Laack
Laack Padie 9x12 camera with Omfa München (Munich) Doppel-Anastigmat Correktar f4.5 135mm in a Rulex shutter image by PhotoShop Guru (Image rights) |
Julius Laack, later Julius Laack Soehne,[1] was a camera and lens maker, based at Curlandstrasse 60, Rathenow (Brandenburg, Germany).[2] The company seems to have started in 1884.[3] McKeown[4] lists a ferrotype camera from 1895, and a number of folding plate cameras. Laack lenses were used on smaller-format cameras at least up to the Second World War. During the time of the German Democratic Republic the company became state-owned and was part of VEB Rathenower Optische Werke (ROW), together with Emil Busch and Nitsche and Günther.[5]
Laack lenses, especially the Pololyt, appear on other German companies' cameras including the Altissa Altiflex and Altix, Welta Reflekta and KW Pilot Super. Laack also made cine lenses.
Cameras
Ferrotype camera
'Ferrotype Cannon' c1895
Gazelle Tropical
9×12 cm tropical folding plate camera. Pololyt or Dialytar lens and Compur or Ibsor shutter.[6]
Graziella
Merkur
10×15 cm folding plate camera. Polyxentar f/6.8 lens and Koilos shutter.
Padie
9×12 cm vertical folding plate camera. Pololyt f/6.8 lens and Rulex shutter.
Padie "Luxus" D
- Omfa Muenchen (Munich) Doppel-Anastigmat Correktar f4.5 135mm and Rulex shutter[7]
- Laack 4,5 Doppel Anastigmat in a Rulex shutter
Roland Reise Kamera
Saturn
Sport-Camera
Folding press camera with focal plane shutter. 6.5×9, 9×12 or 10×15 cm. Dialytar lens (various maximum apertures).
Stereo Camera
12 x 9 folding stereo plate camera
- with Dialytar Series T f/6.3 15cm in Stereo Pronto[8]
Wanderer
6.5×9 cm folding plate camera[9]
? Meteor
Existence not certain[10]
Name? Horizontal
- 12 x 9 folding plate camera with Polyplan f/7.2 135mm in Vario shutter[11]
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Laack Rathenow Dialytar, Stereoscopic |
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Laack 12 x 9 Triple Expansion Camera |
Laack 5 cm f/2.7 Dialytar on a 3x4 cm camera by Glunz image by Tony Kemplen (Image rights) |
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Laack 16.5 cm f/4.5 lens identified simply as 'Doppel Anastigmat', for a large format (probably 4×5 inch) camera. Images by Ladenla (Image rights) |
Lenses
Laack was first and foremost an optical company making lenses for cameras, binocluars and microscopes. Laack produced a wide range of lenses for still photo and cine cameras as well as enlargers.[2][12] An advertisement in 1934 claimed that over 500,000 lenses had been produced by Laack and Laack Söhne.[3]
Standard Lenses
Atelier Schnellarbeiter
A Petzval type lens[13]
- Laack 6 cm f/3.5 Schnellarbeiter lens,[14]
Dialytar
This name was used on several lenses of different design and maximum aperture. Greenleaf[12] lists three designs; one is a simple triplet, one (Series T!) a Tessar-type, and one a four-element lens like a Tessar, but with the two parts of the rear group not cemented, and with an air space.
- Dialytar
- Dialytar Series P
- f/3.5 30cm [19]
- Dialytar Series T
- Doppelanastigmat Dialytar
- f/4.5 13.5 cm in Compur shutter[23]
Doppel-Polynar
A simple double-anastigmat, with two cemented doublets.[12]
- f/6.3 210mm[24]
Egotar
Egolyt
- f/4.5 105mm[26]
Extra Rapid Aplanat
Pololyt
A simple triplet.
- f/3.5 2.5cm
- Köhnlein Wiko with interchangeable Pololyt[29]
- f/3.5 3.5cm
- f/3.5 7.5cm
- f/3.5 8cm
- in KW Pilot Super [33]
- f/3.9 13.5cm[34]
- f/4.5 75mm
- f/4.5 105mm
- f/4.5 135mm[40]
- f/6.3 [44]
Polynar
- f/6.8 42mm
- in C. E. Nei Knirps 3x3[45]
- f/6.8 13.5cm
- in a ICA Halloh 511 [46]
Polyplan
A simple double-anastigmat, with two cemented doublets.
Polyxentar
A double-anastigmat; either composed of two cemented triplets (f/6.8) or of two triplets with only the outermost pair of each cemented (f/4.5).[12]
Regulyt
A simple triplet.
Texon
Cine Lenses
Cine-lens
A Petzval design
- f/2 15 to 85mm[2]
'Cine-Pololyt
A Cooke design for 16mm cine cameras
- f/2 25mm[2]
Cine-Polyxentar
ACooke design for 8 and 16mm cine cameras
Enlarger Lenses
Vergrösserungs Anastigmat
Lens Designs
In addition, there are a number of lens designs on record. It is not clear whether any of these were ever put into production.
