From time to time you will see a lens appearing here, which is rarely sold at all. You can look up ebay history and i doubt that you will find a Dallmeyer 4A beeing sold there. As far as i know the last 4A was sold in 2018 (by me). So this might be the only chance to grab one of those really rare birds.



History: The Dallmeyer Fast Portrait series A and B are well known for their incredible image quality.  For decades those lenses were the top of the top for reknowed portrait studios. The A series featured an open aperture of F4 with a wider image circle compared to the B series.

This is the later and actually better version. It comes with a nice black laquere and two main improvments:

1. It offers a working iris aperture which offers absolute DOF control

2. The soft focus mechanism sits in the front, and can be operated by just turning the lens (instead of taking the lens out, as with the older series)

This massive lens is engraved with the serial number 128.259 and was made somewhere around the early 1920ies.

Condition: This black beauty comes in a good condition. The giant iris aperture still works smoothly as 100 years ago. The soft focus mechanism was stuck for the last decades, but was freed by me and now also works as smooth as back when the lens was sold. The impressive glass elements are in a good condition too, some cleaning streaks here and there and a 1cm long scratch on the rear wont affect the image quality the slightest. Overall the glass is clear and clean.

With its fast open aperture of F4 and a focal lengh of 450mm (or 18"), this lens will work from 8x10 to 12x15 format (maybe even 14x17 if you really want to see alot of petzval character in your images and some light vignietting).


It comes with the original flange and even the original leather lenscap!

height: 25cm
width: 13cm
weight: 2600gr

Shipping withint EU is less expensive then the international shipping quoted here. If youre withing EU, please contact me about the actuall shipping cost.

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.