The date is just an educated guess. It could be a bit earlier. Not sure when they went from the brass to the turned chrome instead.
The Plastigmat was Bausch & Lomb's proprietary design. That meant they didn't have to pay royalties to Zeiss on these, so they could be sold a bit cheaper.
It was an eight glass 2 group lens, a double anastigmat, convertible, like a Zeiss Protar, or more nearly, a 4 element dagor. 158mm with both, and 295mm single at f13.5. It will cover a 5X7 plate at smaller apertures.
This one has the obsolete "US" aperture scale. f16 is the same on both this and a modern scale. You have to count either side of f16 for the numbers we're used to. Glass looks excellent but would benefit from a cleaning.
So I guess my question is; Why would anybody want to shoot an ordinary boring Plasmat when they could have this impressive lens for $175 bucks?? Add shipping.
The Plastigmat was Bausch & Lomb's proprietary design. That meant they didn't have to pay royalties to Zeiss on these, so they could be sold a bit cheaper.
It was an eight glass 2 group lens, a double anastigmat, convertible, like a Zeiss Protar, or more nearly, a 4 element dagor. 158mm with both, and 295mm single at f13.5. It will cover a 5X7 plate at smaller apertures.
This one has the obsolete "US" aperture scale. f16 is the same on both this and a modern scale. You have to count either side of f16 for the numbers we're used to. Glass looks excellent but would benefit from a cleaning.
So I guess my question is; Why would anybody want to shoot an ordinary boring Plasmat when they could have this impressive lens for $175 bucks?? Add shipping.