Manufactured by National Optical Company for Royal Air Force during World War II.
Now coupled to a Speed Graphic to create beautiful Portrait Work or Fine Art Photography.
by Jo Lommen
The famous Pentac 8 inch
Coupled with the Speed Graphic.
Realized with the JoLo
Mark III lens board.
Although it was not my intension to design a Pentac lens board for the Pacemaker
Speed Graphic, I could not resist trying to fit the Pentac into the JoLo 7 inch
Aero lens Board. With the help of some plumbers tape it worked out successfully.
The very same lens board
designed to couple the Kodak 7" Aero lens to the Speed Graphic.
Only a few inches of Teflon
® tape and your Pacemaker Speed Graphic can be equipped with the Pentac 8 inch
lens.
Both Speed Graphic cameras,
the top mounted and side mounted rangefinder type cameras can
be equipped with this JoLo lens board.
Above: Photos show the way how to wind the Teflon® tape around the Pentac thread. Only 2 times would do.
The JoLo lens board Mark III originally has been designed for use with the Pacemaker Speed Graphic while
the JoLo 44" * has been developed for use with the Anniversary Speed Graphic.
Both lens boards can be equiped with the 7 inch Kodak Aero lens as well as the 8 inch Pentac lens.
77 mm Step down rings can be used to mount all metric threaded classic lenses by using the JoLo lens board as a base mount.
*) Unfortunately the Anniversary lens board is no more available.
The Beautiful Pentac 8"
Fast large format soft focus vintage lens for 4x5 inch cameras equipped with a focal plane shutter such as the Pacemaker or Anniversary Speed Graphic. Coupled to the Graflex Super D it would be even more sophisticated, as the Super D is a Reflex camera and thus very suitable for portrait work. you would need a special lens board though which is no more available.
Marked N.O.C. National Optical Company. These lenses were built for the RAF in WW II for reconnaissance on board of aircraft. The lens is a triplet like the Voigtländer Heliar. However its 2,9 fast lens provides an optic effect of selected sharpness due to the very shallow depth of field which is comparable with the 2,5 Kodak Aero lens.
The 8 inch Pentac lens is known for its "bokeh", which is a Japanese term which means the quality of the out of focus areas. The lens is uncoated and will provide nice highlights but less contrast than modern lenses. To increase contrast you may use a lens shade. This lens has become favourite among the alternative photography crowd and those who are interested in non-digital, personal contemporary photography.
This particular lens was manufactured by the National Optical Company (N.O.C.)
which was a Taylor, Taylor, & Hobson daughter factory.
Connoisseurs will have noticed that the above photograph shows the Pentac lens
mounted on a 5x4 British Micro-Press camera and suits it very well as the
Micro Press is a borrowed design of the Graflex and also equipped with a focal
plane shutter, permitting the use of barrel lenses.