Widest Pre-War Lenses

H

hlpgtf

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Hi,

Did anyone make any lenses wider than 28mm before WWII (and thus before coating for the most part) for 35mm format? The widest I have found are the 28mm lenses built by Zeiss, Leica, and Fed for their rangefinders. Thanks.
 
The Russar is rather far from being pre-war, though - it was released in 1960, and the design family as a whole dates back to the late forties.
 
Isn't the 21mm Biogon the oldest production 21mm, from 1954/55? The 25/4 Topogon may have antedated it: I'm not sure, but that's 25mm not 21mm. The Topogon was a 4-glass, 4-group symmetrical, and the contemporaneous 25/4 Nikkor was the same.

Cheers,

R.
 
sevo said:
The Russar is rather far from being pre-war, though - it was released in 1960, and the design family as a whole dates back to the late forties.
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To nitpick, Rusinov defended his dissertation on the design in 1940, and first Russars (air recon lenses) went in production in 1941. None of that was in 35mm of course.

I think Roger nailed it with Topogon. Zeiss had prototypes for 35mm going down to 15mm back then, but not mass produced.
 
varjag said:
To nitpick, Rusinov defended his dissertation on the design in 1940, and first Russars (air recon lenses) went in production in 1941. None of that was in 35mm of course.

I think Roger nailed it with Topogon. Zeiss had prototypes for 35mm going down to 15mm back then, but not mass produced.
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Well, the Perimetar seems to have been produced in a small run of fifty a decade earlier, before the war. The other pre war Zeiss experimental wides were individual prototypes, usually not even camera mounted. http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/CZJ_Perimetar_Sphaerogon_Pleon/00_pag.htm has more information on them.
 
I just recently found a 26mm HYPERGON, designed by Emile van Hoegh around 1900 - does that one count?
 
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