[rollei_list] Re: VoigtlanderApo Lanthar


----- Original Message ----- From: "Marvin Wallace" <Marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2005 4:15 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] VoigtlanderApo Lanthar


Does any one have experience with the legendry Voigtlander Apo Lanthar?
Does any one know why they reach such high prices.


Regards,
Marvin.
P.S. SMILE PHOTOGRAPHY IS FUN!

I don't have an Apo-Lanthar so can't answer this as asked. However, FWIW, the Apo-Lanthar is a Heliar type lens reportedly using Lanthanum glass in one or more element. This is probably true, Lanthanum glass is used in a great many lenses designed after WW-2. Rare earth glass allows getting combinations of high average index with lower dispersion than is available in conventional glass. This has an advantage in many designs of being able to reduce all aberrations.
There is an earlier Voigtlander lens called the Lanthar, this is a Cooke Triplet type.
The Heliar is capable of excellent performance. The Kodak Ektar used on the Medalist camera and also available as a 105mm, f/3.7 lens, and the shorter FL Kodak Enlarging Ektars, are all Heliar type lenses, albeit designed according to a patent by George Aklin, which uses the additional surfaces to improve marginal correction.
I think the high price of the Apo-Lanthar is partly due to its being a sort of cult lens and probably also because relatively few were built. Heliars can have some odd off axis softness and are popular as portrait lenses because of it. This may also be true of the Apo Lanthar. In general, the Plasmat type is a better choice for LF work. It is the basis of most current LF lenses, like the Schneider Symmar, and of most current high quality enlarging lenses.
The Heliar type was used by Voigtlander, who originated it, by Dallmeyer as the Pentac, and the above Kodak lenses, but was not widely exploited by the industry in general.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

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