How lenses are (were) made

Sal Santamaura

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Thank you for the link -- it was enjoyable to watch. I sorely miss vertically integrated companies and the high quality products they produced which, in my opinion, cannot be consistently matched with outsourcing. I also miss 20-bladed diaphragms like the one shown.

I don't miss formal work attire.
 

Sirius Glass

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Thank you. At about 2 minutes in, the building that I worked in is shown.
 

pstake

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Wow ... it's really a staggering operation. What has happened to Kodak since then?

I've always wondered what "tooling" the Russians carted off to Kiev after the war. I imagine they were machines such as these. I can see why it took years to set up.

Thanks for posting!
 

Photo Engineer

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Very interesting. Thanks.

The first time I saw that I was at Konica and not Kodak. They used less automation but the same methods.

PE
 

Curt

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I watched the video and across the room is my 14" Kodak Commercial Ektar in shutter sleeping in the original wooden box which is shinny black with the Kodak emblem on it. It's like the saying. "how young we were" in the context of technology. So why use those lenses today? See the video and how much craftsmanship went into each and every one. How far apart is that Ektar from my iPhone that I watched it with?
 

summicron1

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I'm sure lenses are still made with this sort of quality somewhere. It is sad that Americans are not allowed to make them any more ... at one time we led the world in so many things.

I've been using a Kodak Medalist with one of those hand-made Ektars this last week. Excellent glass ...
 
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AgX

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Basically lenses are made the some way today, except of a bit more robotics, and those precision moulded lenses from plastic or glass-plastic hybrides. The most changes seem to be in the barrel-making. And most important, advanced computing technology.

I rather see this film as a a very good educational film than as documentary of industry history.



The modern version of this film would be this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MKNFW0YwDYw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qzpt49qq6v4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6bQ3-DWh-rA
 
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zsas

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AgX - very true! After watching the modern day videos you have above I am left remembering the old saying:

The more things change the more they stay the same
Click to expand...
 

Photo Engineer

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It surprises me that no one noticed that the Kodak clip showed them using an ANALOG computer!

They were very accurate and ANALOG!

PE
 
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AgX

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I knew, but somehow I did not found it worth mentioning.
I'm living in the past anyway...

ALL Zuse computers though, from 1938 on, were digital. His first one employed old used cine film for punched tape. Blasphemy!!! That's when the evil started!
 
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bdial

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I noticed the analog computer too, in that timeframe it would have been more accurate than most available digital computers.
 

Sirius Glass

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I noticed the analog computer AND that it was probably filmed during WWII because most of the employees were women and the hair and dress styles.
 
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AgX

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The film reminded me of the similar Kodak film on film manufacture from 1958.
I thought this lens making film to be from the 50's.

Are there other other hints that Point to the 40's?

-) the film starts with showing a Kodak Ektra
 
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AgX

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The British Film Institute dates this film of 1950.
 

summicron1

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AgX said:
The film reminded me of the similar Kodak film on film manufacture from 1958.
I thought this lens making film to be from the 50's.

Are there other other hints that Point to the 40's?

-) the film starts with showing a Kodak Ektra
Click to expand...

the Ektra was a pre- and post-war camera, but the real indicator that it is a 50s film is that it shows a guy using a Kodak Chevron to take pictures -- the Chevron followed the Medalist and was first produced in 1953...
 
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AgX

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So I mixed up the Ektra with a Chevron. Both are new to me, but I have to admit the Chevron fits much better to what I see on film.
The British Film Institute is wrong. And I am finally right with my first impression of the film being from the 50's...


Or will someone come up with a new proposal?
 
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