Looking for Info on this Brass Lens

[Fotoguy20d]

This is a brass weitwinkel lens with rotary stops. No other marking than "weitwinkel" and a number - 14000 something I believe (presumably a serial no). Both lenses seem to be cemented doublets. The focal length is around 4-5" (I was only focused around 100' away, and the center of the lens was behind the lensboard so I guestimated) and the wide open stop is around 1/2" (so, f8-f10). It easily covers 4x5. (I'm going to try to mount it up to a 4x4 board and put it onto a full plate camera tonight and see just how much it can illuminate.)

Here's the interesting (to me) part. The front cell threads in perfectly normally. The rear cell has two little nubs on it 180 degress apart, which fit into two slots in the barrel as shown in the last photo. Seems to me like it's intended to change characteristics of the lens but then why not make it the front - it's inconvenient to unmount the lens to change it. Any thoughts?

Presumably its a German lens (?) since it's marked weitwinkel and not WA. Any thoughts - manufacturer, vintage, etc?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Fotoguy20d]

It does cover 5x7, and fully illuminates whole plate.

 

[Ole]

Found it.

You have a Wide angle barrel from a Suter casket set - I knew there was something familiar!

There are two barrels in this kit, with fixed front cells and three different rear cells, numbered with 1-3 small "notches". The rear of the WW barrel has ".. ...", meaning that only rear cell 2 and 3 should be used, the "full" barrel has ".. . ..." drilled into it. The rear cells are bayonet mounted, the front cells screw in.

 

[Fotoguy20d]

Ole,

Thanks for putting that mystery to rest. Of course, with my luck in such things, the rear cell is number 1. I'll have to stick the lens onto my 8x10 and see just what it does but any idea what the implications are?

Dan

 

[Ole]

The #1 rear cell shouldn't fit on the WA barrel at all, being too deep. At least with my set it doesn't fit.

documentation enclosed - what little I have.

 

[Fotoguy20d]

Ole,

There's plenty of clearance from the glass to the aperture on this one. I'm going to shoot with it this afternoon, but I just had it mounted on my 8x10 and took another look. The lens is actually mounted inside the front standard to get enough extension to allow focusing, so I had to guess at where the aperture wheel was, but I make the focal length around 5" or a little less. Both front and rear elements could be used at around 9-10" FL (as I'd expect for an Aplanat type). Image circle looked to run out by about 8" so I don't know that it'll cover more than 4x5. I focused on my neighbors house number (around 100-125' away) and it looked sharp (by aplanat standards) so maybe lens spacing is actually correct.

Dan

 

[Ole]

That must mean you have a shorter set than mine! My set is like the one in the Italian ad, shortest combination is 17cm (170mm) or so.

And what do you mean by "sharp (by aplanat standards)"?? The sharpest negative I have ever had under a microscope was shot with a Meyer Aristoplan - that 100 years old 270mm Aplanat outperforms all but the very best modern 35mm lenses in terms of central resolution.