It may be a lensboard from a different camera. It may be original but never said "special". It may be a duplicate of the lens that came with the camera. It's possible that camera came with the 127mm Ektar (which would've been an upgrade) or the Optar. But that lens is probably what's always been on it.
Where do I find the serial number on this lens? There’s one clearly visible on the side of the shutter housing but I don’t know if that correlates to the Schneider Kreuznach serial number dates.
It may be a lensboard from a different camera. It may be original but never said "special". It may be a duplicate of the lens that came with the camera. It's possible that camera came with the 127mm Ektar (which would've been an upgrade) or the Optar. But that lens is probably what's always been on it.
So, the lens is possibly from a different camera. But it's also possible Graflex purchased that lens in 1957 and it was on a shelf for 6 years. Their business was drying up through that period - even using the Xenar lens was an attempt to lower the cost of the camera to sell more of them.
In the meantime, I've never heard anyone say a Xenar is a bad lens.
They'd be a double Gauss chauvinist if they did. A Xenar/Tessar was every bit as good in the 1960s as in the 1890s. Likely better, since a number of recalculations incorporated newer glass formulae.
Well I’m glad about that. I really got lucky finding this camera when I did. I was close to spending $400 at the local camera shop for the same model. Granted that one did have the rangefinder on it but the one I got for $100 included a focusing loupe, filters, six film holders and three boxes of film.
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