Pete Askew
Admin
Hamish and I were discussing interesting / esoteric optics the other day. I mentioned that I had an Aero Ektar that I intended to mount for use on a 5x4" camera. At present it is mounted on a bellows unit with an M42 mount. I intend to separate it and fit it to a Linhof lens panel but whoever fitted it to the bellows unit peened the two flanges together! So the peening needs to be carefully drilled out without drilling through the collar below.
The Aero Ektar was developed in the mid 1930s for use in aerial reconnaissance and was used extensively during the second world war. Many fell into private hands after the end of the war. This lens has a focal length of 178mm (7") and covers 5"x5" film. It is a fast lens with a maximum aperture of f1:2.5 (this is very fast on this format) and is capable of very high resolution due to the specialised glass used in some of the elements. The rear ones of which used glass doped with thorium. The downside of this is that the rear elements are radioactive and the decay of the elements cause a yellowing of the glass over time. Used on a standard 5"x4" camera they produce very distinctive images when used for portraiture and this is what I intend to use this one for.
As you can see the lens I have (from 1944) is mounted to a bellows assembly and the join can be seen where the brass threaded end of the lens overlaps the aluminium barrel of the bellows unit. Much of the 'charm' of these lenses when used on 'normal' cameras is the spherical focusing and so I can't see the point of using it on a unit like this and onto a small format film as you would lose most of that.
This is a substantial lump of metal and glass and very heavy. To illustrate the size here it is held adjacent to a D3s.
The optics in this example are in very good condition and the aperture control works well.
However, like all of these lenses, the rear elements show the yellow 'discolouration' caused by the decay products of thorium.
References and Further Information
http://home.earthlink.net/~michaelbriggs/aeroektar/aeroektar.html
http://lommen9.home.xs4all.nl/aero/
http://www.johndesq.com/graflex/aerousers.htm
The Aero Ektar was developed in the mid 1930s for use in aerial reconnaissance and was used extensively during the second world war. Many fell into private hands after the end of the war. This lens has a focal length of 178mm (7") and covers 5"x5" film. It is a fast lens with a maximum aperture of f1:2.5 (this is very fast on this format) and is capable of very high resolution due to the specialised glass used in some of the elements. The rear ones of which used glass doped with thorium. The downside of this is that the rear elements are radioactive and the decay of the elements cause a yellowing of the glass over time. Used on a standard 5"x4" camera they produce very distinctive images when used for portraiture and this is what I intend to use this one for.
As you can see the lens I have (from 1944) is mounted to a bellows assembly and the join can be seen where the brass threaded end of the lens overlaps the aluminium barrel of the bellows unit. Much of the 'charm' of these lenses when used on 'normal' cameras is the spherical focusing and so I can't see the point of using it on a unit like this and onto a small format film as you would lose most of that.
This is a substantial lump of metal and glass and very heavy. To illustrate the size here it is held adjacent to a D3s.
The optics in this example are in very good condition and the aperture control works well.
However, like all of these lenses, the rear elements show the yellow 'discolouration' caused by the decay products of thorium.
References and Further Information
http://home.earthlink.net/~michaelbriggs/aeroektar/aeroektar.html
http://lommen9.home.xs4all.nl/aero/
http://www.johndesq.com/graflex/aerousers.htm
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