Rodenstock Photo Optics

Rodenstock Photo Optics traces its origins to a mechanical workshop founded in 1877 by Josef Rodenstock and his brother Michael in Würzburg, Germany. The company relocated to Munich by 1884 and became an important manufacturer of both corrective lenses for glasses and camera lenses by the early 1900s. These two lines began to diverge in the 1960s as the center of photographic lens manufacturing shifted to Japan; the ophthalmic business continued as Rodenstock GmbH while the remaining camera lens business was repositioned to serve the large format and industrial precision optics markets, then spun off in 1996 as Rodenstock Präzisionsoptik. Since then, the precision optics brand has been acquired in succession by LINOS Photonics (Göttingen, 2000), Qioptiq Group (Luxembourg, 2006), and Excelitas Technologies (2013).

Photographic lenses produced by Rodenstock during and since the 20th century include the brands ''Ysarex'', ''Heligon'', ''Eurygon'', ''Rotelar'', ''Apo-Ronar'', ''Rodagon'', and ''Grandagon'' for many different lens mounts including M42, Deckel, and large format lens boards.

Corporate history

Rodenstock pivoted to professional photography and enlarging optics markets in the 1970s.

Products

Photographic lenses

Photographic lenses were sold initially with the G. Rodenstock brand. A 1912 catalog lists ''Eurynar'' double-anastigmat lenses with focal lengths ranging from to for various formats with maximum apertures of ; similar ''Eurynar'' lenses were offered with maximum apertures of and . These featured a symmetric four-element, four-group design and an angle of view of approximately 90°. At the time, Rodenstock also offered the ''Pantogonal'' wide-angle lens, expanding the field of view to 125–130° with a maximum aperture of , and a telephoto attachment for the ''Eurynar''. The ''Pantogonal'' has a symmetric two-element design similar to the Goerz '.

In the 1920s, Heinrich Kühn and designed the two-element Anachromat Kühn soft-focus lens, which was licensed by Rodenstock and marketed as the ''Tiefenbildner-Imagon'' from 1928. The ''Imagon'' remained in the lineup for decades.

Rodenstock was one of the primary brands supplying lenses for the Kodak Retina line of fixed- and interchangeable-lens 35 mm cameras after World War II, alongside Schneider Kreuznach and Kodak. At about the same time in the mid- to late-1950s, Rodenstock was supplying lenses to Carl Braun Camera-Werk (for the Colorette Super II and Paxette Reflex) and Iloca (for the Electric). Rodenstock offered retrofocus/inverted telephoto wide-angle lenses (''Eurygon'', ''Eurynar'', and ''Heligaron''), Tessar-type normal lenses (''Ysarex''), and Sonnar-type telephoto lenses (''Rotelar'').

By 1963, Rodenstock had returned to supplying the large format professional photography market, offering ''Ysarex'' (Tessar-type, four-element/three-group e/3g and ''Heligon'' (high-speed) normal lenses, ''Grandagon'' (Biogon-type, eight-element/four-group e/4g wide-angle lenses, ''Rotelar'' telephoto lenses, ''Imagon'' e/1gsoft-focus lenses, and ''Apo-Ronar'' ymmetric 4e/4gprocess/macro lenses, optimized for 1:1 reproduction. In addition, Rodenstock was producing ''Omegaron'' lenses for enlargers. The ''Ysarex'' and ''Heligon'' were consolidated into the ''Sironar'' line, a symmetric e/4gDouble-Gauss lens design, and the ''Rotelar'' had been dropped by the 1970s. The ''Geronar'' line e/3gwas introduced as a lower-priced alternative to the ''Sironar'' in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

The ''Sironar'' line was reformulated and updated with newer low-dispersion glass chemistry to improve resolution and add compatibility with digital camera backs and at Photokina 2010, Rodenstock unveiled their ''Digaron'' line of lenses, designed to cover the smaller sensors in digital backs.

References

External links

* Official website: {{URL, rodenstock-photo.com

Photography companies of Germany
1877 establishments
1996 establishments