Re: Pinkham and Smith

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cremati" <johnjohnc@core.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 11:14 AM
Subject: Pinkham and Smith

> Does anyone have any knowledge on Pinkham and Smith
> Lenses? In particular
> I am looking for information on a lens that we bought
> named "Pinkham" (no
> Smith designated) " Bi- Quality" .... I have no Idea what
> the Bi Quality
> means as well........ Any information would be
> appreciated.......
> John Cremati
>

   I have no idea what "bi quality" means either. The
Pinkham & Smith lens was made by Pinkham & Smith (big
surprize) of Boston around the turn of the century.
According to very limited information in Kingslake it is a 2
element lens of the Steinheil Periskop type. Its probably
not a Periskop because its too fast. They are soft focus
lenses with lots of uncorrected spherical aberration. Of
course, they get sharper as they are stopped down. According
to the stuff on the Cooke Optics web site the current Cooke
soft focus lens is similar to the P&S lens. Since P&S was in
Boston it is not covered in Kingslake's excellent little
history of Rochester, N.Y. photographic manufacturers.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com