Ilexpo Shutter complete with a really large
Bausch & Lomb lens attached. It's one of those
sales where you're not quite sure why you pushed
the button and spend a couple hundred bucks
that is getting harder and harder to replace.
I really thought perhaps the lens
would be a
14X17 Tessar as the seller didn't
have a clue
and his listing lacked the info.
Not so, it is
an 11X14 Tessar 1C which means
it is a
15 3/4 inch lens (400mm) f4.5.
The aperture
is boogered and upon trying to
gently repair,
it promptly falls to pieces.
Hmmm. A 400mm
permanent f4.5 lens.
I took the elements out and apart
for a soak
The B&L Tessars are under loved.
Why is
Back to the Tessar. The one
I bought is worth
My point if any is that spending
crazy $$$
two Christmas Coke bottles
in detergent. They cleaned
up OK but the
front lens has more than a few
cleaning sleaks.
So for the record, for 200++ bucks
I've got
an old lens with no aperture, cleaning
sleaks
and at least a decent Ilexpo.
Not much of
a bargain.
porcelain pot and tea things
that. No one seems to like
them much. Not
so for their nearest competition
from a hundred
years ago, the Wolly Velostigmat.
I noted this
weekend that a 9 1/2" Velostigmat
finished at
$261 while an 8 1/4" Heliar, coated,
finished
at $248. That's ludicrous.
That's idiotic. That's
a 1955 Ford Fairlane finishing
ahead of a 1964
Mercedes 250. Crazy.
tulips i
maybe $80. It would be hard
to get that with
the scuffy front and no aperture.
I wanted to
make some pictures with it.
I re-assembled it
as a soft focus lens. The
Wolly has an adjustment
that moves the front light away
from the 2nd
element to create softness.
I simply accomplished
the same thing by only partially
tightening the
2 elements in the front group.
I left perhaps
1/8 inch gap that is non standard.
The photos
here were done with it in that
mode.
tulips ii
for "big name" antique portrait
lenses is not
completely necessary for a fine
vintage look.