While I am still trying to get the belt drive screws out of the VistaVision camera, which is turning into a long and frustrating process, I thought I’d make a slight turn and show a fascinating piece of equipment that Roy Wagner has left with me with the hopes of finding it a new home. I’m not quite sure what this lens is for, but it is an enormous, roughly 9 inches tall by 11 inches wide, deeply curved piece of glass, setup to go on iris rods in front of a lens on a camera. The front surface of this unit is flat and the back surface is very deeply, spherically curved.
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The box it came in says it was for Dr. Vetter, the prime mover behind the Todd AO system. We’ve both been busy, so I haven’t had time to learn what Roy knows about its history yet, but I hope to soon. Just thought it was a fascinating thing.
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Shown here are a couple of angles, one showing how flat the front surface is and one showing how deeply curved the back surface is. Then I photographed a matte box assembly without this unit between the camera and the object, another view looking through the flat front surface at the object, and finally a view looking through the back curved surface at the object. This unit certainly adds a unique and artistic look to what is being photographed. I hope you find it as interesting as I do.
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