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Lens Reference Books


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Greetings,

 

As an avid and perhaps obsessive collector of both lenses and

information about them, I have been looking around for good reference

books on LF optics. I poured through Kingslake's "History of the

Photographic Lens" more times than I would like to admit, and am

currently looking for new reference materials. I recently heard of two

massive (?) compendiums of knowledge, Wooden's "Large Format Optical

Reference Manual", and Wright's "Lens Collectors' Vade Mecum". I am

wondering if anyone can comment on these, or suggest others.

 

thanks in advance

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Two books, both coincidentally called "Photographic Optics". One by Ray and published by McGraw-Hill, and the other by Arthur Cox, and published by Focal Press. The book by Cox has a large reference of several hundred lens diagrams in the appendix.<p>Both books are now unfortunately out of print, I believe.
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I can definately recommend Neil Wright's Vademecum. It is in PDF format on a CD Rom and can be obtained from some UK stores at a small charge. Neill makes no profit from it as any small profits go to Cancer or Hospice charities.

 

It is essentially a huge list of lenses for all formats, with brief descriptions, personal comments, diagrams and some piuctures. This labour of love was started by Matt Wilkinson and when he passed away, Neill took up the task and has added a great deal. Neill is the secretary of the MPP Users club - you may have seen the website and is an authority on both MPP and optics. Despite encouragement from myself and others Neill is not yet an internet user.

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Most all the old lens designs are patented. Start with Kingslake text; and write away for the patent; or buy them on line. Sometimes they are free. When I collected patents; they were only about 25 cents each; now they are a dollar or more each. The 100 year old Tessar has a US patent number associated with it. Each Patent has prior art claims; and references other patents. One can then get the patents on these older designs; and learn the claims made by them. <BR><BR>If one records the patent numbers off of older lenses; and writes away for the patent; you will be surprised. Many times the patent is not for the lens design; but for the lens mount; focus; iris mechanism etc. Also sometimes the lenses are engraved wrong. I got a patent number of a movie camera lens of 1950s' vintage; and got the correct patent; one for a steamer trunk lock mechanism! <BR><BR>
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A great old book, copyright 1939, is "Handbook of Photography" edited by K. Henney and B. Dudley. It contains a large amount of quality information. Portions are out-of-date, but less so than you might think.

 

Chapters 2 and 3 are by Kingslake, "The Optics of Photographic Lenses" and "The Development of the Photographic Objective". The latter chapter overlaps quite a bit with his "History of the Photographic Lens". One extra in Chapter 3 is fourteen pages of tables listing lenses: manufacturer, lens name, f-number, degrees of coverage, range of focal lengths, lens type and remarks.

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  • 2 months later...
Another fine reference is "Contributions to Photographic Optics," by Otto Lummer, translated by Silvanus P. Thompson. This was published by MacMillan in 1900. It covers general lens design and history, including development of the Jena glasses, with discussions about specific lens offerings from the manufacturers active at the time. The book is well illustrated. Obviously, the historical coverage ends at 1900, but it provides a fascinating look at what was then the latest technology. I found my copy at www.alibris.com. You might be able to order it through your local library.
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