Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/12/23

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Subject: [Leica] Looking Through a Lens from the Past
From: jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols)
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:57:27 -0600

As I get older, I find I am more interested in things from the past.  Among 
the gadgets that I have squirreled away is a landscape lens for a dry plate 
camera, manufactured around 1890.  The lens is a Ross London No. 6 
Symmetrical 8-inch focal length, to cover 5x7 inches, and it is equipped 
with rotary Waterhouse stops from f/16 to f/64.

I am in the process of fitting the lens to a M42-mount lens board to permit 
its use on a Pentax bellows unit attached to my Olympus E-1 DSLR.  For a dry 
run, to be sure that I had the dimensions correct, I assembled the parts in 
a temporary manner to take a few test shots.  All shots were hand-held; I'm 
sure that the use of a tripod would improve things.

The lens itself.  A similar lens is shown under Ross on the Camerapedia.org 
website:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Ross+Lens+2.jpg.html

A black and white image to look at sharpness and contrast:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Michelin+bw.jpg.html

1890 meets 2010;  a contrail with a faint view of the passing jet:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Contrail.jpg.html

I will find some period subjects when I get the project completed.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA


Replies: Reply from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] Looking Through a Lens from the Past)
Reply from lluisripollquerol at gmail.com (Lluis Ripoll) ([Leica] Looking Through a Lens from the Past)
Reply from mark at whitedogs.co.uk (Mark Pope) ([Leica] Looking Through a Lens from the Past)
Reply from photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] Looking Through a Lens from the Past)