History: The Dallmeyer 'Series B' was for many decades one of the most known and favoured portrait lenses back in the early years of studio photography. That fact is still true for the wetplate cumminity nowadays.

This specimen is a very special one, since its one of the very few, that was retrofitted with a working iris aperture. It is also partially made of aluminium, which reduces the weight significantly. The Serial number is 61.761 which dates it back into the early 1900ies years.

Condition: The outer housing looks good with some minimal signs of wear.  The rack & pinion mechanism is missing, but this is rather cosmetical, since you dont use it for focusing anymore. The most important thing here is that the glass is clear and shows no haze or fungus. There are the usually cleaning marks here and there, but this is quite common for such old lenses, and doesnt affect image quality.

The soft focus mechanism in the rear works nicely.

The lens has a focal lenght of 220mm (8.5") at a speed of F3. It will cover 4x5 format but probably the best work it does on portraits with the 5x7 format.There it shows a fantastic petzval bokeh in the out of focus area. As all Dallmeyer petzval lenses this one is very very sharp in the center, considering the nice falloff its the perfect tool for portraits in those formats.

lens comes with a fitting flange.


height: 15cm
width: 8cm
weight: 800gr

Insured and tracked shipping cost:

Germany - 10 eur
EU* - 30 eur
Worldwide - 80 eur

*(the site offers only 2 shipping variations, DE and worldwide. buyers from EU please either contact me beforehand for a reduced EU cost, or after buying so i can send a refund over the difference)

Importent Note: This item comes from my private collection and is around 100 years old (antique). I try my best to describe all the faults and major damage which are relevant for the function of this item. But the actuall item can show signs of wear and also some cosmetic blemishes/damage which is not described in the auction text! When buying this item the buyer agrees to this terms.