Industar-11M - anyone's experience?

Hi friends,

today I picked up an excellent 300/9 Industar-11M, very very clean and with retaining ring, only for $10. It looks like it can be mounted on my Anniversary Speed Graphic, though with the bellows extended nearly fully - correct me if I'm wrong. The lens should be a professional hi-res copy camera lens, I worked with bigger lenses of that type, with waterhouse type fixed stops.
The lens itself looks and feels exactly like a corresponding Apo-Tessar, no doubt. So, before I made a lensboard for it, can I ask someone about their opinion about the I-11M? I just wonder what can it deliver.

Cheers,
Zhenya

Zhenya, please report back after you've shot it.

FWIW, I have two FSU lenses, a 210/4.5 Industar-51 and a 450/9 Lomo RF-5. I don't like the I-51; its brightness relative to my 210 process lenses isn't worth its lack of sharpness at the apertures I usually shoot. I got the RF-5 in lieu of the 480/9 Apo-Nikkor I thought I'd never be able to afford, then lucked into an inexpensive AN. The AN shoots better at f/16, end of discussion.

But for $10, if the I-11M passes light and forms an image, you're ahead. One suggestion: to maximize extension, attach the flange with screws to the front, not the rear, of the lens board.

Good luck, have fun,

Dan

Yes, Dan, the I-11M is indeed a cloned Apo-Tessar 300/9 - i found this info in my book on LOMO lenses. They were made for special polygraphic purposes in F= 300; 450; 600; 750; 900; 1200mm and f/9. The book says they're unpreceded with their resolution, are fully apochromatic, and deliver orthoscopic and "excellent" picture. The RF and O series were made after these Apo-Tessar clones, and they have a symmetric construction. I will report back when I shoot something with this lens - I am truly intrigued by it

Zhenya

Zhenya, thanks for the info on LOMO lenses. I've taken my RF-5 apart for cleaning. My first thought was that it was a dialyte, like, say Apo-Ronars, Repro Clarons, and some but not all Apo Nikkors. The curves seem wrong for a dialyte, it appears to be a double Gauss type. Still symmetrical. Do your books say anything about this?

I think you're right to be intrigued by your I-11M. Most of the process lenses I've tried out have been very good indeed. Their only drawback is lack of speed, and there you have an advantage over me. My Speed Graphic is a Pacemaker, slowest timed speed 1/30. I gather that you have an Anny (but then why a metal board?) with, IIRC, slowest timed speed 1/10. I solve the problem of slow timed exposures by mounting my process lenses in front of a Copal 1. This may not be possible with 4x5, but perhaps would work with a larger shutter. You can't imagine how absurd my little 2x3 Speed looks with a 260/10 Nikkor-Q (=, I think, Process Nikkor and a big fat lens) mounted.

Cheers,

Dan

Hello Dan,
I found a link with a picture of RF lens type optical scheme (http://www.astronomer.ru/telescope.php?action=13&gid=31), it's under O-2 name (just before MTO-500 paragraph). It's indeed a double Gaussian type, and not a dialyte. These lenses were made by a special people at LOMO (same who did war items), so we should expect the highest quality from these. The tolerances and QC in these special departments were quite high, unlike those in consumer-end places These lenses were not available to people, too - so my specimen, as well as yours, was stolen from some kind of typography

My Anny could have been modified - the lens board is made from 3mm thick black-anodized aluminium, with 4*4'' dimensions. Should it be wooden in original version? The 1/10 speed works fine, I was really amazed by the back shutter - you see, the Speed Graphic is a rare gem here, no one used it (except of some prominent photographers in wartime, like Evgeny Khaldei on Nuremberg trial). I can imagine your camera with 260/10 lens on it - do you need a separate tripod for the lens, eh?

Let's see how it would work

Cheers,
Zhenya

Zhenya, thanks very much for the link and info about the RF-5 and brothers. I should go out shooting tomorrow, will try to take some with the RF-5 and 480/9 Apo Nikkor.

The 260/10 Nikkor-Q is hollow, isn't that heavy. The 2x3 Speed's front standard supports it easily.

Thanks again, regards,

Dan

Zhenya, thanks for posting the link. Quite interesting. Dan, the O-2 actually is a dialyte, consisting of 2 symmetric sets of a biconvex and a a biconcave lens, as the drawing in the link shows. As you have noted, the RF series is different and consists of a 2 symmetric sets of a positive and a negative meniscus, albeit with small curvatures. So they could be considered double Gauss,like an early (non-wide angle) Aristostigmat. They are not a wide angle though, as all the other double Gauss process lenses out there, the coverage is the usual 45° of a dialyte (according to the leaflet that came with them). A nice feature the RF lenses is that they can be dissassembled without tools - each lens is mounted in a separate metal mount which then screws into the lens cells.

Arne

Arne, thanks for the info. I've had my RF-5 apart for cleaning, and that's why I could see that the curves aren't right for a dialyte.

Cheers,

Dan