Difference between Baldanar and Baltar lens?

[tim_drake]

Hi, Does anybody know the difference between or the element numbers

of the Baldanar and or Baltar lenses used on medium format Balda

folding cameras? Thanks

[kymtman]

Balda Baldinette, 50 mm. f/3.5 Baldanar, Prontor S 1 sec. to 1/300 sec. shutter with 1/25 scale, delayed action release inoperative, excellent condition. (20165) THREE ELEMENT LENS

 

Balda Jubilette (c.1938), 50 mm. f/2.9 Baltar, Compur, early 35 mm. folder, good used, all working. (16953) SIX ELEMENT Double Gauss ... Kino, Tachar; Bausch & Lomb: Aminar, baltar, Raytar; ...

 

All I could find

[victorm.]

Six-element Baltar??!! I have a Baldix (6X6) with a 2.9 Baltar and it's definitely a three element lens. Not too bad, either.

[Dustin McAmera]

I have one of those Jubilettes, but the Baltar on that is a triplet. (5 cm f/2.9, in a Compur shutter as described above). I took mine apart to clean out the crud, and it's a triplet. It's neither the best nor the worst one in the world, based on my limited use of one example, after my interference with it. Not terribly sharp; as usual, uploading a photo won't show that very well because they have to be so small (but that isn't going to stop me). I don't think they'd use the same name for a MF lens of very different design (would they?), so I guess those are triplets too.<div></div>

[Dustin McAmera]

Having seen Victor's post above, I had a look in McKeown. The Baldix is the only MF camera I can find with a Baltar among the lenses listed, although Balda seem to have offered an impossibly large choice of lens and shutter combinations, especially with the Baldax (with an A).

 

On the Baldix, the Baltar could be f/2.9 or f/4.5, it says here. That's a post-war camera; early fifties.

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

" 50 mm. f/2.9 Baltar, Compur, early 35 mm. folder, good used, all working. (16953) SIX ELEMENT Double Gauss"

 

I do not think that this is correct. Even back in the 1930s and 1940s, the (few) six-element double Gauss lenses which were on the market had powers around f/2.0. To achieve f/2.8 or f/2.9 with decent image quality they did not need 6 elements back then.

 

Both lenses probably are triplets. Balda has a reputation for marketing very similar or even identical cameras with many different designators, let alone the re-branded ones, and probably did the same with the lenses they supplied.

[victorm.]

When I first received the Baldix, I googled "Baltar" and discovered that Bausch & Lombe also made a lens with that name! The 75/2.9 Baltar on my Baldix is definitely a three-element lens. The picture below was taken while I waited for a streetcar, Tri-X, 1/50 f/8, very dull overcast day, about 50% of the original square frame.<div></div>

[tim_drake]

Thanks everybody for the replies, photos, and interesting discussion. Tim

[p_ferraro]

I googled victor mayes and found this site. could this be the same victor mayes that has family on long island?