Anyone heard of these? This is a barrel mount lens, and it looks like it was not initially made for a camera lens.
When I bought my Speed, the guy threw in this big lens, two lensboards, and some filmholders.

One of the lensboards had a "collar" about 1/2 inch high with some screw holes in it - apparently for screwing down a lens flange (I'm guessing here). The diameter of the hole in the lensboard/collar is about 72mm, and the lens barrel diameter is about 65mm.

Anyway, just wanting to see if this huge chunk of glass would focus, I cut a strip of thick leather and wrapped it around the lens barrel, then "screwed" it into the lens mount (the collar is threaded). So I have this huge lens mounted on the board (pretty sturdy for a temporary measure I must say!).

I mounted the board/lens to my Speed, and proceeded to run the thing out until I could focus on some distant trees and houses. It seems to work pretty well by focusing through the ground glass!

Anybody heard of these lenses? Anybody else do wierd things like sticking lens to boards with leather, scraps and duct tape? (don't laugh, I'm serious here....).

If we ever get some sunlight, I'll try a polaroid shot through this thing to see how it looks!

Quote:

On 2002-10-23 03:59, jchamb wrote: Anyone heard of these? This is a barrel mount lens, and it looks like it was not initially made for a camera lens. When I bought my Speed, the guy threw in this big lens, two lensboards, and some filmholders. One of the lensboards had a "collar" about 1/2 inch high with some screw holes in it - apparently for screwing down a lens flange (I'm guessing here). The diameter of the hole in the lensboard/collar is about 72mm, and the lens barrel diameter is about 65mm. Anyway, just wanting to see if this huge chunk of glass would focus, I cut a strip of thick leather and wrapped it around the lens barrel, then "screwed" it into the lens mount (the collar is threaded). So I have this huge lens mounted on the board (pretty sturdy for a temporary measure I must say!). I mounted the board/lens to my Speed, and proceeded to run the thing out until I could focus on some distant trees and houses. It seems to work pretty well by focusing through the ground glass! Anybody heard of these lenses? Anybody else do wierd things like sticking lens to boards with leather, scraps and duct tape? (don't laugh, I'm serious here....). If we ever get some sunlight, I'll try a polaroid shot through this thing to see how it looks!

hint: do a google search. http://www.google.com/advanced_search

then do a search of usenet with google groups search

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search

look for lenzar and lens.

Thanks for the tips. I had already done a search on Google, but didn't find much.

The thread I came up with on the newsgroup was very interesting though! I guess Lenzar bought out Graflex, and now owns graflex.com - making stuff for the military.

BTW - I tried a polaroid shot (type 669) with the lens this afternoon, and it appears to be clear and sharp.

Quote:

On 2002-10-23 13:00, jchamb wrote: Thanks for the tips. I had already done a search on Google, but didn't find much. The thread I came up with on the newsgroup was very interesting though! I guess Lenzar bought out Graflex, and now owns graflex.com - making stuff for the military. BTW - I tried a polaroid shot (type 669) with the lens this afternoon, and it appears to be clear and sharp.

If you look harder, you'll find out that Lenzar went bust, was bought by a firm called Tele Optic (no hyphen), and that Tele Optic is now a shell company.

You'll also find a dealer offering a 300/8 or 9 Lenzar Apo lens. You may have a decent lens.

I applaud your shooting with it to find out how well it works.

Cheers,

Dan