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Carl Meyer 125mm Wide Angle

 
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bryanlaplante



Joined: 09 Mar 2002
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2003 1:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Digging through my boxes of gems I bought in the late '70's, I found a Carl Meyer 125mm f/4 Wide Angle mounted in a black painted brass barrel. A sticker on the lens says "Burke & James, Inc., Chicago 4, Ill. Also FWIW - the lens seems to be marked with the British military "broad arrow" - perhaps indicating this was once Military property. Can anyone tell me anything about this lens? Coverage quality, history, etc.?

Thanks, Bryan
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Nick



Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 494
PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2003 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'll let this do most of the talking.

http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=3a708c81.75010165%40news.mindspring.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3Dcarl%2Bmeyer%2Blenses%26meta%3D%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

OTOH you have the lens so why not test it and see how you like it? Good lens can be bad and bad ones can be good. Only using it will really tell the story.
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Nick



Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 494
PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2003 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sorry about the long link-((
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Dan Fromm



Joined: 14 May 2001
Posts: 2144
Location: New Jersey
PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2003 4:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Quote:

On 2003-05-31 06:53, bryanlaplante wrote:
Digging through my boxes of gems I bought in the late '70's, I found a Carl Meyer 125mm f/4 Wide Angle mounted in a black painted brass barrel. A sticker on the lens says "Burke & James, Inc., Chicago 4, Ill. Also FWIW - the lens seems to be marked with the British military "broad arrow" - perhaps indicating this was once Military property. Can anyone tell me anything about this lens? Coverage quality, history, etc.?

Thanks, Bryan
Hmm. The "broad arrow" replaced "A M" and crown sometime after WWII. Is the lens coated?

MoD bought lenses from a number of UK makers, likely ones are Ross and Wray, less likely are Taylor Hobson and Dallmeyer. Is the thing coated? Are the front and rear elements deeply curved (almost hemispherical) or flatter?

FWIW, Richard Knoppow, as in the post Nick directed us to, and Art Kramer have roundly condemned everything badged Carl Meyer. Still and all, you have it and they don't. I don't see the advantage of a real w/a 125 on a 4x5 Graphic, but why don't you try it and see? That's a much better way of finding out whether a lens will please you than asking people who know nothing about it.

Cheers,

Dan
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bryanlaplante



Joined: 09 Mar 2002
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 9:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Description: The outer part of the front element is fairly strongly curved (but not nearly as extreme as a Metrogon). The inner surface is slightly concave. The rear element seems identical to the front from visual inspection. It does appear to be coated. Doing the 'reflection test' on each element - I count 5 reflections, so this should mean that the front element is actually 4 cemented lenses (rear is the same - 5 reflections). Since my 1st post I've mounted it onto my 5x7 field camera - it appears to cover 5x7 (on the GG anyhow).

FYI - I did find another link which indicated that B&J did a lot of rebranding of surplus parts.
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bryanlaplante



Joined: 09 Mar 2002
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks to Dan, I think I know more now. Ross made a lens - f/4 5" Wide Angle Xpres - which would convert to a 125mm f/4. This link: http://www.digistar.com/rollei/2001-01/0522.html led me to the US Patent for the Ross lens (# 1,777,262) which has a drawing showing the lens design (3 parts in each element with one cemented, one air spaced - which gives my 5 reflections). The curvatures also look about right. The link also indicates that this is a Plasmat type and was originally used for airial survey work. Based on the Broad Arrow, the somewhat odd f/4 speed, and the similarity to the patent drawing, I'm betting this is a relabled Ross Wide Angle Xpres.
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Dan Fromm



Joined: 14 May 2001
Posts: 2144
Location: New Jersey
PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 2:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Quote:

On 2003-06-01 05:15, bryanlaplante wrote:
Thanks to Dan, I think I know more now. Ross made a lens - f/4 5" Wide Angle Xpres - which would convert to a 125mm f/4. This link: http://www.digistar.com/rollei/2001-01/0522.html led me to the US Patent for the Ross lens (# 1,777,262) which has a drawing showing the lens design (3 parts in each element with one cemented, one air spaced - which gives my 5 reflections). The curvatures also look about right. The link also indicates that this is a Plasmat type and was originally used for airial survey work. Based on the Broad Arrow, the somewhat odd f/4 speed, and the similarity to the patent drawing, I'm betting this is a relabled Ross Wide Angle Xpres.
More and more interesting. The Vade Mecum says the 5"/4 WA Xpres is a high quality lens and that of the 4 versions the MoD one was the best. That one can be recognized by the front element, which should be about 42 mm in diameter. The others are much smaller.

By all means give it a couple of shots.

Cheers,

Dan
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bryanlaplante



Joined: 09 Mar 2002
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2003 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I measure the front element as 41mm, perhaps they meant the OD, not the visible part. Anyhow 41mm is pretty close to 42mm. I need to shoot some film!
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