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49 minutes ago, wlaidlaw said:

William I wonder if the Grubb lens could have been used for meteorology, for taking cloud formation photographs, where the orange tint would have added contrast and reduced glare. 

Wilson

That is a definitely a possibility. Sir Howard Grubb was a leading figure at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) where I am a member today. When Covid is under better control, I will visit there to check their records. He made frequent contributions there about astronomy and scientific photography. They have several papers which he delivered in the 1890s. I should add here that in 2019 our mutual friend Paul (pgk) presented a paper at the RDS on his marine photography, following in the footsteps of Sir Howard. Paul and I are both avid Grubb enthusiasts and collectors.

William 

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When I collected my 50mm Summilux v1 today I also got a rough Exakta 11a.

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Edited by Pyrogallol
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....adding in a shot from the TONE camera.   Agfa ASP400S at 1/50 f6.3. 

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16 hours ago, Ambro51 said:

....adding in a shot from the TONE camera.   Agfa ASP400S at 1/50 f6.3. 

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Did you cut in half a std. 35mm roll ?  A fine item, anyway... I see that it even had a genuine leather case...  "Hit" cameras were usually very "poor" but this one is a notable exception, 

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I’m working with a bulk roll of unperforated 35mm film.  But, Any film can be slit, I’ve used film with perfs, but I trim them off.  Yes, you’re very correct that only a few of these “HIT” cameras are worth putting film through.  I’m a collector, but the 435 HIT camera models that are toys don’t interest me at all.  I bought one Crystar, tried it once......learned a few things and went ahead and bought a Mycro.  They are All high quality and very good image makers.  Other good models are the TONE, Mycro, Jilona Midget, Sugaya MYRACLE II......

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It's funny but I notice that the Italian photographic industry is not well represented in this post? Yet there were many very innovative post-war manufacturers, Ducati, Rectaflex and some rare ones: Janua, Iso.... (often copies of Leica it's true)!...

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4 hours ago, PG Black nickel said:

It's funny but I notice that the Italian photographic industry is not well represented in this post? Yet there were many very innovative post-war manufacturers, Ducati, Rectaflex and some rare ones: Janua, Iso.... (often copies of Leica it's true)!...

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Copies, but always done with great style. A friend here in Dublin has some of them and they are beautiful to hold and behold.

William 

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The Most Expensive rig you could buy in 1948, the Bell and Howell Foton was, and is, a mechanical and optical wonder.  Here’s mine, fully operational, with the 8” Cooke Telephoto and the 4”/8” Foton Finder.   This setup was about $1,300 New, ( plus, add on the postwar federal excise tax of 10%)Truly, a Masterpiece!  BTW I lent Mike  Eckman this Camera and he wrote a Very Good review of it on his website.  In his “ranking system”, it heads the list.   Like Mike said “It’s BIG”

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Edited by Ambro51
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The thing is really LOUD too!    One thing I dislike is the shutter release on the front of the camera, another thing is that the rangefinder doesn’t couple to the telephoto lenses.  Engineering wise , it’s more a Cine Camera in its workings,  also, the Taylor Taylor Hobson lenses were much more common on high end Cine and Television cameras.

Edited by Ambro51
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On 12/7/2021 at 10:54 PM, willeica said:

Howard Grubb Aplanatic lens for 12x10 plates made in Dublin c mid to late 1890s. The lens is made from aluminium, which was a relatively new material at the time, and it is considerably lighter than the 7 earlier Grubb lenses in my collection, which are all made from brass.

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My earlier Grubb lenses, dating from the 1850s to the 1880s,  either have washer or Waterhouse stops. This one has a diaphragm, shown here at f22.

The aperture range goes f 11.3, f16, f22, f32, f45, f64. The Royal Photographic Society aperture scale, introduced between 1895 and 1902, included an 11.3 setting. I feel that the lens was probably before 1900 and, so, I am saying mid to late 1890s.

The lens itself is orange tinted. This is not a balsam issue, which some of my earlier lenses have, albeit with no optical problems arising. This is quite different. I suspect that the lens was used for a specialised application requiring high contrast. Possibilities are astronomy, science, industrial or military. By this time, Grubbs had started making items for the military such as rifle scopes and, later, periscopes. 

Finally, the lens came with nice cap with plush lining.

