Pantogonal 165mm f18

Hi all,

I just purchased a Rodenstock f18 165mm Pantogonal for my 12x20.

This is an older lens in barrel with a huge image circle. I'm just

testing it out now and it turns my 12x20 Korona into an extreme wide

angle camera. I was wondering if anyone else out there uses this

lens and maybe knows a little more about it than I do and can clue

me in on it's fine points, history, age, etc. as this is rather an

obscure item.

Cheers,

My understanding was that the Pantogonal is the same design as the Goerz Hypergon, a very simple symmetrical lens with two elements; basically a hollow marble. Unlike the Hypergon, the Pantogonal does not have a built-in 'cogwheel' which functions like a center-filter. The Hypergon went out to an amazing 140 degrees, I think the Pantogonal does something similar.

My info is that the Pantogonal is different from the Hypergon. It seems to be a 1+2 triplet with a colored lens acting as a centre grad instead of the hypergon's 1+1 and a 'propellor' acting as a centre grad. Said to cover 120-130 degrees.

Thanks for the info on this lens guys. Just got out of the darkroom with the results from the 5x7 sheet film tests and despite some marks on the glass this lens is nice and sharp in the closeup range (1 to 1) with good tonality and resolution enlarged 1.5 x's. Definatly sharp wide open too which is a plus. A keeper! The aperture seems like it was constructed to not open on purpose to the full diameter of the glass. If put in a shutter it would most likely be a bit brighter.But it works way cool just using the leather lenscap.This lens is so miniscule and with no weight to speak of. I'm surprised that these small and tiny, slow but sharp lenses were not reissued at one point, as they are imminantly usable. Makes me want to check out some older tiny Protars in the near future!

Oops, Colin is correct, it is indeed a triplet--my apologies for spreading falsehoods!