Petzval Help

[Fotoguy20d]

I picked up this brass lens a while back and finally got around to playing with it. It's around 4" long and alomst 2" in diameter. Seems to be around 130mm in focal length and was hacked up to add an aperature that's marked as f6.3 and seems to be close. Doesn't cover 5x7 and I think it will barely cover 4x5. I assumed that the threaded end is the end that's meant to attach to the lensboard and face the back of the camera. But, when I mounted the lens "backwards", it yielded the result shown (that's a portion of the top of the frame, taken off the groundglass with a digicam). Is that the petzval swirliness I've heard so much about? I'm going to load up a grafmatic and give it a try tomorrow but I was wondering what the petzval experts could tell me.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[archphoto]

This is something for the large format forum.....

The lens has had a life, it is a piity that it is not in its original state.

Good luck testing !

Peter

 

[removed account4]

hi dan

have you tried the lens frontwards yet ?
im not guru, but ... i have a feeling the threaded part is not the back of the lens, but the front ..
it is threaded because the former owner used a barrel that s/he found handy
and put the slider/patched the waterhouse slot ... lens shade screwed on?

you might also have a good time removing the cells, and
mounting the lens in a different barrel, so it is full-open
with no aperture ring ...
have fun experimenting!
john

 

[Barry S]

Looks like you have a nice 5-6" Petzval lens with the signature swirl you get before a Petzval runs out of coverage. It look like it may be a hacked Petzval projection lens--not pretty, but it should be fun on 4x5. Expect a sharp center core giving way to blur and swirls.

 

[ishutteratthethought]

May want to check the assembly of the lense. Many of these have been taken apart for cleaning or curiosity or for what ever reason. I re-assembled mine and it made a huge difference. Check out the petzval group here on APUG, they are a well experienced and knowledgeable bunch.
Good luck, I absolutely love the Darlot I have.
Steve

 

[Whiteymorange]

Not sure, but the smooth barrel (before the addition of a slot for stops) with the threads on the outside like that make me think that this is one of a set of lenses that were used to get multiple exposures on one plate. One example of this kind of a camera is here. I have one and have seen quite a few sets since I got mine. If so, it's probable that the lens would have been mounted with the threaded end forward (away from the ground glass). Does the barrel have a number 4 or a number 9 on it? The number stands for the number of exposures done at one time on a plate. Mine will cover 6x9, but only a bit more than that.

 

[Fotoguy20d]

So that's what CdV stands for. This listing is what made me try flipping the lens around. Sure enough, there's a tiny number on the really ugly "back" side of the barrel. The patch goes right up to the edge of it but it looks to me like it says 28. I expected the marking to be much larger - the text can't be more than around 1/8" high.

Dan

 

[removed account4]

cdv= carte de visite