Looking for info: Wollensak 7 1/4 in. 4.5 velostigmatic
in [Large Format Cameras]
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From: Cheesehead on 25 Apr 2007 22:02 My son picked up one of these this evening. Hard to find info about it. Betax #3 shutter, uncoated. Came with an old Speed Graphic. Anyone got a link to some info? TIA, Collin KC8TKA
From: Cheesehead on 26 Apr 2007 16:20 On Apr 25, 10:02 pm, Cheesehead <dplotusno...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > My son picked up one of these this evening. Hard to find info about > it. > Betax #3 shutter, uncoated. Came with an old Speed Graphic. > Anyone got a link to some info? > > TIA, > > Collin > KC8TKA It may be a 7 1/2 inch. Lower digit is difficult to discern. Series II.
From: Nicholas O. Lindan on 26 Apr 2007 17:03 Google pondered mightily and spake thus: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0031vq http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00EUBO http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/forum/messages/6790/8215.html?1166351030 I can't make head or tail of it - it is a soft focus lens except when it isn't, though when it isn't it often is. Maybe. -- Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com
From: Richard Knoppow on 27 Apr 2007 06:39 "Cheesehead" <dplotusnotes(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1177552935.011660.240090(a)o40g2000prh.googlegroups.com... > My son picked up one of these this evening. Hard to find > info about > it. > Betax #3 shutter, uncoated. Came with an old Speed > Graphic. > Anyone got a link to some info? > > TIA, > > Collin > KC8TKA Wollensak used the trade name Velostigmat as a standard name for their high quality lenses before about 1946. At that time it was changed to Raptar with a large publicity campaign. The focal length is a bit long for a press camera lens but is about right if the camera was used for pictorial purposes where some degree of camera movement was desired. The Camera Eccentric web site, at http://www.cameraeccentric.com/index.html has a number of Wollensak catalogues on it. The earlier catalogues do not show lens diagrams but they are shown in some of the late ones. For instance, the 1957 catalogue shows the Series II Raptar which is the same lens as the Series II Velostigmat, Both are Tessar types. Your lens should give the series along with the lens name. Wollensak lenses are rather variable in quality. Some are very fine but the mid to late 1940's lenses sold by Wollensak as Raptar and made under contract for Graflex as the Optar are dogs with what appears to be a serious design problem. This also applies to the f/4.5 series of Enlarging Raptar lenses. I have some earlier Velostigmat lenses which are quite good and the Wollensak Telephoto lenses are very good. -- --- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA dickburk(a)ix.netcom.com
From: Thor Lancelot Simon on 28 Apr 2007 20:26
In article <9pkYh.5775$j63.863(a)newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net>, Richard Knoppow <dickburk(a)ix.netcom.com> wrote: > > Wollensak lenses are rather variable in quality. Some >are very fine but the mid to late 1940's lenses sold by >Wollensak as Raptar and made under contract for Graflex as >the Optar are dogs with what appears to be a serious design >problem. This also applies to the f/4.5 series of Enlarging >Raptar lenses. I have some earlier Velostigmat lenses which >are quite good and the Wollensak Telephoto lenses are very >good. Curiously, the lenses supplied by Wollensak in the auto-diaphragm mount for the Graflex Super D SLR are almost indistinguishable from the Kodak Ektar supplied at a slightly higher price in the same mount. These lenses seem to be differently coated from other contemporary Wollensak lenses and the cell mounts -- hard to get at inside the Super-D diaphragm assembly -- don't look like those on other Raptar/Optar lenses either. I was told by someone who said he'd spoken with Kingslake about it that all the lenses were in fact built from the Kodak design, so it would seem that Wollensak either _could_ do good construction and quality assurance when they really wanted to, or gave up and actually had Kodak build the lenses they shipped, too (not implausible since Graflex probably wanted a "standard" and "premium" lens for the Super-D to give some upsell potential for well-heeled buyers). I suppose it's also possible that if Kodak designed the lenses and did the final steps of production (which seems likely from the look of the coatings) this was simply adequate to address whatever the real problem at Wollensak was in those days -- either design, QA, or both. Certainly other 1930s-1940s Wollensak lenses, in my experience, are junk. -- Thor Lancelot Simon tls(a)rek.tjls.com "All of my opinions are consistent, but I cannot present them all at once." -Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On The Social Contract |