Identifying unknown lens family

Hello , I was wondering if anyone can identify this lens . Seller claims that the lens has good optical qualities but does not know about the brand or the specific use of this lens . They also said that the lens lacks aperture blades .
The images are from a 43mm lens from the lenses that he is selling .

Welcome to Photrio.
I would guess that that would be used in a machine printer that might have once been found at a photofinishing lab.

I'd stay away from a lens without aperture blades unless it is meant for any special purpose.

Without an aperture, it was meant to be used at a specific distance and magnification -- as Matt said, a "machine printer", such as a "mini-lab", traffic control camera????. The list is endless. From what little I can tell from the lettering, I'm thinking "Soviet", but I can't tell. Just because the box says "LENS UNIT 43" does not mean it is a 43mm lens. For all we know, that might mean it was produced at Gulag 43. What can you tell us about the seller? Age of the lens? Date on the box??? Any crumb of info????

xkaes said:

Without an aperture, it was meant to be used at a specific distance and magnification -- as Matt said, a "machine printer", such as a "mini-lab", traffic control camera????. The list is endless. From what little I can tell from the lettering, I'm thinking "Soviet", but I can't tell. Just because the box says "LENS UNIT 43" does not mean it is a 43mm lens. For all we know, that might mean it was produced at Gulag 43. What can you tell us about the seller? Age of the lens? Date on the box??? Any crumb of info????

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It doesn't look "Soviet" to me - I actually wondered about the Durst machine printers, but couldn't find anything that matched up with any of the labelling.

Copier lens, possibly?

Put a red light behind it and start talking to dave or singing "daisy"...

Kino said:

Put a red light behind it and start talking to dave or singing "daisy"...

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We need more references here on Photrio to Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick

"E-18 43m". Easy to think, 43mm f1.8, but I think not. Or is that "8L", and not "18", witch makes the "E" backwards -- but not in Russian.

And what's with the thing it's attached to? An extension of some sort?

BrianShaw said:

Copier lens, possibly?

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Maybe something like that. Or any of the other misc. 1980s-early 2000s opto-electrical machines. There must be thousands of models across dozens of product families that used these sorts of lens assemblies.

There's a fairly recent thread here by a guy who has mounted several optical minilab lenses to a digital camera. Pretty pictures. Something similar could be done with this lens. Nice for experimentation.

MattKing said:

It doesn't look "Soviet" to me - I actually wondered about the Durst machine printers, but couldn't find anything that matched up with any of the labelling.

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Some years ago I visited my local pro lab, Terry the owner had worked for Durst UK, who made the Durst roll-head printers. The company had been founded as Pavelle by Kurt/Curt Jacobson who wrote Developing,, and also Enlarging. Pavelle made processing equipment,as well as enlargers and roll head printers. I think there was a brief name change before the company was bought by Durst. Kurt Jacobson also Patented and produced Pavelle colour paper and chemistry.

Terry had replaced his Durst roll-head printers with a mini-lab, there were 5x4 enlargers in a skip outside (unfortunately damaged), he said there were more he'd save one for me. He gave me two turrets with 5 maybe 6 lenses on each, all Componon or Componon S lenses 50mm 80mm 105mm and 135mm, some marked Durst as the company tested an selected these Schneider lenses, like Linhof. All had grub screws to lock the aperture.

I asked Terry why the grub screws, he explained that on a roll head printer the lenses are fixed focus, for different sized prints you rotate to a different focal length, and change the paper cassette. He said the critical part was with multiple size print orders off the same negatives you had to give exactly the same exposure time, as colour paper suffers from reciprocity failure. So each lens on the turret had it's aperture adjusted an locked set so they all gave the same exposure times. It had been one of Terry's job as a service engineer for Durst UK to set up and calibrate roll head printers.

Lenses are used in many applied applications not just photography, this one is most likely for some industrial application.

Ian

Ian Grant said:

as colour paper suffers from reciprocity failure

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Undoubtedly this is true, and in particular, it was true for old papers, I guess. Moreover, it definitely is true for old (analog) papers and very short exposure times, which is why papers were reformulated for digital exposure. But I did happen to check with Fuji the situation of reciprocity failure for their current papers and they said "up to 10 seconds or so there shouldn't be a problem in any case". I've never tested beyond this, since color paper is pretty fast.