recommended book

[compur]

This is a book I found some years ago in a used book store and
it's one of my favorites. It's called Photographic Lenses by C.B.
Neblette (Morgan & Morgan). First published 1965. I have the
1973 revised edition.

It's a smallish book (131 pages) but chock full of diagrams for
many classic lenses of all formats plus historical data on who
designed what when, optics theory, etc.

There are few books with so much general lens information like
this. For example, if you want to know the difference between
a Schneider Xenon and a Leica Summicron, this is the place to
look. Of course, it doesn't have details on every lens ever made
but many of the important classics are here.

 

[Mitica100]

Good info, thanks!:thumbup:

 

[terri]

Wow! I would agree, for the collector or just the enthusiast, this is good stuff. So many variations can lead to confusion. Thanks for posting!

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Nice, thanks for the recommendation. I went ahead and ordered this for a few bucks, I was looking for a book of this kind.

 

[christopher walrath]

I just picked up a book on ebay. First published in 1948, I have the revised version from 1968. Fundamentals of Photographic Theory by Kodak Physicist T. H. James and Chemist George C. Higgins. 344 pages. Lots of illustrative tables and a few descriptive photographs. Here's a chapter list.

I Outline of the Photographic Process
II The Photographic Emulsion
III Formation of the Latent Image
IV Reciprocity Law Failure and Other Exposure Principles
V The Mechanism of Development
VI Composition and Reactions of the Developer
VII General Kinetics of Development
VIII Fixing and Washing
IX Sensitomerty IExposure and Development
X Sensitomerty II, Density and its Measurement
XI Sensitomerty III, Interpretation of Sensitometric Data
XII The Theory of Tone Reproduction
XIII The Structure of the Developed Photographic Image
XIV Sensitizing and Desensitizing

It's definitely the heavy read you might expect from a physicist and a chemist that probably graduated from university somewhere around WWII. But chock full of information for the inquisitive photographer.