This is a really lovely piece which compares well with lenses made by other great optical manufacturers in Britain and Germany.

William 

 

 

William,  Could / might the lens element(s) have been made using a 'uranium glass' mix ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass. ... uranium glass maybe having special optical attributes?  In the 1950s / 60s Leitz and Canon made thorium glass lens elements which are clear when new but turn orange / yellow with age .. but which can be cleared by exposure to UV light . 

Do you have access to a geiger counter?

BW

dunk 

Edited by dkCambridgeshire
typo
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2 hours ago, dkCambridgeshire said:

... uranium glass maybe having special optical attributes?

Uranium glass was mainly used for coloured glass items for decoration but I don’t think they used it for optical glass. Barium seems to be the first „rare earths“ for optical glass in the 19th century, thorium was used only since the mid 20th century. 

The results from a test with a Geiger counter might be interesting though. 

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I think that Thorium Oxide was the main radioactive substance used for lens making in the past. One of the most common uranium glass items in many households in the past, was the green glass patent razor blade sharpener (Lillicraps Hone) , that during WW2, many men bought, when razor blades although not actually rationed, were in very short supply. The blades were also at the time, not stainless steel, so tended to oxidise on the cutting edge, so a fresh hone immediately before use, was beneficial. 

Wilson

 

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2 hours ago, dkCambridgeshire said:

William,  Could / might the lens element(s) have been made using a 'uranium glass' mix ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass. ... uranium glass maybe having special optical attributes?  In the 1950s / 60s Leitz and Canon made thorium glass lens elements which are clear when new but turn orange / yellow with age .. but which can be cleared by exposure to UV light . 

Do you have access to a geiger counter?

BW

dunk 

The lens has what seems to be a perfect original orange coating which seems to be intentional. I will ask around my friends to see if any of them has a geiger counter. John Joly, who was a friend and colleague of Howard Grubb at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), was not only an early pioneer of colour photography, using coloured filters, but he was also a pioneer in the use of radium for cancer treatment. So knowledge about radiation was in easy reach of Howard Grubb. The RDS has a receipt from Madame Curie for payment for some radium by Joly. Grubb and Joly presented each other with medals and also rotated leading positions in the RDS over a number of years.

William 

 

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If the lens was made around 1880, it would be before the first uses of radioactive material and just before the discovery of natural radioactivity, as opposed to Röntgen X-Rays, by Henri Becquerel, first published in 1896. Therefore any use of radioactive material would have been accidental not intentional. 

Wilson

Edited by wlaidlaw
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On 12/10/2021 at 12:24 PM, PG Black nickel said:

It's funny but I notice that the Italian photographic industry is not well represented in this post? Yet there were many very innovative post-war manufacturers, Ducati, Rectaflex and some rare ones: Janua, Iso.... (often copies of Leica it's true)!...

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It's a SOGNO !! ("Dream" in Italian...) ; nice set, compliments ! It was a pity that our industry couldn't develop further, for various reasons, some smart ideas they were able to concretize in real products...🤥... but at least Ducati is still a brand we Italians can be proud of...😀

Edited by luigi bertolotti
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On 12/13/2021 at 7:42 PM, wlaidlaw said:

If the lens was made around 1880, it would be before the first uses of radioactive material and just before the discovery of natural radioactivity, as opposed to Röntgen X-Rays, by Henri Becquerel, first published in 1896. Therefore any use of radioactive material would have been accidental not intentional. 

I have seen an advert for Howard Grubb lenses dated 1893. My guess is that William's alumnium mouted lens is sometime after this, perhaps late 1890s. I'd like to look into the timeline of spectral sensitivity of film plates because I wonder if it was designed to take advantage of increasing sensitivity across the spectrum and was intended to give greater sky/cloud detail by reducing blue transmission? Does anyone know when red sensitivity started to become really viable with plates?

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NOOKY or Proximeter, what may be the better solution for getting close?

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vor 14 Stunden schrieb romanus53:

NOOKY or Proximeter, what may be the better solution for getting close?

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It depends ...
The NOOKY might have the besser pictures, because no supplementary lens is used. On the other hand does the Proximeter need no longer exposure. Ih have Proximeters for different cameras, and they are good.

Yours sincerely
Thomas

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