Do you know this lens 10" Carl Meyer?

Carl Meyer Telephoto 10" f/4.5

it also has OY569 on it, I'm assuming this is a serial number

It's mounted in the biggest shutter I have ever seen. Alphax F4.5-32 (etched in, not a plate) T, B, 50, 25, 10, 5, 2, 1 mounted in a Speed Graphic lens board. The shutter is as wide as the board.


Thanks,
Jody

jerk151 said:

Carl Meyer Telephoto 10" f/4.5

it also has OY569 on it, I'm assuming this is a serial number

It's mounted in the biggest shutter I have ever seen. Alphax F4.5-32 (etched in, not a plate) T, B, 50, 25, 10, 5, 2, 1 mounted in a Speed Graphic lens board. The shutter is as wide as the board.


Thanks,
Jody

Click to expand...

I don't know that specific lens but I do know about "Carl Meyer" lenses. Don't be fooled by the name. "Carl" is designed to make you think of "Carl Zeiss" and "Meyer" was supposed to bring "Hugo Meyer" to mind.

The fact is that these lenses are basically cobbled together parts from other lenses whose manufacture is of unknown origin. The cobbler is a mid-western camera retailer... I believe it was Burke & James.

Anyway, I have a different Carl Meyer lens for my 8x10 and it is a moderate performer at best. It was cheap though.

That is the feeling I got from holding it, but did not want to rule it out as I have limited experience. It could have easily have been a well sought after lens and I would not have really know the difference. It was thrown in as an extra when I bought a sweet little package yesterday consisting of a 2 1/4x 3 1/4 Speed graphic in excellent to new condition. With 7 double sided sheet holders, a 6x6/120/roll back, 6x7/120/roll back, and a 6x9/120/roll back all in a case. I also got an old Gossen Luna-Pro Sbc light meter w/ a flash attachment.

$150 for all, I think it was a good deal

jerk151 said:

That is the feeling I got from holding it, but did not want to rule it out as I have limited experience. It could have easily have been a well sought after lens and I would not have really know the difference. It was thrown in as an extra when I bought a sweet little package yesterday consisting of a 2 1/4x 3 1/4 Speed graphic in excellent to new condition. With 7 double sided sheet holders, a 6x6/120/roll back, 6x7/120/roll back, and a 6x9/120/roll back all in a case. I also got an old Gossen Luna-Pro Sbc light meter w/ a flash attachment.

$150 for all, I think it was a good deal

Click to expand...

Sure, that is a good deal. The Carl Meyer may wind up being usable. You may have to stop it down a ways before you get an acceptable image and the coating (if it has one) may not give you a good color rendition.

Carl Meyer could be quite good. Depends. This was a private label of Burke & James. They are generally coated, as they are all postwar assembled.

pictures

I have just now gotten around to taking a bunch of pictures of quite a few different items and this is one of them in case it helps in the knowledge of how this should do. If nothing else, this shutter works very nicely, so if anyone knows of another nice lens that will work in it please give me some ideas. front and rear threads are approx. 61.5mm if that helps or you can tell me which size this shutter is.
Thanks

Thanks for the Meyer info, I've been well aware of the Hugo Meyer lenses and post war East German Meyer lenses, I've have/had a few they were later re-labelled as Pentacon but I've always puzzled about Carl Meyer.

The Hugo Meyer advertisement in the 1935 British Journal Photographic Almanac (or rather their agent A.O.Roth) runs to 15 pages and they made a huge range of lenses, few of which you see today.

Lyn Jones who posts on the LFPIF was something to do with B&J and then Calumet, and would be able to enlighten us further about Carl Meyer lenses. Were they the forerunner to Caltar ?

Ian

You've got a #4 Alphax shutter. Great candidate for a range of LF lenses, esp. Wollensak ones. I've now got a lovely 15"/f5.6 Wollensak Tele in mine (the cells screwed right in after removing some grub-screws which held the cells in the old barrel) which I use for portraits and the like in 4x5 and 5x7 and previously had a 19" Goerz Apo-Artar front-mounted on one (needs an adapter made up though) e.g. SK Grimes and lensn2shutter could even fit the cells of the Artar and others more elegantly, but that wouldn't be a cheap option and only really worth it, if for a very good reason.
Caltars are an entire different line of lenses (for Calumet). The earlier ones were US glass with a very good reputation and the later ones are relabeled Schneider- and even more recently, rebranded versions of the respective Rodenstock line of lenses. You'll find numerous previous discussions on the web on the Caltar lines. I tend to agree with most replies on the Carl Meyer lenses, but only know of them through hearsay, i.e. I stayed away from them. Your particular lens though is not that dissimilar in looks to the well-liked Wollensak 10"/f4.5 Tele....so may be you're in luck....you'll find out soon enough! The serial # on the other hand looks like a Kodak one and in that case would indicate a manufacturing year of 1960, if I remember correctly....Did Kodak make 10" Teles? Or did the makers of the C.M. line of lenses try to allude to yet another original manufacturer?..... Take some pics and make up your own mind whether it's a keeper or not. You can always sell it to Asher Kelman..... (obscure joke, sorry)

I think you'll find there's a very definate link, and some common personnel, between Carl Meyer lenses, the closing of Burke & James and the founding of Calumet who originally sourced US made lenses as Caltars, before re-badging Rodenstoks & Schneiders.

As I said above (Prof) Lynn Jones posts on the LFPF and worked for both B & J as V.P. in the 50's and Calumet, and is extremely knowledgeably about lenses and where they sourced them.

Ian