Mystery Lens. I have lenses made in England and one from Wales (PPE - Pilkingtons, St Asaph - ~1970s, RPS thread flange) so when I saw one marked "Made in Scotland" it intrigued me and as it was cheap I bought it. Now Stewartry lenses are marked similarly "Made in Scotland" but this refers to their aluminium mount which was indeed made in Glasgow, but the optics were from the National Optical Company in Leicester (TT&H). But this one is a puzzle. Its brass mounted and the lens is marked "Simlar" and seems to be (oddly) labelled "1:6.3 F 8.7cm", which I assume means 87mm f/6.3. Now "Simlar" was a name used by Tokyo Optical (later Topcon) but I'm far from sure that this is where the glass comes from if for no other reason than why would a Japanese maker ship such an odd lenses to Scotland to be rebadged as "Made in Scotland"? Barr & Stroud are a possibility? There is no diaphragm and so of course, the lens may not be a photographic one, except that is, that when I tried it I discovered that it uses a 1 1/4" RPS photographic flange thread (same as Taylor Taylor & Hobson). In use it is sharp centrally at infinity but performance at the edges is not very good and there is marginal vignetting on FF (36x24mm) format. Does anyone have any ideas about who made it and what it might be for?
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Hi, Paul. This lens, or at least something very similar (no pun intended) was being offered by Brunnings in March 1949. It doesn't help with the maker but perhaps helps with a date. Ex-war department perhaps?
Brilliant, thanks Michael. As an aside, when I was a student at PCL I worked part time at R G Lewis, High Holborn almost opposite Brunnings. There was interaction between the two which even included lending stock when salese were made but orders overdue, all on a 'gentleman's agreement' to replace. Very different days.
I vaguely recall going into Brunnings as they sold 'old' cameras... it was very old fashioned.
It was a bit of an Aladin's cave and certainly looked cave-like as a long thin, not overly well lit shop.