Projection Optics Super-Lite 3 3/4 inch (projection lens) - Any more information?

[Johannes Schmalzl]

Hi everyone,

I was very happy to have found this forum, which seems filled with people with lots of experience and knowledge on the matter of cine projection, which I still have to learn a lot about, I guess... I'm very interested in the history and development of projection lenses in particular and am in the process of preparing information for some articles on that subject, which I want to write in the future. So I would really appreciate any help:

I got a lens here, which is very hard to categorize properly. It's a Projection Optics Super-Lite 3 3/4 inch cine projection lens, which doesn't look like all the other lenses of that type (if the impression I got from looking through lots of old magazines, the Super-Lite series was quite a common, budget series of cine projection lenses made by "Projection Optics" in the US in Rochester, NY over a long period of time), that I've seen images of.

The complete inscription of the lens is
3 3/4 INEF. SUPER-LITE PROJECTION OPTICS Co.,INC. ROCHESTER.N.Y.U.S.A.
The serial number is: 41393 (which seems very low, even for a smaller operation like Projection Optics, which was producing projection lenses only at the time, as far as I know)

Here's how the lens looks like:

Super-Lite_3_3-4inch_F1-7_01.jpg
Super-Lite_3_3-4inch_F1-7_02.jpg
Super-Lite_3_3-4inch_F1-7_03.jpg

The lens seems to be a 4 element Petzval-design, which is quite usual for early projection lenses. Because of the outward front-thread, it could have been part of an anamorphic setup (used together with a big anamorphic lens in front) but so far I also haven't seen one suitable for this lens. The Hilux 264 Anamorphic lens they made seems to have been produced significantly later and has a different mounting.

To me the lens looks and feels VERY old. My gut feeling would be 90 - 100 years, but of course, I could be way off there... Projection Optics was founded in 1918, so it would likely be a lens made within the first couple of years.

Here are a couple of ads on Super-Lite lenses I've found, but none of them look close enough to the lens I have:

ProjectionOptics_Ad_SuperLite_Series .jpg

ProjectionOptics_Ad_SuperLite_Series_I-A .jpg

ProjectionOptics_Ad_SuperLite.jpg

ProjectionOptics_Ad_Super-Lite-Hilux.jpg

I've looked around but so far without any luck in regards to this specific lens or series.

If anyone here has more access to or a better overview of US-based projectionist magazines, price lists or spec sheets, I would certainly appreciate any help in order to find out where this lens fits in in terms of series and age.

[Johannes Schmalzl]

I'm aware that this is a very niche topic, so it's not particularly surprising that no one has responded yet... perhaps it just doesn't matter to most people because - despite being quite recent in the grand scheme of things - it feel like ancient history in the short span projection technology has been around.

What I found out about the origin of the company recently is quite fascinating though: One of the main people behind Projection Optics, a man named Bernard Rose was also known as "the bottle-man" because he owned a bottle yard in Rochester, where he re-sold bottles to local breweries. According to this site (https://gonechester.com/2024/09/16/b...s-bottle-yard/) the origin of Projection Optics certainly sounds interesting:


(Image from the site mentioned above. Take a look, it's very well presented and quite interesting.)

Besides his bottle-yard, or rather as a consequent continuance of his bottle-based career, Bernard Rose edged into the field of optics; honing shards of beer-bottle glass into magnifying lenses eventually led to Rose becoming owner of Projection Optics Co., Inc.:

So perhaps he crafted the first couple of lenses out of old glass bottles. And he started his own business called "Consolidated Lens", which existed for only one year, before it was merged with "Projection Optics", a company started by a man named William H. Repp a couple of years prior. While they never became a big brand on a global scale, they managed to become one of the main suppliers of projection lenses in the US within the next couple of decades. To me it certainly sounds like a story worth telling...

I feel somewhat capable finding information on ancient companies in Austria, Germany and the surrounding countries here in Europe, but when it comes to US-based companies I'm somewhat lost. Ive been trying to find some stuff on Rolyn Optical for example and it was quite complicated getting anything of value. Perhaps certain decades are not as well documented in the US as they have been here in Europe, but I somehow suspect it might be more due to my lack of knowledge where to look for it. So if you've got some pointers where to look up company information, old ads, leaflets, price lists etc. of companies like Projection Optics and the like (besides the widely known Internet Archive), I would be really thankful if you would let me know.

[Randy Stankey]

I can't tell you much about cinema lenses but I'm a little bit familiar with still photography from that era.

There were several companies operating in Rochester, NY which made lenses, cameras and other precision equipment. Many of these businesses were interdependent, mainly because Eastman Kodak was based in Rochester.

