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.
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.
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.
