The mystery of Kyvytar enlarging lenses

[xkaes]

Anyone know who might have been the maker of the Kyvytar enlarging lenses?

They had a full range from 38mm (full-frame 35mm) to 180mm (5x7"). Most were marked Kyvytar/EL-6.

I can't find much on them -- even though I have the list in the Kyvyx catalog.

 

[MarkS]

I connect that name with the Computar brand... which might have been connected with Kowa... but i have nothing but dim memories of brochures long gone (1980s) to support that. I think Kyvyx was just a brand name, or a marketing company, like Vivitar was.

 

[Hilo]

If your list of Kyvytar lenses has images of these lenses, show some in this thread. Indeed, Kowa took the Computar lenses. But I have never heard about Kyvytar lenses. An image showing some will clear this up, as the Computar lenses have quite a distinct design.

A Computar lens that not many lens makers made is the 65mm.

 

[reddesert]

https://books.google.com/books?id=P...nepage&q=popular photography computar&f=false

Searching Google Books for "popular photography computar" turns up an entry from July 1981 where the Kyvyx Corp was importing Rajah LF cameras and outfitting them with Computar lenses. There is a little more after the paragraph I'm screenshotting here. Many of the other results aren't so useful because google also returns results for "computer." Clearly there was some kind of link, but I don't know if Kyvyx actually owned the Computar trademark or was just importing the badged lenses. Quite a few TV and video lenses were sold under the Computar name and that side of the business still exists, although I don't know if there was any continuity or just the trademark was sold along.

 

[xkaes]

Computar and Xyvyx had a long relationship, but who knows who made the lenses that had the Computar or Kyvytar lables? It might be one optical firm or more than one.

There are enlarging lenses with both names, and also large format TAKING lenses. I believe this was discussed in depth over at the LARGE FORMAT FORUM a while ago, but I don't recall the details.