[LargeFormat] Compound Shutters

[Wilkes, Don MSER:EX]

>   Again, I don't have a starting date for D.R.P. but it was
> used until sometime after 1945. D.B.P. was adopted at the
> end of the war but was not immediately used so one finds
> equipment made as late as 1950 or so still marked DRP or

Oh, it means German Republic *Patent*, then!  That would explain why I
couldn't find a reference to it either online or in one of the office
Almanacs... I should have realized this, as last July, I had a short note
from Mr. Arne Croell on my old Carl Zeiss Jena 165 f/6.3 Tessar, which I was
trying to date.  It has an apparent serial number of 166752, and is marked
DRP 142293.  He said that he was travelling, and didn't have his list of
Zeiss numbers at hand.  However, he mentioned that list only starts in 1927,
at which point the serial #s were already past the million mark.

So, it looks like DRP is pre-30s, at any rate.

By the way, Mr. Croell had an article on VEB Carl Zeiss & Docter Optic
lenses in the July/Aug 2003 issue of View Camera, which is what prompted me
to write to him. If Mr. Croell is listening -- could you possibly tell me a
bit more about my lens, especially its likely date of manufacture?  I've
never found it mentioned in any references.

Cheers!
\donw