I am familiar with Wollensak. The company was formed as a spinoff from Bausch and Lomb. (also a Rochester firm) They produced camera lenses, shutters and camera parts used by other companies like Graflex. (yet another Rochester company) In their time, Wollensak lenses were considered some of the best you could get and are still prized by collectors and vintage photographers, today.

Wollensak also produced the Fastax camera, the first high speed camera capable of shooting at speeds of several thousand frames per second. Fastax cameras were used to record the first nuclear explosions at the Trinity test site. I have seen videos of Fastax cameras in operation. Film seems to literally explode through the camera and they can eat up a 100 ft. roll of film in under two seconds!

I own a few Wollensak lenses for my photographic enlargers. I have a Beseler and an Omega enlarger, both in working condition and can be used, today, if I had the time and the money. One of the lenses that I used to use in the movie projector at Mercyhurst Univ. was a Wollensak. It may have been an "oldie" but it was still a "goodie!" I used to own a Graflex still camera that had Wollensak lenses. I lost that camera in my divorce settlement but I still have photos taken by that camera (and lens) hanging on my wall, today.

Projection Optics operated out of Rochester during the same era. I don't know much about them except that they were bought out by the Beseler company in the 1960s... which is the main reason why I recognize the name of the company. I've seen the name on some of my darkroom equipment, alongside the name Beseler.

That's about the limit of my knowledge of camera companies and lensmakers from Rochester. I did a quick Google search and found this page which contains some information on lensmakers from Rochester:
https://nwmangum.com/Kodak/Rochester...ction%20Optics

If you want to know more about Fastax cameras, here's a page for you:
http://owyheesound.com/fastax.html

[Johannes Schmalzl]

I can't tell you much about cinema lenses but I'm a little bit familiar with still photography from that era.

There were several companies operating in Rochester, NY which made lenses, cameras and other precision equipment. Many of these businesses were interdependent, mainly because Eastman Kodak was based in Rochester.

I am familiar with Wollensak. The company was formed as a spinoff from Bausch and Lomb. (also a Rochester firm) They produced camera lenses, shutters and camera parts used by other companies like Graflex. (yet another Rochester company) In their time, Wollensak lenses were considered some of the best you could get and are still prized by collectors and vintage photographers, today.

Wollensak also produced the Fastax camera, the first high speed camera capable of shooting at speeds of several thousand frames per second. Fastax cameras were used to record the first nuclear explosions at the Trinity test site. I have seen videos of Fastax cameras in operation. Film seems to literally explode through the camera and they can eat up a 100 ft. roll of film in under two seconds!

I own a few Wollensak lenses for my photographic enlargers. I have a Beseler and an Omega enlarger, both in working condition and can be used, today, if I had the time and the money. One of the lenses that I used to use in the movie projector at Mercyhurst Univ. was a Wollensak. It may have been an "oldie" but it was still a "goodie!" I used to own a Graflex still camera that had Wollensak lenses. I lost that camera in my divorce settlement but I still have photos taken by that camera (and lens) hanging on my wall, today.

Projection Optics operated out of Rochester during the same era. I don't know much about them except that they were bought out by the Beseler company in the 1960s... which is the main reason why I recognize the name of the company. I've seen the name on some of my darkroom equipment, alongside the name Beseler.

That's about the limit of my knowledge of camera companies and lensmakers from Rochester. I did a quick Google search and found this page which contains some information on lensmakers from Rochester:
https://nwmangum.com/Kodak/Rochester...ction%20Optics

If you want to know more about Fastax cameras, here's a page for you:
http://owyheesound.com/fastax.html

Hi Randy,

thank you so much for your reply and the wealth of information on Rochester and some of the interesting lens companies, which started there.

I actually have been aware of the "Fastax-Raptar" lenses because I have two of the Wollensak Enlarging-Pro-Raptar lenses (which - as far as I know - was their higher-end enlarging lens series) and have been very impressed by the design and high-quality craftsmanship these lenses show. I really like the look and feel and have even taken a shot of some details because of it:

51457908322_dccd3d5170_b.jpg

So I can imagine the Fastax-Raptars to be of similar quality (just significantly faster of course) and a joy to use as well. I would really love to use such a lens one day, but unfortunately they're very rare (I guess everywhere, but particularly) here in Europe, so I doubt I'll ever get the chance to. I wonder about their image circle, given that they were made for 16 mm, but I'm sure I would have a lot of fun using them for my experimental macro photography regardless.

I have read that Wollensak made projection lenses as well but I've actually never seen one... I think I've stumbled upon an ad for them when researching another topic... Just looked for them and at least one series seems to have been called "Cinema Raptar":
https://alphaxbetax.com/wp-content/u...ion-lenses.pdf

I'm sure they were very good. Seem to be quite rare though, so I would assume they were not produced in high numbers and probably expensive as well...

