Anastigmat Betar lens - Can anyone give me some information?

[Steve Smith]

I have a lens here which I think came from a 6x9 plate camera. It is marked Anastigmat "Betar" 1:4.5 F=10.5cm.

It is in a Compur shutter with older f stop numbers of 4.5 6.3 9 12.5 18 25 and 36 and it just about covers 5x4" with a bit of falloff at the corners but is probably just about o.k. stopped down with no movements.

Can anyone give me any information on this lens? I know what anastigmat means but I'm not sure about betar.


Thanks,

Steve

 

[jimgalli]

All I can do is make an educated guess. I'd love to know how lens names got the designation 'ar' at the end, but almost every generic name out there ends in "ar" Ektar Eastman Kodak tar, Protar Heliar Tessar Unar Sironar symmar etc.ar. Did the Zeiss guy have daughters named Una and Tess? So we ended up with Unar and Tessar? Maybe I'll start an urban myth. Anyways the Betar is VERY likely a house brand made by some other mfr for that plate cameras manufacturer. Most of these f4.5 generic's are either dialyt (4 glasses all air spaced) and also the cheapest and usually the worst performers, or Tessar type 4 glasses in 3 groups. Maybe the camera mfr had 'goodar' 'betar' and 'bestar'.

Not very helpful, sorry. But generic name, and probably a tessar type made for the camera co.

 

[Jim Jones]

When in doubt, google. A google search for Betar anastigmat led to Beier cameras. At least Beier's Gloria model used a Betar. There's more information on Beier cameras than I wanted to tackle.