Do anybody knows ? Somebody is offering me a very strange Nikon item. I guess this is part of large format Nikon lens. It's written like this : Apo-Nikkor 480mm 1:9 But it doesn't have shutter on it (like other large format camera, it should has shutter, usually from Copal, with speed selection, aperture ring, cocking lever, flash sync terminal etc). It does have aperture ring selection from f/9 - f/128 It also has a small bar to select a marking from 0 - 90 (in 15 stepping). It has 88mm filter thread.

Could anybody tell me what it is and it's average price ?

Thank you Regards Erick

-- Erick S. (eik@bdg.centrin.net.id), December 13, 2001

Answers

This is a process lens, most likely used in the printing trade until computer publishing made it (and its operator) redundant. They were never mounted in shutters, since the repro process involved long exposures that were usually regulated by turning the exposure lights on and off.
These lenses were very expensive to produce, but there are so many of them available 2nd hand, that they're now only worth a fraction of what they cost new.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), December 13, 2001.

I saw a lens very much like this one once, i don't recall the focal length... probably more than 480mm i guess. it was mounted in a wall in the houston offices of the shell oil company. on the opposite wall in one room was a huge map that could be scrolled back and forth across the wall, or replaced with other maps; standing in the middle of the other room behind the lens was a large, vertical vacuum plate, to which a sheet of film could be attached. so, in effect, the set of two rooms was a large copy camera for creating very large format documents.

rick :)=

-- Rick Oleson (rick_oleson@yahoo.com), December 13, 2001.