Graflex.org

[Dan Fromm]

David, you shouldn't condemn Wollensak out of hand. Their tessar type Raptars (also sold as Raptars) may well be mediocre.

Their plasmat type Pro Raptar taking and enlarging lenses are, however, very good. Their 203/7.5 clone of the 203/7.7 Ektar is widely reported to be as good as the Ektar. And their f/6.8 wide angle taking lenses are, by all accounts, no worse that the competition, Schneider's Angulon.

If you compared y'r 127 Ektar with a 101 Raptar on 4x5, of course the Ektar should have one. The 101 is a normal lens for 2x3, won't cover 4x5. Unfair test. And if you compared them on 2x3 the 127 should have won. This because it will give better image quality in 2x3's corners than the 101 can. Unfair test.

I suffer a little from the "seeking silver bullets" malady of wanting good rather than mediocre lenses. But the truth is that mediocre lenses usually deliver better image quality than my lousy technique can use. And I know at first hand that a strong image that isn't perfectly sharp everywhere is much preferable to a weak image that's sharp everywhere.

[45PSS]

David, I haven't a clue about Wollensak serial numbers. I yield to the other members on this site and other sites that are more knowledgeable on lens than I.

Wollensak was purchased by 3M who did not make public any of the Wollensak Optical data. I have some 135 Optars that will preform as well as Ektars and Xenars.

When I was working at a hardware store in Foster City I was talking to a customer one day and he told me he worked for General Precision Equipment Company. He said that they realized Graflex was dying and sold the company to Singer and released the repair manuals to the general public to make maintaining of the product easier as they were well made and would be around for decades.

The 127 Ektar is a normal lens for 3 1/4 x 4 1/4. It will barely cover 4x5 with no movements and soft corners. It is a highly corrected lens for color photography.
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The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[peter k]

[45PSS]

http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/kodak_4.html
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[Dan Fromm]

Folks, let's be clear on one thing. Lens designers have always tried to eliminate aberrations. They design lenses that are achromatic, anastigmatic, and so on. This means that nearly from the beginning of photography most lenses suffered from minimal chromatic aberration, minimal distortion, minimal coma, minimal astigmatism, ...

Even very old lenses are suitable for color photography. If they weren't, they wouldn't produce sharp b/w images. As, for example, my pre-WWI 130/6.3 and 150/6.3 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessars, which are quite competitive with my newest lenses. That is, the oldies produce images that can't be told from ones made with my newer lenses.

Charles, you've been taken in by marketing fluff.

[45PSS]

[Henry]

[45PSS]

The community college I attended is North Arkansas Community College, Harrison, Ark.

The photography instructor was Ernie Bickerton.
His obituary http://bolivarmonews.com/obituaries/ernie-bickerton/article_2db27c21-a90f-5f60-ac7e-793e4b5a7fed.html
He attended Southwest Photo Arts School in Dallas, Tx, operated a photo business in Tulsa, Ok., and was president of Professional Photographers of Oklahoma in 1958 to mention a few of his accomplishments.

Henry, thanks for sharing.
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The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

[IanG]

A comment about Kodak Ektar coatings, they changed significantly. I had an early 203mm f7.7 Ektar in an Epsilon shutter (now sold) it was in excellent condition but the coating was nowhere near as good as a later one in a Prontor SVS shutter. These are both Kodak Ltd (UK mmade) M370 Ektars so standard Compur/Copla #0 sized shutters.

It's the same with a US 101mm Ektar I have in an Supermatic and a UK made 101mm in an Epsilon, also a 127mm Ektar in a Supermatic - this one has cleaning marks affecting the coating but it's not scratched. The coating on my other EK (US made) 203mm f7.7 Ektar in a Graphic Compur #1 has the more modern coatings like the UK one in a Prontor, it must be a very late version as few are seen in Compur #1 shutters

UK Ektars have no serial number so you can't put a date to them. This step change in coatings which are much more efective in terms of contrast is mirrored with Schneider lenses I think it also improves colour balance as well.

Ian

[78ltd]