Unidentified lens mount for 4x5 scientific camera

[paul ewins]

Hi, I bought the remains of some sort of scientific camera a while back as it had a 4x5 graflok back that I thought I could use. The rest of it consisted of a steel box, a round extension tube and a matching round lens board. The lens board bayonets to the extension tube which bayonets to the steel box. I've come to the conclusion that this could be really useful if only I had a couple more of the lens boards and mounts.

The trouble is that I don't know what the mount comes from. It is a rather precise breech lock system and it seems unlikely that anybody would go to the effort of designing their own for what must have been a very small production run item. It is very similar in szie to the Pentax 6x7 outer bayonet, but the claws on the bayonet are different enough that the two are completely incompatible.

I've put up some photos on a page at: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~paulewins/lf_macro.htm and was wondering if anybody would care to try and identify it.

thanks,
Paul

 

[KenS]

Paul,

Looking at the "lens mount" end, it seems that it may well be for screwing in either a Photar or Luminar macro lenes that (in themselves) were not a focussing type lens, but were used at a fixed distance for macro work at a given magnification at a "set lens-to-subject distance".

This may well be a set up for such use.

Hasselblad used to provide drawings for their mount to allow those photographers in the sciences to machine a mount for special purpose set-ups. Have you compared the mount to that of a Hasselblad.

Ken

 

[jimgalli]

Polaroid 600SE made by Mamiya had a 4 prong mount about that size. Might be worth a look.

 

[paul ewins]

Ken, the fixed magnification sounds about right. The fact that the tube I've got is marked 1.0x suggests that other magnifications may have been available with different length tubes.

Jim, I haven't been able to get a clear picture of the Polaroid/Mamiya 600 mount yet, so I'll keep that in mind. I think the Hassey had been ruled out along with Mamiya RB, Fuji 6x8 and Bronica. But then there may have been variations that I am not aware of over the years. The only 4x5 bayonet mount that I could find was the Aero Teknika, ut again no pictures of the actual mount. Not that an Aero Teknika would be a cheap source of parts...