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Jim_metcalfe
Tinkerer
Username: Jim_metcalfe
Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 01, 2007 - 04:54 pm: | 
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Does anyone know if the taking and viewing lenses on this camera are identical? I want to know if I can swap the front elements, since the taking lens is scratched. |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 444
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 01, 2007 - 07:08 pm: |
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No, they are not.
However, the lens of the AAR is identical (as near as I can tell) to the one in the Ciro-Flex, so you might be able to salvage one out of a Ciro. I don't know if I'd swap just one element, I don't know if they were matched on assembly. |
Charlie
Tinkerer
Username: Charlie
Post Number: 117
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 01, 2007 - 07:14 pm: |
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Rick Oleson's writeup (http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-77.html) says the viewing lens is f3.2. I think most TLRs have a larger viewing lens to give less depth of field in the viewing lens to ensure sharp focus of the taking lens without having to spend big bucks to match the two lenses. |
Jim_metcalfe
Tinkerer
Username: Jim_metcalfe
Post Number: 3
Registered: 10-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 03, 2007 - 06:17 am: |
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Thanks! Now that I think of it, duh! The only other TLR I've worked on is an old Chinese-market Seagull. Its lenses do seem to be identical triplets. |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 449
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 03, 2007 - 07:36 pm: |
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You can pretty much tell by looking at them, the top lens in the AAR is considerably larger than the bottom one. The coating is different too; the intro article said the viewing lens was coated, but I don't think it was in either the AAR or the Ciro, and the one in my 1950 Rollei doesn't look coated either. I have a feeling that coating was exotic enough at that time that they didn't waste it on non-imaging optics. |
Charlie
Tinkerer
Username: Charlie
Post Number: 118
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 - 07:01 am: |
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Also, as a warning, you might not want to take the chance that the viewing optics were more flare proof than the taking optics. |
