OT: What the heck did I just buy?

bmattock

bmattock

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Well, I have been curbing my habits of late, but since paying down a couple of debts, there have been a couple of tiny purchases. This one caught me by surprise, I just looked and bid, without thinking much about it - dumb!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7597569884&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

It is (or appears to be) a Bausch and Lomb Baltar 152mm f2.3 lens, threaded for M42 (Pentax screw mount). Sounds nifty fast, no? Well, since no one had bid on it when I stumbled on it, that's what I thought too. Ooh, reminds me of the German Olympia 180mm Sonnars. Could be a fun portrait lens - well, from way back, I guess.

But then I started thinking - when did B&L ever make an M42 lens? Oh, oh. Maybe it isn't an M42 lens. Maybe it is something else.

I found this old closed eBoy auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/152-mm-Len-Baus...itemZ7593270280QQcategoryZ30077QQcmdZViewItem

Kinda-sorta similar, huh? For a TV camera, I guess. Went for a buncha money, though. But it has f-stops, not t-stops. Don't TV and cine lenses have t-stops? Hmmm, maybe it is an anamorphic lens?

So, I'm scratching my head on this one. I wonder why I do things like this?

Anybody have any idea what this thing is?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
peterc said:
Pentax 6x7 possibly?

Peter
Click to expand...

Hey, if it is, cool! That would make the adapter on the end of the lens a Pentax 6x7 to M42 adapter, and those are worth a couple of bucks by themselves. Well, I guess I've stumped the experts...so far...and we'll just have to see what it is when it shows up!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Bill,

This might be an interseting lens to mount onto a 2x3 Speed graphic and see if it will cover 6x6 or 6x7 roll film. I am betting that it will for close up photography, not so sure about infinity coverage though.

Yeah, I buy odd stuff all of the time so let me know if you want to get rid of it in the future.

Wayne
 
Interesting stuff, folks, thanks. It would appear then, that this *is* a motion picture or TV lens. Question is if it is anamorphic (squoze for Cinemascope) and if so, I am guessing it cannot be used for 35mm still photography. Hmmm. Well, one way to find out is to wait for it to arrive, bolt it on, and try it out.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Doug said:
Well, anamorphic might still work on a 35mm still camera, but then you'd want to project the slides back through the same lens to unsquoze 'em. 🙂
Click to expand...

Slides? Projector? What are they? 😉

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Don't feel too bad about this, Bill. If you haven't seen my latest list of photographic acquisitions:

Falcon Miniature (127 format camera)
Petri 7 Half (half frame 35mm)
13x18 plate camera (5x7 negative film)
The Ansco Speedex Special "R" from Wayne for my Canon 50/1.8.
Something (not quite sure what) from Brian Sweeney
And (perhaps) a Koni-Omega Rapid medium format rangefinder.

I've been more nuts than you lately. Haven't spent much money, but I'm happy about what I'm getting.
 
Doug said:
Well, anamorphic might still work on a 35mm still camera, but then you'd want to project the slides back through the same lens to unsquoze 'em. 🙂
Click to expand...

Why can't I just look at the slides? Will the be distorted or something?

Also, I feal uneasy by the way that the seller gives a blurred image of the lens mount.
 
An anamorphic lens squeezes a wide horizontal image into a normal frame - the vertical dimension remains unchanged. The projector requires a similar lens to unsqeeze it.

BTW, "squeeze" and "unsqueeze" are technical terms and should not be used at home without super-vision.
 
Judging by the mount it could well be a lens for Arriflex 35 mm and have the coverage for 35 mm film. If the lens-film distance is correct is another matter. If it were a 16 mm lens it would probably have a C-mount, which Bolex (among others) used. If you want to buy a cine-camera to go with it, a used Arriflex will set you back several thousands of dollars.
 
FYI - follow up, this lens turned out to be a movie camera lens, but it had been refitted by someone with mad machining skills to fit an M42 camera.

I put it on my Bessaflex TM today. Interesting is the word. You may have seen or heard what a Petzval type lens does on a LF camera - sharp in the center, really fast fall-off towards the edges. Well, I think that's what this lens does.

I shot this on a tripod, 1/30 in the rain today with the lens wide-open at f2.7. B&W film, processed in Rodinal. Scanned and resized. Not sure what that ichor on the upper left corner of the frame is, might be a water drying mark. Anyway, note dropoff.

Do you like the effect, or is it too much? Anyway, thanks for everyone's help on this. Definitely worth what I paid for it!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Last edited:
rbiemer said:
I like the effect, Bill. Will this lens focus close enough to do portraits? Might make for a good 'look" for that--grainy, sepia toned B&W maybe?
Rob
Click to expand...

Yes, it surely will focus in close...

Sorry for the dust specks, just did a quick desaturate/resize. Shot in B/W, but scanned as if in color.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Last edited:
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