I know it sounds a bit funny, but I have to ask this question (as for my LF education). Are Schneider Red Dot (RD) Artars the same as Goerz RD Artars? If not, are there any performance differences? How do you date a Schneider RD Artar? What is LD Artar? Thanks in advance for all your comments.

-- Geoffrey Chen (DB45tek@aol.com), January 11, 2001

Answers

Here is what little I can tell you and it is from fragmented information so take it for what it's worth. After Schneider acquired Goerz (exact year unknown but sometime in the 1970's), they may have used Goerz American Optical's remaining inventory to produce Red Dot Artars with the Schneider imprint. Schneider's web site has a page which helps date lenses by serial number. Low Distortion (LD) Artars were approximately twice the price of Red Dot Artars. The 1965 Burke and James catalog says only this about them: "Low Distortion Artar is a special design for military display units, micro miniaturization and other specialized needs." This is a vague and shallow description for a lens that cost $680 in 1965, I'm guessing that the LD Artars were a government/military contract Cold War item made in small numbers and discontinued well before the Schneider acquisition.

-- C. W. Dean (cwdean@erols.com), January 17, 2001.