Jan 2002 Posts: 474 Location: Washington, DC

I got the front cell apart without too much effort, and was glad to find that the front pair was air gapped and not cemented. The junk cleaned out nicely. The only remianing issue is that the cup for the second element is stuck in the shutter; I was lucky that the first element ring threaded into the second cup externally so that I could dismount it without having to remove the entire cell from the shutter. I'll leave it alone for now since there is no compelling reason to argue with it.

R_J · Joined: 03 Aug 2004 Posts: 137 Location: Europe

disemjg · Joined: 10 Jan 2002 Posts: 474 Location: Washington, DC

I have not yet had a chance to mount and test the lens; from the earlier comments I have high expectations for it. As I said, the glass cleaned up nicely and is in great condition. The shutter will give me maybe three or four useful speeds, but is not fully functional. I have resisted the temptation to go into it as I am unfamiliar with Volute shutters, and the stuck cup will probably complicate matters.

In reviewing the specifications that Les provided, the thought occurs to me that it may be worth trying on my 8X10. I had been figuring on using it on my Korona 5X7, where it would be a bit long, with plenty of coverage. But the lens is big, and the Korona boards are a bit small so that may be a tight fit. I would find it to be far more useful on my 8X10 if the corners do not go too soft.

Way too hot around here right now to even think about getting under a focusing cloth, but I'll dig around in my lens board bin to see what can be fitted up. A temporay thin plywood ring to allow the lens to be fitted to another board may be in order for test purposes. That will also work for the little Meyer lens discussed in a separate post.

disemjg · Joined: 10 Jan 2002 Posts: 474 Location: Washington, DC

BTW, has anyone serviced a Volute shutter and can provide comments? It is probably fairly straightforward, but has the added complicaton of being a diaphragm shutter. Plus my concerns about the stuck cup.

R_J · Joined: 03 Aug 2004 Posts: 137 Location: Europe

You are fortunate enough to find a Series V in its original Volute shutter. I've not seen a Series V mounted in this original way before. Mostly, an affair, sandwiched besides a Packard Ideal or an alternative due to its size.

The Series V of your description should be generous enough to cover 8x10 with minimal movements and/or when stopped down. One of its hallmark characteristics was reputed as edge sharpness even at full aperture. That is, according to the historical literature.

Looking at the lens performance retrospectively with the benefit of aspherical elements and low-dispersion lenses, I'm wondering how the original claims of the Series V stand. Perhaps I won't have the opportunity to push the corner resolution to the limits since I rarely ever print as large as the stated image circles.