Are these lenses good for anything?

Just bought these two lens/shutter combos on eBay for $28.00 + S/H:

 

1) Heavy Duty Alphax Shutter w/ Wollensak-Dumont CRO 75mm f/2.8 Oscillo-

Anastigmat Lens, serial no. C65296.

 

2) Alphax Shutter w/ Wollensak 75mm f/1.9 Oscillo-Anastigmat Lens.

 

I am interested in the shutters. Are the lenses good for anything? I believe

them to be flat field lenses for oscilloscope photography, but could they be

used? In what format (I shoot 5x7 and 4x5), if any?

 

The large f value of the lenses intrigues me.

 

The 'Heavy Duty" shutter has no f stop dial and the aperture control is in the

back, for access internal from the oscilloscope camera's box. I assume that

the lever can be extended and a dial added to the lensboard. Is there a way to

calculate f-stop from iris measurement? It doesn't have a time scale either,

although it has the external ring that sets time. Can I determine the time

settings and make a scale based on the other shutter's?

 

The second shutter (with the f1.9 lens) is almost identical to the one I have

on my 5x7 camera now, which is great, and has the slider f-stop dial on the

face. Neither have flash terminals, as far as I know, unlike my current Alphax

shutter. I don't use flash, so I don't care.

<i>1) Heavy Duty Alphax Shutter w/ Wollensak-Dumont CRO 75mm f/2.8 Oscillo- Anastigmat Lens, serial no. C65296. </i><p>

Sorry, but I don't find that shutter heavy duty. And the lens is maybe, just maybe half decent for closeups.

<p>

<i>2) Alphax Shutter w/ Wollensak 75mm f/1.9 Oscillo-Anastigmat Lens.</i><p>

Same.

Pico:

 

The term 'heavy duty' is something I look at in the same light as 'new and improved'. It means nothing to me, especially since I don't abuse anything enough to qualify as heavy use. I believe the shutters are useful, are they not? From what you say, the lenses are trash, as I suspected.

Rafael! It's you! *Is my face red!* I've been online so much of the day because I'm laid up again, but not for long. Guess I'm getting dizzy.

 

I have those shutters, and one of the lenses and have used the other one in practice long ago on a Printronix graphics screen. They are fine for the money. The lenses really are for close-ups. We did not need high resolution for their original applications - resolving a scope was not much of a challenge... and we used Polaroid roll film.

 

I should have sent you one of them. :)

One more thing! I'll bet it would not be difficult at all to mount that 75mm f/1.9 Oscillo-Anastigmat Lens on the Pentax with an inexpensive bay-site Pentax thread bellows. It might just be very interesting!

Oscilloscope lenses have bokhe up the wazoo. These might be interesting as portrait lenses wide open on a 35mm camera.

Pico: :D (Ce'st moi!)

 

I have the whole macro bellows setup for my Pentax, also extension tubes of 3 or 4 sizes, and all the adapter rings possible, so I await the lense's arrival to play!

Hugh: Had to look up the word bokeh...that is interesting. Thanks!

Keep the shutters, but if you're like me you'll find the lenses live permanently at the back of a drawer, waiting for a use to be found for them.

 

As others have said. These CRO lenses are designed for 1:1 use, to take a picture of an oscilloscope screen. As you can imagine, you don't need the ultimate in image quality to record a couple of green wavy lines, so these lenses were built-down to a price. Some oscillograph cameras even had plastic lenses!

A number of years ago, when I could still see well, I used one of these type lenses (Ocillo-Raptar) for macro shots greater than 1:1. I mounted it on both a 4x5 and an 8x10 camera and just cranked the bellows out. These lenses are only designed to cover 6x6cm at infinity, but of course they spread out when extended. I was able to cover an 8x10 'chrome with a two inch pocket watch, and I liked the shots. By all means, put something together and shoot!