Taylor, Taylor & Hobson - Cooke speed panchro Ser.II 75mm f/2

[Spyderman]

Somehow this lens found its way to me, and now I don't know what to do with it...

Originally it's a 35mm cine lens.

It has no focus mount, but the glass is clear (although a bit yellow overall). Fortunately no fungus, no haze and almost no cleaning marks.

I'd really like to make a usable lens out of this...

Any ideas where to get a mount for it?

The first option is to use a SLR mount - that way I wouldn't need RF coupling and I could focus it on the focussing screen. Some people have done it and got some rather nice results (see here)

The second choice would be to use mount from a damaged Leitz Hektor 73mm f/1.9. But that lens seems to be a colector's item, and I bet even a mount fetches higher prices than I'm willing to pay.

But what if I still wanted to use it on my Bessa and Zorkis ? I was thinking a mount from the last series of Jupiter-8 (where the RF coupling ring rotates when focussing) could be used, and the RF-coupling ring could be filed down (similar to RF coupling rings of Summicron-C and Elmar-C lenses for Leica CL).

Or maybe if I could find a machinist capable of making a mount for it ...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 😀

 

[M. Valdemar]

I've got one of these grafted onto an M-mount that was cannibalized from a broken Leitz lens.

I've also got a 50mm Kinoptik f2 on a collapsible M-mount from a busted Summicron.

Here's a similar adaptation for M42. This seller has lots of converted lenses, take a look through his stuff for ideas.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Taylor-Hobson-Cooke-75-2-6-Kinetal-M-42_W0QQitemZ280096659225

 

[Spyderman]

I tried to hold the lens in front of my good old OM-1 with an extension tube, and the image seemed quite good - nice bokeh, bright and contrasty.

I think I'll try to put it in an OM-mount. For this purpose I need some OM-mount lens with glass in bad condition. Best would be focal length between 50 and 135...

 

[Limpovitj]

How big is that lens? There just might be the chance, if you could mount it (perhaps a bit recessed) on a set of bellows, that you could still retain infinty focus. You would have to find a set of bellows with the least amount of extension fully retracted, though, to have a shot. I've used a 105mm lenshead on two different sets of bellows. On the first (a Konica unit) I could focus just a bit beyond infinity, and that wouldn't work with a 75mm lens, but with the other set (a 3rd-party can't-remember-the-name-brand for m42) I have at least a couple of centimeters of bellows extension when the lens is at infinity, maybe more (sorry, I don't have it here right now so I can't measure). If you could borrow (or have) a set of bellows it could be worth trying.

This would probably make for the easiest solution (least machining anyway), and I found the setup quite usable after a while. People look at your camera as you walk about town though...

Still, reshaping the focus cam on a Jupiter or using it in another lens mount would be a much more elegant solution. I happened to have the original focusing mount for my lens and eventually adapted that for m42 instead, but using it on bellows worked.

 

[Spyderman]

Well, the rear tube of the lens is just a bit (maybe 1mm) fatter (at 29mm) than the opening on a J-8 focus mount. With some filing it would fit.

The rear screw-mount is 1+1/4'' (or 31.7mm) and the rear tube protrudes 22mm to the back.

As I tried to hold it in front of a SLR (OM-1), and it won't focus to infinity before touching the mirror 🙁

So the only chance is RF, or macro on SLR...

 

[Spyderman]

OK, so I just checked it and I think it would fit the J-8 focus mount. It might even reach infinity focus.

I'd like to file the rangefinder coupling ring down like a ramp, similar to the RF coupling of Leica CL lenses.
EDIT: not file down, but rather add material to make a ramp...

Now I just need a J-8 focus mount - the one in which the front and the aperture scales rotate as you focus.

(I have one, but it's my best J-8 and I wouldn't like to canibalize it - it's in the picture below)

 

[zuikologist]

Good luck - looks interesting.