Carsen Lens

Camon Crow

I am looking for any information on lens sold by the W. Carsen Co.. Carson founded his company in 1946 and up until 2000 they distributed Olympus consumer products in Canada. At some point they sold lenses under the carson name that I think were made for them by Olympus. Any further information would be a great help.

I know of the following 3 lenses:

Carsen Telephoto 1:4.5 f=200mm
Carsen 1:2.4 105mm
Carsen Wide Angle 1:2.8 f=35mm

ziggy53

Camon Crow wrote:

I am looking for any information on lens sold by the W. Carsen Co.. Carson founded his company in 1946 and up until 2000 they distributed Olympus consumer products in Canada. At some point they sold lenses under the carson name that I think were made for them by Olympus. Any further information would be a great help.

I know of the following 3 lenses:

Carsen Telephoto 1:4.5 f=200mm
Carsen 1:2.4 105mm
Carsen Wide Angle 1:2.8 f=35mm

CC,

As far as I know, Olympus did not manufacture any lenses for "private brand". This would constitute a line of self-competing products, which most companies view as self-defeating and even self-destructive.

The best way to determine the origin of private branded lenses is through similarities with other known lenses. Physical similarities like overall size and shape, and optical similarities like the number of elements and groups and even the focus scale and f numbers, can all lend in "matching" to a known lens and likely source.

Sometimes, the best you can say is, "this lens appears to be very similar to" another lens because independent lens manufacturers are very guarded about specifics with their clients, and the clients are secretive about source.

There is considerable mystique around lens sources and Googleing can give you a feel for the considerable misinformation and rumors that exist.

ziggy53

Camon Crow

ziggy53 wrote:

CC,

As far as I know, Olympus did not manufacture any lenses for "private brand". This would constitute a line of self-competing products, which most companies view as self-defeating and even self-destructive.

The best way to determine the origin of private branded lenses is through similarities with other known lenses. Physical similarities like overall size and shape, and optical similarities like the number of elements and groups and even the focus scale and f numbers, can all lend in "matching" to a known lens and likely source.

Sometimes, the best you can say is, "this lens appears to be very similar to" another lens because independent lens manufacturers are very guarded about specifics with their clients, and the clients are secretive about source.

There is considerable mystique around lens sources and Googleing can give you a feel for the considerable misinformation and rumors that exist.

ziggy53

Thank you