Beck
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| Adams & Co. | Agilux | Aldis | APeM | Aptus | Artima | Barnet Ensign | Beard | Beck | Benetfink | Billcliff | Boots | British Ferrotype | Butcher | Chapman | Cooke | Corfield | Coronet | Dallmeyer | Dekko | De Vere | Dixons | Dollond | Elliott | Gandolfi | Gnome | Griffiths | G. Hare | Houghtons | Houghton-Butcher | Hunter | Ilford | Jackson | Johnson | Kentmere | Kershaw-Soho | Kodak Ltd. | Lancaster | Lejeune and Perken | Lizars | London & Paris Optic & Clock Company | Marion | Marlow | Meagher | MPP | Neville | Newman & Guardia | Pearson and Denham | Perken, Son and Company | Perken, Son & Rayment | Photopia | Purma | Reid & Sigrist | Reynolds and Branson | Ross | Ross Ensign | Sanderson | Sands & Hunter | Shackman | Shew | Soho | Standard Cameras Ltd | Taylor-Hobson | Thornton-Pickard | Underwood | United | Watkins | Watson | Wynne's Infallible | Wray |
R & J Beck was a renowned British optical company based in London.[1] It was founded in 1843 by the nephews of J.J. Lister, Richard Beck (1827-1866) and Joseph Beck (1828-1891) who were in partnership with a famous instrument maker, James Smith (d. 1870): the firm started as Smith and Beck. In 1854 the company was renamed to Smith, Beck and Beck. After Smith's retirement in 1865 the company became R & J Beck. It produced a wide range of optical products: microscopes, telescopes, trench periscopes for army officers in the First World War, eye test glasses for opticians (optometer lenses), other optical equipment, and camera lenses and even some cameras.
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| image by Geoff Harrisson (Image rights) |
A Beck Symmetrical is quite a commonly-seen lens on British folding cameras. Some cameras of the Ensign brand have lenses branded as "Beck Ensign". Thornton-Pickard had lenses marked "Thornton Pickard - Beck Symmetrical Lens". T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935; 'Lawrence of Arabia') used a plate camera made by Beck.[2]
Cameras
- Dai Cornex (1905)
- Folding camera for 123 rollfilm 4 x 5 inches. Fitted with a Beck-Steinheil Orthostigmat lens, Series I and a Bausch and Lomb Unicum shutter [3]
- Frena (1894)
- Hill Sky Camera (1924)
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| Beck Microstigmar macro lenses, date unknown image by Richard Kaye (Image rights) |
Lenses
- Asymmetrical[4]
- Autograph Wide Angle Lens (100°) (~1888)[5]
- Beck-Steinheil Orthostigmat
- Biplanat
- N° 2, 5"
- N° 3, 6"
- N° 5, 9" f/5.6-f/45
- N° 6, 11"[8]
- Convertible Double Apeanat 9" f/7.7[9]
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| Beck Ensign Anastigmat Series VIIn nº 0 image by Skink74 (Image rights) |
- Enlarging Anastigmat 2 1/4in f/4.5[10]
- Ensign Anastigmat Series VIIn nº 0
- Isostigmar
- Microstigmar
- Multiflex Lens f/8[13]
- Neostigmar Series IIIn No.3 5" [14]
- Rapid Rectilinear 11 inch f/8 (~1910)[15]
- Symmetrical Lens
Guided Weapons Lenses
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| R&J Beck designed G.W. Type 2 Mk.3 lens image by Dirk HR Spennemann (Image rights) |
The following lenses have been documented[18]
- GW Type 2 Mk 2 (on a Dekko GW 1 Mk1A)[19]
- GW Type 2 Mk 3 (on a Dekko GW 1 Mk1A [20] and a Beck GW 2)[21]
- GW Type 3 Mk 2 (on a Dekko GW 1 Mk1C)[22]
Links
- Spennemann, Dirk HR (2015) History, Description and Technical Details of the GW Target Aircraft Cameras designed for testing the performance of guided weapons during the Cold War era. CAMERA | TOPIA (Albury, NSW). 34pp, ISBN 978 1 921220 17 3; DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3864.9449
• Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2015) Photographic Walk-Around of the Target Aircraft Camera Dekko GW2 Mk 2 Model 2. [CAMERA | TOPIA] (Albury, NSW). 6 pp.
- R & J Beck NMSI - People
Notes
- ↑ In 1867-80, 31 Cornhill; in 1881-1900, 68 Cornhill. Factory at Lister Works, Kentish Town, Holloway.
- ↑ T. E. Lawrence and his Cameras at the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Cornex rollfilm camera
- ↑ See this image set
- ↑ Beck's Wide Angle "Autograph" Lens at Antique Wood Cameras
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Cornex rollfilm camera
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Beck-Steinheil Orthostigmat lens
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Biplanat N° 6
- ↑ Online auction Dec 2011
- ↑ Online auction Dec 2011
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Folding bellows hand camera
- ↑ British half plate camera , with Isostigmar 7.2" f/7.7 sn. #19042 Online auction Dec 2011
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Multiflex Lens
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Neostigmar Series
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Rapid rectilinear lens
- ↑ NMSI - Objects Symmetrical Lens
- ↑ Beck Symmetrical 12 Inch F8 from Markus Glück on Flickr
- ↑ Spennemann, Dirk HR (2015) History, Description and Technical Details of the GW Target Aircraft Cameras designed for testing the performance of guided weapons during the Cold War era. CAMERA | TOPIA (Albury, NSW). 34pp, ISBN 978 1 921220 17 3; DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3864.9449
- ↑ Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2015). Photographic Walk-Around of the Target Aircraft Camera Dekko GW1 Mk 1A. [CAMERA | TOPIA] (Albury NSW). 6 pp
- ↑ Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2015). Photographic Walk-Around of the Target Aircraft Camera Dekko GW1 Mk 1A. [CAMERA | TOPIA] (Albury NSW). 6 pp
- ↑ Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2015) Photographic Walk-Around of the Target Aircraft Camera Dekko GW2 Mk 2 Model 2. [CAMERA | TOPIA] (Albury, NSW). 6 pp.
- ↑ Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2015). Photographic Walk-Around of the Target Aircraft Camera Dekko GW1 Mk 1C [CAMERA | TOPIA] (Albury NSW). 8 pp.
