[verditelabs]

I assume that's the same Itek that made lenses for the Corona Spy Satellite program?

That's cool as heck. I am just a photographer, but I collect aerial lenses and own 2 Pacific Optical 18" f/3 lenses in 70mm format, serial numbers 6 and 13. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a surplus Itek 24" f/3.5 though :)

[k310]

Yes, same one. I find de-classified articles and books now, and share them with former colleagues. All the designs I worked on were meant for space. And I have no idea if any were actually deployed.

As I noted in the “handle” post, k310 is the office number I had at Itek, as well as a nifty sonata by Mozart.

I later worked for Lockheed. More space optics and other cool stuff. I was in the R&D division.

I hope you can make good use of those lenses. I stuck with commercial optics (Nikon and Hasselblad). My optical hacking never exceeded making some adapters with a Unimat SL that I got. Surprise, computers got my attention, and my first “real” computer was an IMSAI that I built.

I read a lot. Kingslake, Smith and so on. A nice book, if you can find it is “Photographic Optics” by Neblette. It goes over all the classic designs, including all the familiar camera lenses from the 70’s and 80’s. Nowadays, computers do all the designing, and you can’t recognize “classic” designs like the tessar, Sonnar and so on, in them. But TBH, I finally got a new 105 macro lens with unrecognizable (to me) design from Nikon to augment the old 55mm macro that I started out with in 1970 or so. A simple double-gauss design.

Did you know what those “P” and “H” and other suffixes meant on Nikon lenses? They are the number of elements, in Optics Latin. H for hex, or 6 elements, P for penta or 5, and so on. The old lenses, without the “AI” aperture index gizmo, fit the new mirrorless body with the FTZ adapter. I gather that they were no-go on the DSLR’s. I skipped the DSLR generation entirely, since I used a Coolpix with 24-1000mm effective focal length for many, many years. Heck, it worked and got me great photos.

[verditelabs]

That's awesome! Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I am a young guy - just turned 30 last month - but I exclusively shoot and develop film and have my own mini darkroom. I enjoy the challenge and physicality of it all, plus I already spend enough time around computers and digital tech as a software engineer so it's nice to have some analog pursuits. An IMSAI is a bit before my time, but I have a soft spot for older CPUs like the similar z80 or 6502 from writing emulators.

For 35mm I mostly shoot on Canon FD, so while I recognize some of those classic design names I haven't shot on them. I haven't been able to shoot on the behemoth PO lenses as much as I'd like since they weigh nearly 60 pounds a piece and are a hassle to use, but I've jerry rigged a Graflex Crown Graphic to the back and can do a manual shutter with some ND filter and a quick on/off of the lens cap. They cover 4x5 or more at the distances I use them and are incredible lenses for portraiture.

My next projects are to mount both PO lenses together and put Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 cameras behind each in order to make a massive binocular camera. I also have a Goerz 47" process lens that's got an image circle of nearly a meter, so my next shoot with that will be a 1:1 self portrait on xray film, since it's the only semi affordable option for such a massive exposure.

[k310]

Great! You’re having fun. I got a few odd surplus lenses but since I started photography by taking flower and landscape photos, the “optics lab” part never took flight.

Trying to keep things simple here.

[throwaway81523]

Itek made semiconductor lithography stuff way back when right? I did a stint at one of its competitors. I didn't know about the spy satellite stuff. Neat!