Cooke Amotal lens, any idea what I have here?
bisbonian
Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
We've come across this lens and I'm not sure what I have. At first I thought it was an enlarger lens as it was with another couple of those but the little bit of research I've been able to do so far leads me elsewhere.
On the front it reads Cooke Amotal Anastigmat 2 inch f/2 ELC No297110 (I understand this number is the serial number).
Around the top of the barrel it reads Made by Taylor Taylor and Hobson Ltd England and then it has the f stops.
Near the bottom of the barrel it has focus markings in feet and says Made in Italy.
In this first picture I'm looking at the mount to the left side of the photo. The black ring to the outside measures 35.6mm, the threads measure 34.6mm and the shoulder measures 38.9mm at the widest portion and then narrows to 37.4mm where near the knurled edge. Measurements are as exact as my Harbor Freight digital caliper get.
This looks a lot like some Leica lenses I've been seeing but I have had someone mention it could be a c-mount lens for a Bolex or Beaulieu 16mm camera. Just now doing a quick google search, I'm not sure that's the case.
I've got some more pictures to follow, does anyone have a hint of what I have or where I might take it to get checked out? We have one camera shop in town that I'm familiar with but I'm not sure how much old stuff he gets into.
Sorry if the pictures look all the same, I was trying to turn the lens to get a view all the way around.
On the front it reads Cooke Amotal Anastigmat 2 inch f/2 ELC No297110 (I understand this number is the serial number).
Around the top of the barrel it reads Made by Taylor Taylor and Hobson Ltd England and then it has the f stops.
Near the bottom of the barrel it has focus markings in feet and says Made in Italy.
In this first picture I'm looking at the mount to the left side of the photo. The black ring to the outside measures 35.6mm, the threads measure 34.6mm and the shoulder measures 38.9mm at the widest portion and then narrows to 37.4mm where near the knurled edge. Measurements are as exact as my Harbor Freight digital caliper get.
This looks a lot like some Leica lenses I've been seeing but I have had someone mention it could be a c-mount lens for a Bolex or Beaulieu 16mm camera. Just now doing a quick google search, I'm not sure that's the case.
I've got some more pictures to follow, does anyone have a hint of what I have or where I might take it to get checked out? We have one camera shop in town that I'm familiar with but I'm not sure how much old stuff he gets into.
Sorry if the pictures look all the same, I was trying to turn the lens to get a view all the way around.
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Comments
Since the design appears to be for enlarger use, it should be a "flat-field" lens. From the very few visual examples of the lens I could find it also appears that when wide open the lens exhibits a very busy bokeh wide open, but that clears nicely at small apertures.
At least one person seems to have found a "c-Mount" version of the lens (which is 25.4mm). Not sure what that was used for but, by your given dimensions of 38.9mm, your lens seems to best match the 39mm threads of an LSM (common to enlarger lenses as well) while the bokeh would not be terribly pleasing for general photography. (Enlarging lenses only have to work against a flat field with no concerns for bokeh.)
Please do let us know what you ultimately find about this lens.
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I've determined the threads are actually for the focus of the lens so have no actual use for the mounting. That was messing me up.
If it is actually the Leica mount then I believe I have this lens: http://collectiblend.com/Lenses/Taylor-&-Hobson/2in-f2-Cooke-Amotal-Anastigmat-(M39).html
From my google searches it seems to be well thought of by the rangefinder community, albeit not that common.
From these examples the bokeh does look pretty busy:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/54596238@N06/sets/72157648241795429/
Could be a very nice specialty lens for when you want the effect.
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