Pictures of Vintage Lens'

[Joe Taylor]

Does anybody have a link to that would give information, articles and/or pictures of lens' used back in the 20's, 30's, 40's. I am especially interested in seeing what Greg Toland had to work with when he made Citizen Kane.

[Chris Keth]

Here is a nice overview of what Cooke was doing in those decades.

[John Sprung]

Bausch & Lomb's Baltar line was another widely used lens set of that period.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Joe Taylor]

Chris & John,

 

I'll check out the Cooke site and search around for info on Bausch & Lomb. Thanks for your help.

 

Joe T

[Leo Anthony Vale]

I'll check out the Cooke site and search around for info on Bausch & Lomb. Thanks for your help.

 

Some book, perhaps this one: , had a call sheet which listed the lens with Toland's BNC.

They were a mixture of Cooke Speed panchros and Astro-Berlin Pan Tachars.

Pan tachars were popular during the 30s.

 

From "best-Shot Films: 1894-1949

http://www.ascmag.com/magazine/mar99/best/set1.htm

 

"Toland came aboard early and worked with Welles and art director Perry Ferguson on planning the overall design. He soon brought in camera operator Bert Shipman, assistant cameraman Eddie Garvin, gaffer W. J. McClellan and grip Ralph Hoge. With them came a Mitchell BNC which Toland had equipped with various accessories of his own design; eight f1.9-f2.5 Cooke and Astro lenses ranging from 24mm to six inches; various filters, diffusion screens, dimmers and flags; and other tools. Principal photography commenced quietly before the sets were even built, utilizing a studio projection room and some standing sets. Although Toland was in fragile health, he worked fast, like a man possessed. Welles later said that Toland quietly coached him in the intricacies of photographic techniques between shots, always in privacy so others on the set wouldn't notice."

 

From David Brodwell's site:

http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=66

 

"Wide-angle lenses have short focal lengths. As the name implies, they take in a wider field of view than lenses of longer focal lengths. They tend to distort vertical lines and make faces look puffy, so they weren’t recommended for medium-shots or close-ups. That was a task for lenses of “normal” lengths. It’s an interesting fact of film history, though, that over time the conception of a normal lens has changed.

 

 

"In the silent era, the most commonly used lens seems to have been the 50mm, the classic “two-inch” lens. It was taken to be close to normal human vision. But by 1950, 35mm had become the default lens. Why? This wider-angle lens could be used easily on location and in the smaller sets mandated by wartime restrictions. Improvements in lighting, lens coatings, and film stock made the lens of short focal length more feasible. The Good German is set in the late 1940s, and Soderbergh has plugged into a general trend of filmmaking of that time

 

These lenses allowed directors to stage in greater depth, pushing foreground planes quite close to the camera and distant planes quite far back. And all the scene’s components could be in reasonable focus. After Citizen Kane, The Little Foxes, Ball of Fire, The Maltese Falcon, and How Green Was My Valley (all 1941) showcased a range of deep-focus possibilities, many cinematographers developed wide-angle styles.

They believed that the greater depth of field enhanced both realism and pictorial beauty.

 

Frank Planer: For Criss Cross (1949): “To give this picture added realism through photography, we filmed every scene with the 30mm lens to carry a wire-sharp depth of focus throughout the frame.” (Jack Taylor, “Dynamic Realism,” International Photographer 20, 9 (September 1948), 6.)

 

Russell Metty: Used 30mm lens at f/2.3 throughout Arch of Triumph (1948). (Herb A. Lightman, “‘Triumph’ in Low Key,” American Cinematographer 28, 5 (May 19447), 167.

 

Robert Surtees: For Act of Violence (1949), claimed to shoot all scenes with a 28mm lens “in order to carry focus and give more interesting compositions.” (Surtees, “The Story of Filming ‘Act of Violence,’” American Cinematographer 29, 9 (August 1948), 282.)

 

Ted McCord: For Johnny Belinda (1948), used 28mm lens almost entirely, even for medium-shots. (Herb A. Lightman, “‘Johnny Belinda,’ American Cinematographer 29, 10 (October 1948), 339.)

 

Many years later Stanley Cortez recalled that he had used a 30mm lens heavily for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). (American Film Institute Seminar no. 35 (Glen Rock, NJ: New York Times/ Microfilming Corp of America"

 

The 30mm is a Baltar, the 28mm &32mm are most probably cooke speed panchros.

[Leo Anthony Vale]

Here is a nice overview of what Cooke was doing in those decades.

 

The Cooke history isn't entirely accurate. The 40s page claims the Speeed Panchro Series II came out in the 40s, when they actually came out in the Mid-50s.

 

"1940s

The Series II Cooke Speed Panchros for cinematography were distributed exclusively through Bell & Howell in London and Chicago. The Series II lenses were developed for higher definition in wide screen presentations and to cover standard format 0.723 x 0.980 inches. By 1945 they came in focal lengths: 18, 25, 32, 40, 50 and 75mm. The 100mm, f/2.5 Deep Field Panchro was released in 1946."

 

The reference to wide screen presentations is a dead give away that this the 50s.

 

Apparently cooke hired some freelance writer, who has no background in the subject, gave him/her a stack of old brochures and let him loose.

[David Auner aac]

Hi Leo,

 

good catch! Finding fault in the lens maker's own history! :D

Thanks for the nice info though...

 

Cheers, Dave