What to do with old apo process lens?

[RichA]

I've got an old lens, approx 500mm f.l. with a 60mm wide aperture. It appears to be an old apo process lens, functions and looks much like a triplet telescope objective lens. Any idea what format these things were supposed to cover? It has no diaphram and is in a brass cell with three lock rings.

 

[Jim Noel]

Make a telescope!

 

[Whiteymorange]

I have a couple of APO process lenses of checkered lineage (EDNALITE, etc.) They are sharp as all get out and cover far more than I thought they would. Shoot with it! I would guess that a 500mm would be good for 11x14 at least.

 

[nyoung]

If it was used in a typical US print shop within the last 75-100 years I'd guess it had to cover at least 11x17 (two 8.5x11 magazine pages or one Tabloid page) and at 500mm it might cover 22x34 (two tabloid pages or one newspaper broadsheet).

 

[Wade D]

If it was used in a typical US print shop within the last 75-100 years I'd guess it had to cover at least 11x17 (two 8.5x11 magazine pages or one Tabloid page) and at 500mm it might cover 22x34 (two tabloid pages or one newspaper broadsheet).

I have an old Goerz process lens that was used in a large camera in the darkroom of a commercial printer. It covers 20x24 nicely and possibly more.

 

[Rick A]

You box it up and send it to me right away.:rolleyes:

 

[RichA]

Make a telescope it is!

Turns out, the lens is a very good performer for this process, being almost as apochromatic as modern 2-element ED lenses used in small scopes.

 

[richard ide]

If making a telescope, microscope eyepieces are excellent. During a lunar eclipse a few years ago, I could not see the whole moon because the image was so big.