hey all
I have seen all kinds of answers for what type of lens the #772 / f3.7 107mm Ektar is!
But it is a 4-element Tessar type lenses by what the Kodak book shows from what
looks like to be form 1939 .
I was looking at {{ http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Kodak_lenses }}
and they say Kodak Ektar f/3.7, 107 mm. and f/4.5, 101 mm., f/4.7, 127mm and f/4.5, 152mm, 7½in., and 12in., These 4-element Tessar type lenses
and at the bottom of the page they gave// Kodak Lenses and Shutters an undated version on Mike Butkus' site {{http://www.butkus.org/chinon/kodak/kodak_lenses_shutters/kodak_lenses_shutters.htm}}
and on page 34 it shows the 107 diagram as a 4-element Tessar NOT a 5 element Heliar type lenses like so minty have said !
until now I had no clue !

banjo

I too have a Kodak Lens and Shutter Book with a 03/39 publication date, as well as a 107mm Ektar. It is indeed a Tessar with the rear elements reversed from the normal Tessar construction, as well as the new high index glass. I have the patent also. My 107mm is in a Supermatic with no Kodak date code. Simply labeled Kodak Anastigmat Ektar. The book says they were in a Compur.

What's the patent number?

I'm asking for myself and for my friend Eric Beltrando, who's published lens cross-sections (mainly taken from patents) and calculated performance on his site www.dioptrique.info

I think most of the websites say it's the 105 3.7 that's a heliar formula. The 107 shows up on early Minis and is taken from the Recomar.

The patent does not specifically detail the 107mm lens, but does give lens data for a 100mm f/3.5 lens (that no doubt was modified slightly in practice to give the 107mm). It is patent number 2,158,178 granted May 16th, 1939. The two rear glasses given have refractive indexes of 1.8049 and 1.8417. The front glasses are a ordinary 1.6109 and 1.5750. You probably already have it, but the patent for the Heliar type Ektars was granted on July 11th, 1939 and is number 2.165,328. It also gives design data for a 100mm F/3.5 Lens. The other Heliar type patent granted to Kodak is number 2,279,384 granted April 14th, 1942. It does give design data for a 107mm f/3.7 lens (go figure!). In the first patent given above it relates the high index glass types to a British patent 462,304. Hope this gives you the info you need.

hey Les

if you read on page 34 it says!! This lens has been designed for use on press
& reflex of Speed Graphic & Graflex types

banjo

78ltd, thanks for the reply. I checked the wikipedia listing's references (thanks, banjo, for giving the wikipedia URL) and one of the references does indeed show the 107/3.7 as a tessar type.

Banjo, as usual with Wikipedia the listing you directed us to is incorrect or incomplete. Choose whichever you prefer. Most Projection Ektars/Enlarging Ektars are tessar types but, per Kingslake and the examples of each I have in the drawer, the 50/4.5 and 75/4.5 Enlarging Ektars are heliar types.

hey Dan

YES as you KNOW & I am find out there is a lot of bad & incorrect
stuff on the internet
Or NO data at all like S# & dates for optar / raptar lens
I call on Carl-Zeiss for S# & dates for there lens, they said that would be
to hard to come up with!!
I would also like to know s# & dates and Data on Leitmeyr & NO luck there
So I will keep working on things
like dates for Burke & James 23
& Busch Pressman C s# & dates
& on optar / raptar lens
BUT it helps when we can find scan of the old books to look at!!!!

SO that mean lots of looking every where!

AND hopefully some day I can find all that I am looking for

Banjo

Um, banjo, try Google.

Here's a slightly truncated list of Zeiss (Jena, pre-split; post-split, Jena and Oberkochen) serial numbers by date: http://www.motamedi.info/serial.htm

Patrice-Herve Pont gives the same list in Les Chiffres Cles, 3d edition, also parallel lists for many other lens and camera makers. I have a copy of the book, bought it from Atlantica-Seguier. FNAC has it too. Google will find these vendors for you.

A Lens Collector's Vade Mecum, which every serious collector of lenses should have, also has chronologies for many lens makers.

hey Dan
thanks
NOW why couldn't Zeiss come up with that?!!!

Banjo

Well, there were three companies involved and many records lost during WW-II. What isn't clear to me, but then I can't read German and I don't have the books, is how Hartmut Thiele came up with the Zeiss production books that he's published.

Les mentions the 107mm is a derivative of the lens on the Recomar. Is this correct? If so, the Kodak Anastigmat from a Recomar 18 could be a nice lens to run on a baby Graflex.

BTW, just to contribute a couple other random data points...

I happen to have a 105mm f/4.5 Kodak Anastigmat in Supermatic #1, marked with a "camerosity" code EY (1940). For all intents and purposes, it performs just like a 1930's era 105mm f/4.5 CZJ Tessar (although I do like the "real" Tessar just a little better). And, except for the focal length, in every other way it appears to be an immediate precursor to the Ektar 101mm that began to appear in 1941.

I also have a 127mm f/4.5 Kodak Anastigmat in a Supermatic #2, also marked with "camerosity" code from the same year, EY (1940). And just like the 101mm, appears in every way identical to the 127mm Ektar that followed. (This lens is surprisingly sweet!)

Both these Supermatics have a lovely "Shutter made in U.S.A." inscription plate mounted to the shutter body. Both of these shutters are marked KODAK (not GRAPHEX) and both are _not_ synchronized. The lenses of course are uncoated at this point.

Possible conclusions? 1940/41 as a transition period to new lens designs, introduction of "camerosity" date coding, and wider use of "Ektar" branding.

Vitaly, you might want to look at the dates of the patents from which Eric got the prescriptions he evaluated.

Yes? It is very interesting but unfortunately I am finding that site to be of limited practical usefulness. The identification information does not seem to correlate well with the lens engravings of the production lenses one might actually find in the wild.