Wollensak Raptar Lens

[Anton Lukoszevieze]

Just picked up a mint Wollensak 8.25 inch 210 mm f/6.3 Raptar barrel lens off BBay for $15. Anyone use one or know of their quality? Nice hefty lens.

[Pinholemaster]

Such the deal. Hefty is good. Enjoy the image making.

[Tomf2468]

Variable. I have a few Wollensaks, including the 210 you have. A good copy is a very nice lens. Not equal to a modern lens wide open, but darn close at F/16. Unfortunately there are also bad copies of Wollys, so do a quick test. Great price!

[Charles Webb]

Even the poorest Wollensak Raptar will deliver excellent images ! Why would anyone even compare the Raptar to modern lenses? The Raptar has it's own look and delivers quality negatives from crisp and sharp to near soft focus.
Give it a fair trial, I 'll bet you like it! Over the past 55 years or so, I have owned many Raptars and have found them
to be very good glass, and make wonderful images. I still have a bunch of them!

Charlie........................................... .........

[jimgalli]

As Charlie says there once was a time not that long ago when the Raptar's were higher priced than the Schneiders. That 6.3 is a dialyt type like an Artar. They were a design that waited for coatings to really get good. I'll bet you'll be surprised at how nice that old lens is, and $15 bucks is good bragging rights these days.

[Tomf2468]

Charlie,
This is all personal opinion..... I own 5 Wollensak lenses. 3 were meant to be "sharp" lenses and 2 were built to be "soft focus". I use and love all of them. But, for my tastes, the Raptar type lenses near wide open are not soft or different enough to be valuable. They are just inferior to a modern lens.

If I want "pretty softness" at F/8 or F/11 I'll shoot with my Wollensak Veritar or Verito or my more modern Fuji soft lens.

At F/16 and above I love the Raptars. That makes Raptars a great deal! Just my tastes and opinion, we'll both enjoy our Wollies and I suspect that Harry will enjoy his.

Tom

[jnanian]

what a steal!

happy shooting!

john

[Vaughn]

Just picked up a mint Wollensak 8.25 inch 210 mm f/6.3 Raptar barrel lens off BBay for $15.

Mine is a 210mm f6.8 Graphic Raptar Wide Field in a barrel -- don't know how it compares with yours (except for mine costing over ten times as much...LOL!) Covers 8x10 with movement, though I have not twisted the bellows with it yet. Nice small lens.

Nice sharp negs so far (I have only used it closed down) Vaughn

[Anton Lukoszevieze]

Thanks all.
I'm using it for wet-plate at the moment It is a barrel lens.
Just shot some glass negs. and the salt prints are looking good.
Just waiting for a new/old speed graphic, I'll try it on that with some 'modern' materials..

I like the other Wollensak lenses that I have, Velostigmat, etc. they are nice lenses.