[LargeFormat] Kodak serial numbers

[Les Newcomer]

I talked with the seller today about the source and it's become a script 
on ebay

"Selling for a friend whose father is now in a nursing home and is 
disosing of the estate. Worked at Kodak for 40+ years...."

I will try to locate his last name, the location of the nursing home and 
copious amounts of viagra.

"Did that last pill make  you feel younger Mr Smith?  I told you it would,
  now just tell me more about your work and these lenses and I'll let the 
nice nurse come in.....

Les


On Monday, October 14, 2002, at 08:37 AM, Richard Knoppow wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Les Newcomer" <lnphoto@twmi.rr.com>
> To: <largeformat@f32.net>
> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 8:04 PM
> Subject: [LargeFormat] Kodak serial numbers
>
>
>> I'm the new owner of two odd ball tele type Graphic
> lenses.  Both are
>> Kodak Anastigmats but made in '45, so I'm assuming these
> are not coated.
>>
>> The questions lie in the realm of "what do the serial
> numbers really mean?
>> "  The serial numbers for both lenses are ER 000.   Did
> Kodak reset the
>> serial numbers every year? I've seen some pretty low
> numbers in the 50s
>> which suggest they did.  Other times I see 4 digit lenses
> and think well
>> maybe they didn't.
>>
>> Does anybody know if they started with 000 or if they used
> that as a "pre
>> production" serial and began with 001?
>> Does anybody have any data as to when Kodak introduced new
> lenses?
>>
>> the photo of the lenses are here:
>> http://home.twmi.rr.com/lnphoto/255mm.jpg
>> http://home.twmi.rr.com/lnphoto/388mm.jpg
>>
>    Now that I am home I looked at the pictures above.
> Interesting! These look like lenses made to compete with the
> Wollensak "Optar" telephotos made for Graflex but also sold
> by Wollensak under their own trade names of Velostigmat and
> Raptar. I have one of the ubiqitous 15" Tele-Optars and find
> it a surprizingly good lens. It may be that Kodak decided
> not to compete in this market.
>   Kodak Ektar lenses are all corrected completely for
> lateral color. This is hard to accomplish in an
> unsymmetrical lens. The Kodak Anastigmat series seem to be
> very good lenses which are not so well corrected.
>   Kodak used the K.A. name for a wide variety of lenses many
> of which were renamed after about 1946. ]
>   The first Ektar, BTW, was the f/2.0, 45mm Biotar type lens
> made for the Kodak Bantam Special in 1935.
>
> ---
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
> dickburk@ix.netcom.com
>
>
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