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A Short History of the Heliar Lenses
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In 1900, Carl August Hans
Harting filed a patent for what would be the
first version of the now famous, Heliar lens.
The Harting design was essentially a
modification of the Cooke Triplet, with two
additional elements and a symmetrical layout.
These changes helped address the Triplet's
short comings of longitudinal aberrations
while still allowing for a wide (fast)
aperture. The lens had a speed of f/4.5 and
covered 50 degrees. Its large aperture made it
suitable for portraiture and instantaneous
work.
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In 1902, Harting filed another patent for
an updated of the Heliar lens. This
version Heliar, as shown below, is no longer
symmetrical in design. According to
Rudolph Kingslake's
"History of the Photographic
Lens," the reason for the update may
have been that the first version suffered
from excessive astigmatism and a large
Petzval Sum (curvature of field). Others
mention that coma was also quite pronounced
in this design.
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During the first two decades of the twentieth
century, the Heliar's reputation grew rapidly.
However, Harting had never stopped tinkering
with the 1902 version of the Heliar, and had,
by 1903, revised the design again. Harting
flipped the outer glass components around to
have the (cemented curves) convex side, facing
the aperture. Despite being an updated
Heliar, this new lens was sold as the
"Dynar" lens by
Voigtlander. The design is shown
below ( US Patent 756006 ):
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In performance terms, the Dynar was
superior to the Heliar in all aspects but
astigmatism. Its speed was
advertised at f/6 with 60 degrees
of coverage, despite the design actually
allowing for a much faster aperture. This
was done as to not directly compete with the
very popular and profitable Heliar. As such,
Voigtlander continued to sell both the
Heliar (1902 f/4.5 design) and the Dynar,
side-by-side into the early 1920's.
About
1925, Voigtlander decided to tweak the Dynar
design and created an f/3.5 lens with 50
degrees of coverage. This time, Voigtlander
decided to go back to calling it a
Heliar rather than continuing with
the less popular "Dynar" name. Again, this
made good commercial sense as the
Heliar brand name had garnered a
reputation of "prestige and mystique,"
according to the Lens Collectors Vade Mecum. Aside from its actual optical
qualities, part of the Heliar's lore is
related to Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who
is claimed to have so admired the Heliar
lens, that he would only allow his picture
to be taken with a Heliar.
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<===== The new f/3.5
Heliar's optical layout
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c. 1930 Advertisement for the new,
faster Heliar:
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The f/4.5 version was advertised as suited
for "...artistic portraiture and studio
photography" where it is "unrivaled." The
faster f/3.5 version Heliar was advertised
as "particularly adapted for cinematograph
and focal plane shutter work" and was sold
mainly for medium format and some smaller
large format images due to its reduced
coverage. The f/3.5 lens was also 50% more
expensive than the f/4.5 version.
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About 1926, yet another Heliar lens
was born, the f/4.5
"Universal-Heliar." This lens is identical to the 1902 f/4.5
version Heliar, however it features the
ability of the central lens element to be
adjusted by the user, thereby introducing
varying amount of spherical aberrations. The
lens has a ring which can select settings
from zero to five. Zero to denote,
no softness with "full definition,"
out to as much as five with the greatest
possible softness added. The lens was
apparently only sold in 4 sizes up until
WWII; 300mm, 360mm, 420mm and 480mm. After
the war, the 480mm was dropped from the line
up.
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Photo of a late model, coated
Universal-Heliar 420mm f/4.5...Sold
by Ebay User ID stardust06242
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In 1942, Kodak lens designer, Fred Altman,
designed 10 examples of Heliar-type lenses of
varying focal lengths, speeds and coverage.
One of these would become the 100mm f/3.5 Ektar
lens for the Kodak Medalist. Altman's versions
were all single coated, even on the inner lens
elements. Altman's lenses were considered some
of the finest camera lenses made to
date.
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After World War II, Voigtlander began single
coating the Heliar lenses. Serial numbers
starting about 2,7xx,xxx on, appear to be
factory coated.
In 1949, A.W. Tronnier of Voigtlander,
tweaked and recalculated the f/3.5 Heliar
and created the 105mm f/3.5 Heliar with
coated lenses (US Patent 2645156). This
lens would be called the
"Color-Heliar" and would live its
most famous days mounted to the 6x9 cm
Voigtlander Bessa II Rangefinder
camera.
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Early 60's Zeiss Ikon / Voigtlander
Lens Catalog page showing Heliars
still for sale.
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The collective Voigtlander Heliar lens
versions would continue to be sold into
the late 1960's and remained highly
desired optics. Since the design's birth,
more than a century ago, the trade name of
"Heliar" has always carried with it an aura of
quality, mystique and sophistication. It's
this mythical-like appeal that continues
to make Heliar lenses very desirable in
the photographic marketplace. Its also why
the trade name of Heliar was reborn in
1999, by the Japanese firm of Cosina. The
rights to use the name Heliar (among
others) was leased from
Voigtlander/Ringfoto for Cosina's 35mm
"Bessa" Rangefinder product line.
While the later Heliar lenses are
certainly capable lenses, the power of
marketing has ensured the name live on in
photographic history.
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Sources for Article:
Modern Lens Design
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Voigtlander Serial Number & Date
Chart
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