I finally found "Her".......

After a long search i finally found a suitable lens for my 20x20”Donchev camera.

This is a 24” early Voigtlander petzval which was produced aprox in the year 1864.
This lens is massive. I thought my 20inch Hermagis was big. This one is huge.
The glass is in execptional good shape. No separation, fungus or what so ever.
It came with one original waterhouse stop.

Some specs:
Weight :                         8,3 kilo
Height:                           39 cm
Diameter lens hood:        19 cm
Flange diameter:             23 cm
Serial number:                12540
Focal lenght                    24"
F-stop                             aprox 5.2 (because of waterhouse slot)

If anyone can supply me the exact production date of this lens, please let me know.
Just to show how massive this lens is, the lens next to the Voigtlander is my Dallmeyer 3B

COLLODION WORKSHOPS 2012

If you are interested in the magical collodion process and want to know all about this kind of photography,
just join my workshop "wet plate photography".
The place to be is Veldhoven (nearby Eindhoven).
I give these workshops on Saturdays and only/always to a small group of 2 students.
So this is almost a one to one workshop and not in a large group where you lose a lot of time waiting at each other.
In the morning you will learn how to handle the chemicals,
and the whole process will be discussed.
At noon we will have a nice lunch together.
In the afternoon you will start making your own plates in my studio and darkroom.
I will only assist you when needed and you will produce your own collodion plates.
That's the nicest part of the workshop !!
This whole process isn't difficult, but you really need to know what to do and what you DON'T do !
You don't need to have any darkroom background as this process is really
different compaired with normal analog photographic processes.

If you need any further information, don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail :
collodion-art@onsmail.nl or call me on 0031-402301470

Alex Timmermans

Beautiful rare Derogy lens

Recently i bought a very early beautiful Derogy petzval lens for my small collection.
Every time i say to myself, i have to stop collecting stuff, but this one i couldn't resist......

The lens is dated between 1850 - 1860 so more than 150 years old.
A beautiful example of perfect handcraft.

The bayonet system makes this a rapidly convertible portrait/landscape lens.
The lens has a focal length of about 8" and it's speed is about f 3.8
unfortunately it has no flange, so if somebody could help me finding one i would be more than grateful !
Thread diameter is 88,6 mm.

I made you some pictures to show how the ingenious lens works.

 Standard portrait situation

fast opening with bajonet

 It has a double lens cap which can be taken apart.
One for the portrait lens and a smaller one for the land scape lens

Here you can see the aparture rings which were used in very early lenses

Mounted as a landscape lens including the smaller lens cap mounted at the front