Hi

I came across a new lens the other day that a dealer has had in stock for a few years. It seems to be a cheapo Chinese/Japanese lens, called a 'Hege'. It's a 210mm in a Copal No.3 shutter. It's a very slim design, but obviously quite a large diameter. Any specs would be most welcome, mainly the image circle. I don't know what format it would cover, and we didn't have a camera to try it on.

Thanks in advance

David Nash

-- David Nash (nashcom@btinternet.com), September 13, 2001

Answers

David: Just speaking in generalities, 210mm is considered a normal lens for 5x7 film so I suspect it will cover that format. Most of the low cost lenses I have seen have been based on the four element tessar formula. The tessar formula can deliver good results if manufactured to close tolerances.

Regards,

-- Doug Paramore (dougmary@alaweb.com), September 13, 2001.

Dave:

You can figure out the approximate configuration of the lens by viewing the reflections of a single light source on the air:glass and the glued glass:glass interfaces of the lens elements. The reflections on the air:glass interfaces will be relatively bright, while those on the glued glass:glass interfaces will be much dimmer. Doing this you can, at least, determine the number of air-spaced elements and the number of grouped elements. You can probably determine if the lens is a tessar, plasmat, gauss, etc design.

-- Ken Burns (kenburns@twave.net), September 14, 2001.