Given what you've said I think it's quite possible that there was some collaboration in terms of projection lenses between the Rochester-based manufacturers as well. It's interesting though that it was the only thing Projection Optics produced for a long time, while Bausch & Lomb, Wollensak and the german counterparts produced lenses for many different areas.

[Randy Stankey]

The Wollensak lens that I had was an integrated anamorphic. (Prime lens and anamorphic prism in one lens body.) I forget the focal length but the throw distance was 109 ft. to a 31 ft. wide screen from a Simplex 35 mm. projector. The body was metal with a Bakelite adjustment ring for anamorphic alignment. One pulls the ring forward to unlock it in order to make adjustments and, once finished, press it back to lock it, again.

If you held the lens up to look through it, you could see a small, cloverleaf shaped bubble in the cement between the elements but, strangely, it never seemed to affect the picture. At least, not noticeably. That lens did yeoman's work for years until I was able to convince my boss to buy new, ISCO lenses. Even then, I kept it locked in a cabinet in case I needed a backup. I suppose that I could have sent it some place to have the balsam cement, between the elements, replaced but I never really saw the need after we got the new lenses.

I have seen Fastax cameras for sale on Ebay for only a few hundred dollars but, whether they are in working condition is a crap shoot. I have a Fairchild aerial camera in my collection, in working condition but for obtaining film for it. It would be nice to have a Fastax in my collection but that's going to have to be down the road, so to speak.

Yes, may of those old, Rochester companies collaborated, together. I know that Wollensak made shutters and lenses for Graflex. I used to own a Graflex rollfilm camera. I lost that one but I still have two Speed Graphic press cameras in working condition. All of those had Wollensak components inside. I have other still cameras in my collection with Wollensak lenses, too. There might be others in my collection with Wollensaks which aren't marked. I have a Kodak Ektra 35mm camera, made in the 1930s and 40s, that might have lenses from Wollensak or others even though the brand name says Kodak.

Did you know that Wollensak also made reel-to-reel tape recorders? They were known to be robust, well-built machines for their day! I only recently found that out.

[Johannes Schmalzl]

The Wollensak lens that I had was an integrated anamorphic. (Prime lens and anamorphic prism in one lens body.) I forget the focal length but the throw distance was 109 ft. to a 31 ft. wide screen from a Simplex 35 mm. projector. The body was metal with a Bakelite adjustment ring for anamorphic alignment. One pulls the ring forward to unlock it in order to make adjustments and, once finished, press it back to lock it, again.

If you held the lens up to look through it, you could see a small, cloverleaf shaped bubble in the cement between the elements but, strangely, it never seemed to affect the picture. At least, not noticeably. That lens did yeoman's work for years until I was able to convince my boss to buy new, ISCO lenses. Even then, I kept it locked in a cabinet in case I needed a backup. I suppose that I could have sent it some place to have the balsam cement, between the elements, replaced but I never really saw the need after we got the new lenses.

Cloverleaf shape does indeed sound like beginning balsam separation to me to be honest.. I've seen similar spots in ISCO Super-Kiptars as well, which turned brownish due to heat damage over time. In the lenses I've seen they do have a significant impact on image quality, but in earlier stages light separation can be without any visible consequences. Could have also been something from the manufacturing process but at that stage in time any kind of bubbles in the glass were already quite uncommon, I suppose.

Do you remember what ISCO lenses you got and if they were superior?

I have seen Fastax cameras for sale on Ebay for only a few hundred dollars but, whether they are in working condition is a crap shoot. I have a Fairchild aerial camera in my collection, in working condition but for obtaining film for it. It would be nice to have a Fastax in my collection but that's going to have to be down the road, so to speak.

Yes, may of those old, Rochester companies collaborated, together. I know that Wollensak made shutters and lenses for Graflex. I used to own a Graflex rollfilm camera. I lost that one but I still have two Speed Graphic press cameras in working condition. All of those had Wollensak components inside. I have other still cameras in my collection with Wollensak lenses, too. There might be others in my collection with Wollensaks which aren't marked. I have a Kodak Ektra 35mm camera, made in the 1930s and 40s, that might have lenses from Wollensak or others even though the brand name says Kodak.

Did you know that Wollensak also made reel-to-reel tape recorders? They were known to be robust, well-built machines for their day! I only recently found that out.

I've never seen a Wollensak tape-recorder for sure... but then again I know anything about these to begin with.

I'm sure Wollensak made some great lenses even if many were labeled differently. It's similar with many German brands as well. Schneider made a couple of Leitz lenses and they were usually on par with the first party lenses as well. A very reliable partner in production I guess. I love some of their lenses they made for cine and TV cameras. I think Wollensak may have made very similar ones to the Schneider Cine- and TV-Xenon ones. Those are really, really nice lenses.