The Wee-est of wee petzval's. 96mm on 4X5

jimgalli · May 4, 2008

The *LGM's brought me a box of wee petzval's earlier this weekend and I promptly (there was a url link here which no longer exists) some of them.

But 2 of them were really dinkies. I guessed at about 96mm but after using one of them today I think that may even be optimistic. They may be about 85mm. So what good is an 85mm Petzval? It won't cover 4X5. Not even close. It would cover 6X9. But to get the nice petzval effect I thought perhaps it would work on half frame 4X5, or 2 1/2 X 4.

So after messing around fitting a shutter on the front I made these 6 pics earlier today. The surprise was that I think I prefer the full circle image on the 4X5. When I print them, I think I'll print the entire circle, not crop to half frame.

What think ye? (Yes, the scans suck. Epson 2450 for these) also posted at LFForum for my friends there that aren't here.

* Little Green Men

Paul Cocklin · May 4, 2008

Jim, some absolutely great work. I love the Nash (it reminds me of Jaws, for some reason) and the last two of the crosses. Simply amazing!

jimgalli · May 4, 2008

Thanks Paul.

jimgalli · May 4, 2008

Here's what the original antique lens looks like, it's components, and what it looked like in user mode. I only used the inner barrel with the packard mount for making the pictures.

wildbill · May 4, 2008

Jim, you've got one hell of an eye! Looks like a very rich area to photograph.

Uhner · May 4, 2008

Interesting hardware, and interesting images. I really like the photo of the Nash.

Marco B · May 8, 2008

jimgalli said:
But 2 of them were really dinkies. I guessed at about 96mm but after using one of them today I think that may even be optimistic. They may be about 85mm. So what good is an 85mm Petzval? It won't cover 4X5. Not even close. It would cover 6X9. But to get the nice petzval effect I thought perhaps it would work on half frame 4X5, or 2 1/2 X 4.

Jim, I am by no means an expert on brass lenses, but I recently stumbled on this, and what you may actually have is a magic lantern brass lens, look here:

http://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/biunial_uk.htm

The lens image somewhere half down the page looks remarkably like yours. Actually, your's mentions "General film", so an early film projector lens might be even more likely. Probably not much difference between the two at the time. That would also explain the minor coverage, it was never intended to project an image on a large format negative, but rather the other way around, to collect an image from a magic lantern slide or film and project on a screen...

But great what you managed to get out of it!

sdivot · May 8, 2008

Hey Jim,
Wanna sell one of those babies? I'd like to fashion another lens mount set up for my 6x7. Come on, you know you do......
Steve

jimgalli · May 9, 2008

Hi Marco. Thanks! Yes, we always knew they were magic lantern lenses and what the intended coverage was.

Steve, Yes you can have one of them if you want. I'm away on vacation for a week or better. I'll PM you tomorrow with price etc. Best, Jim

Soeren · May 9, 2008

Damn you Jim, now I want one. My family will be starving because of you

Hmm are such a thing cheap or....?
Kind regards

smieglitz · May 9, 2008

While the cat's away...

jimgalli said:
...I'm away on vacation for a week or better...

Time to raid eBay

sdivot · May 10, 2008

Jim,
I'll take it!
The money has been sent.
You said you used the inner barrel when you mounted it in your shutter. Does that mean that all the glass is in the inner barrel, or did you seperate elements? I suspect it's the former.
Steve

jimgalli · May 10, 2008

sdivot said:
Jim,
I'll take it!
The money has been sent.
You said you used the inner barrel when you mounted it in your shutter. Does that mean that all the glass is in the inner barrel, or did you seperate elements? I suspect it's the former.
Steve

Hi Steve. Got the $$. Thanks. Give me a couple of extra days as I'm away on family vacation. I'll get it off to you asap. Jim

Yes, the inner barrel comes out with both ends elements in place properly spaced. JG

sdivot · May 21, 2008

Got the lens Jim. I'll let you know when I make my frankenstein lens.
Thanks!
Steve

jimgalli · May 21, 2008

Thanks Steve. Hope you'll share what you do with it.

Still have one of these if anybody wants to make round pictures on 4X5 film!

jimgalli at lnett dot com (that's LNETT)

bennoj · May 22, 2008

Bought this last one from Jim this morning. Now instead of doing my job I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to mount it for use...

The Wee-est of wee petzval's. 96mm on 4X5

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