Links
- Laack 9×12 cm with Rathenow Polyplan f/7.2 135 mm in Vario (Camera Collection Kurt Tauber)
- Laack 9×12 cm tropical camera with 13.5 cm Poloyt and Rulex shutter, in a past Breker auction listing (on the left of the picture).
- 1 inch f/1.3 Cine-Polyxentar cine lens, 1930s (as estimated by owner) in Japanese blog Hubbell's Photo Leaf.
- K.W. Box Reflex with a 10.5 cm f/4.5 Pololyt, at Early Photography
- Laack 13.5 cm enlarging lens at ksmt.com, the website of a Japanese lens collector (he has tried the lens for photography with a DSLR; example photos are linked from this page).
Notes
- ↑ One of the sons was Ernst Laack (Listed as German soldier in WWI: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Mechanik und Optik 1914, p.272)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Kingslake, R (1939) The Development of the Photographic Objective. in: Keith Henney, Handbook of photography. (London: Whittlesey House, pp.37-68, esp. p. 59.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The 50th anniversary of the company is mentioned for 1934: British Journal Photographic Almanac and Photographer's Daily Companion 1934, p309.
- ↑ McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p592.
- ↑ Die Geschichte der optischen Industrie in Rathenow II (History of the optical industry in Rathenow part II) at Kompetenzzentrum Optik Rathenow (Rathenow Optics Centre)
- ↑ wit Pololyt f/4.5 135mm
- ↑ Photoshop Guru
- ↑ s/n 59344) Yeshen Venema's site and Yeshen Venema via Flickr
- ↑ Pololyt f/4.5 105mm; eBay September 2012
- ↑ This model isn't in McKeown: can anyone confirm it?
- ↑ body 152mm x 145 m; ebay October 2012.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Greenleaf, Allen R. (1950) Photographic Optics. Macmillan, New York. pp82 & 201-8.
- ↑ Schnellarbeiter (literally 'fast worker') was a lens design and term appears on Ferrotype cameras by more than one maker.
- ↑ On a Ertee 'cannon' camera by Romain Talbot, for 'button' ferrotypes.
- ↑ pho-Tony via Flickr
- ↑ Laack Rathenow Doppel Anastigmat Dialytar
- ↑ brass lens in Reisekamera (Dorotheum Auctions 2011 lot 404)
- ↑ brass barrel lens, eBay October 2012
- ↑ brass barrel lens, eBay October 2012
- ↑ [http://www.enter-net.de/auktion/photo/laack.htm Enter-net de
- ↑ Laack Rathenow LP Auktioner
- ↑ Stereo Camera, lens s/n 59344) Yeshen Venema's site
- ↑ Laack Rathenow s/n 132368 via Flickr
- ↑ in IBSO shutter; eBay August 2012
- ↑ eBay October 2012
- ↑ in IBSO shutter; eBay August 2012
- ↑ Brass barrel lens, Breker September 25, 2010 Lot 299
- ↑ Brass barrel lens, eBay October 2012
- ↑ Christies 2005 Lot 219
- ↑ eBay September 2012
- ↑ Christies 2005 Lot 218
- ↑ ROW Pololyt 1:3,5 f=75mm 602534 in Blitz I shutter
- ↑ eBay October 2012
- ↑ in IBSO shutter; eBay August 2012
- ↑ s/n 128241 Laack-Rathenow via Flickr
- ↑ zniv via Flickr.—Gerard Vogels via Flickr
- ↑ s/n 222626 K.W. Box Reflex at Early Photography
- ↑ eBay September 2012
- ↑ Laack Gazelle Tropical 6x9 with Laack Rathenow s/n 151980
- ↑ Laack Rathenow s/n 91253 in IBSO (Romanian on-line auction, November 2012).
Laack Rathenow s/n 102664 in Compur (eBay March 2011). - ↑ Laack Gazelle Tropical via Flickr
- ↑ in plate camera; eBay October 2012
- ↑ Laack Rathenow s/n 103031 via Flickr
- ↑ Now defunct German on-line auction system
- ↑ Cjhrisies 2006 Lot 436; Christies 2007 lot 333
- ↑ Laack Söhne Rathenow s/n 31072
- ↑ s/n 17553 "Julius Laack Söhne Rathenow"; loose lens in shutter, eBay October 2012
- ↑ s/n 22451 "Julius Laack Söhne Rathenow"; 9x12 plate camera (Wanderer /) in Fotosidans Forum.
- ↑ s/n 12938 "Laack"; almost square 12 x 9 camera; ebay October 2012
s/n 55072 "Julius Laack Söhne Rathenow"; eBay January 2012. - ↑ s/n 195656 on-line Auction Germany
- ↑ s/n 195466. Christies 2007, lot 63
- ↑ Barrel lens (for enlarger?), eBay October 2012
- ↑ sn 268433 blog.sina.com.cn
- ↑ s/n 48xxxx Brass barrel lens (Black Kamera Kan)
- ↑ Brass barrel lens, eBay October 2012
- ↑ eBay October 2012
- ↑ eBay October 2012
- ↑ Julius Laack Söhne1938 DCE 0 665 520 dioptrique.info
- ↑ Julius Laack Söhne1938 DCE 0 665 520 II dioptrique.info