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Post by genazzano on May 19, 2013 3:30:24 GMT -5
I just finished cleaning up my Finetta Super which came with an immaculate 45mm f/2.8 Finetar and a 90mm f/4.5 Telec from J.L.France. Does anyone have any information on the Telec lens and background on J.L.France? I'm preparing a page on the Finetta and the J.L.France lens but there is little info available on the latter by running a simple Google search.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 19, 2013 5:38:19 GMT -5
All I know about J.L.France is that they were a French lens maker, who made Telec lenses for Foca, Leica, Finnetta and Exacta, the only advert I have seen implies French made. I vagely remember that they were bought out by Som Bertiot, or another Optical company, maybe Rank, via TTH.
Stephen.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 19, 2013 6:07:49 GMT -5
The more correct name is J.L Telec (France), they only seem to have made one product, the 90mm Telec lens.
Stephen.
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Post by genazzano on May 19, 2013 15:53:46 GMT -5
There are many errors repeated again and again on the web regarding this lens. Captain Jack uses "J.L. Telec, France" whereas many others use "J.L. France" with the period after the "L". Both would appear to be wrong and Capt. Jack's would be a bit too creative but who knows?
The Lens is marked "J.L France F=90 1:4.5 TELEC N°3239". So given the conventions of labeling lenses, the most likely name would be TELEC... or not. I wish I could find a real lens with the Exakta mount to which Capt. Jack refers to see if that lens is actually labeled "J.L.Telec".
In any event, the company is clearly "lesser known".
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Post by genazzano on May 19, 2013 16:24:03 GMT -5
I actually found an Exakta mount lens that matches the Finetta lens. It's at www.liveauctioneers.com/item/1218326 and it is described as "J.L. France, 'Telec 4,5/90', Nr. 4207" with the period after the "L". Curiously the lens looks exactly like a black painted version of the 27mm Finetta lens except it's attached to an Exakta adapter. Personally, screwing the 90mm lens made for a Finetta into a simple Exakta adapter doesn't fully qualify as having produced an Exakta lens, just a painted Finetta lens and an adapter. Hmmm, the mystery deepens. |
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 19, 2013 18:39:29 GMT -5
 Old advert from the net, not much detail, but it looks like a standard lens unit with assorted mounts. Stephen. |
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Post by genazzano on Jun 2, 2013 6:27:39 GMT -5
Thanks, Stephen. That's an ad I never saw before. I have a couple days before plunging back into oblivion, so I loaded my Finetta Super with Kodak Colorplus 200 and I'll shoot it today with the f/2.8 45mm Finettar and the 90mm Telec. Both lenses are cosmetically immaculate, so I'll see how well they perform.
Curiously, I noticed today that the Finetta Super has two viewfinder frames. Presumably the second smaller one is for the Finetta 70mm lens but I haven't seen any mention of the camera having two VF frames. If anyone would know, I would bet it would be you. David
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jun 2, 2013 16:10:20 GMT -5
Funnily enough I do not have a Finetta these days, so the viewfinder details are not checkable, I am after a spring wound 99, but Ebay Prices are very high now. Finetta are a make that seems to turn up after years stored away, and does not indicate great reliability, otherwise why were they stored away? They work well optically etc, but need a touch of care in use.
Stephen.
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Post by genazzano on Jun 3, 2013 3:16:30 GMT -5
Just finished a roll of Colorplus in the Finetta (the only film available at our little camera shop). The Telec stops down to f/22 which is a help when shooting slow shutter speeds but won't be the best to assess lens performance I suppose. The vf has a wide field masked off with neutral density around a clear central frame. I'll post an image of the vf. The shutter seems to work well but the proof will be in the images. The two sliding plates suffer the same problem as the Argus C3 it seems. I cleaned the sticking shutter with Zippo fluid and added a tiny minute amount of dry graphite to the sliding surfaces which seemed to do the trick. Hasn't hung up at all since cleaning and the lens doesn't appear to have picked up any flying graphite. David
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Post by genazzano on Jun 10, 2013 11:10:02 GMT -5
A bit of obscure history with the kind help of Adrien and those at www.collection-appareils.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15082. Weeeell, J.L (no period) apparently stands for J. Labarre who was contracted by Alsophot to produce a lens originally for Foca, but eventually would be made to fit other cameras such as the Exakta, Gallus, and even Leica. TELEC is the name of the lens and is derived from Le Télé-Ciné.    |
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jun 10, 2013 16:00:38 GMT -5
Very interesting, French optical companies are about as badly recorded as the Japanese makers. They were often small companies, often importers of German made equipment for shutters etc., but manufacturing optical glass lenses and the camera bodies. Not much French made stuff comes up for sale in the UK these days, I am still after a decent Focaflex and a Savoy Reflex, both attract premium prices.
Stephen.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jun 10, 2013 18:27:05 GMT -5
Le Memox is a bit intriguing, they were a camera make quoted as using 35mm film, but not Kodak cassettes, running spool to spool, I wonder if it used 828 film? They were far smaller than usual small 35mm cameras and had 24x24 format.
J Labarre are also intriguing, they are described as distributors, not makers, a retail wholesaler, so I still wonder who actually made the glass etc.
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Post by genazzano on Jun 11, 2013 0:37:53 GMT -5
It would seem that the TELEC name comes from a ciné application for the lens. LaBarre was a distributor band perhaps they saw a way to sell the lenses for the various camera manufacturers. Shot a roll with this lens and now must get it processed and digitized to see just how good or bad the lens may be. Cosmetically, it's beautiful.
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