Anyone have experience with Kodak Commercial Ektar 8"?

Good Morning, Schwinn,

Several decades ago, I owned a Commercial Ektar (8 1/4", I think). It's not a bad lens. I got very acceptable results from it, but the one I had was definitely inferior to the Caltar 210mm lens I eventually got to replace it.

Konical

 

The Commercial Ektar lenses are single-coated. I have and use the 12" and 14" versions, and am more than happy with the results from them. They are very sharp, contrasty without being too contrasty, and they give wonderful rendition of out-of-focus areas. If the shutter is in good working order, they're worth whatever you paid for it. The Commercial Ektar series were the industry standard for working photographers for many decades, for everything from portraiture to product photography.

 

A 8" Ektar may have limited close focus range on a crown and the Ilex 3 may be a bit large for the lens board. It is a fine lens, at least the one I had was. I had 5 Ektars 8", 10" wide field, 12" and 14". Plus the 203mm 7.7. My favs were the 7.7 and the 12". Stunning color saturation. Classic look, excellent sharpness.

The Crown does not seem like a perfect match and the heft of the Ektar/Ilex combo may fight with the Crowns locks and it cannot begin to use all the flexibility the lens offers.

Depends a lot on what you shoot and the focus range you need. In some situations it could be near perfection if the shutter fits.

 

I also own an 8-inch Ektar. Mine is a just plain ol' Ektar, marked "203mm, f/7.7"; the serial number starts with "RC," indicating that it was manufactured in 1950, as per the Kodak CAMEROSITY code. The lens is marked with the letter "R," contained within a circle; that was Kodak's indication that he lens was Luminized, which was a single layer coating. It is mounted in a number 2 Supermatic shutter.

I used that lens on my Graphic View camera for my third and fourth year of studies at Ryerson Polytechnic University (then known as Ryerson Polytechnic Institute). I used it primarily for colour work, and made many negatives and transparancies with it, some of which I later made into 11x14-inch dye transfer prints.

The Commercial Ektars we had at school had a focal length of 8-1/2-inches.

 

The Commercial Ektars were in the top tier of lenses for their time period (1950's-1960's) and are quite good even by todays standards. They are single coated. I still use Commercial Ektars in my studio for product photography. Most of them are tessar formula designs, hence do not have as wide an image circle as modern plasmats.

 

I used a 8.25 inch Commercial Ektar on a Crown Graphic and on a Busch Pressman, and while the cameras did not take advantage of the full flexibility of the lens it certainly will work. I still use the lens, now mounted on a Sinar. Wonderful images.
-bill