History: The Cone Centralisateur lens design (which is a petzval design with a larger back element to avoid reflections), is absolutely famous and sought after in the late 19th century and even more today. It was the flagship lens for Jamins workshop in the early 1850ies and 1860ies in Paris. It offered better optical quality then most of his rivals, but also a possibility to it as a portrait (portrait mode) lens and also as a landscape lens (paysage). Even though its a a petzval design, you will see a slight difference to other portrait petzvals from that time. The Cone Centralisateur lenses have this cenrtain 'something' to their image, which is hard to grasp, but many people are looking for.

The engraving reads:

'ANCne Mon JAMIN - DARLOT, Sr OPTn Bte - 14, r. Chapon Paris'

This dates the lens back into the years between 1862 and 1864, after Darlot took over Jamins workshop. After 1864 Darlot changed the engraving to only his name.

Condition: This beauty comes in a great condition! The brass shows only light wear and still a warm patina, the rack & pinion mechanism seems complete. The glass is in great condition too, there are light cleaning marks here and there but nothing that would impact the image quality at all.

A great bonus here is that the lens comes with the inner washer style stop part. Which can be used to stop down the lens to aprox. F6.

With its fast open aperture of F4 and a focal lengh of 220mm (or almost 8 1/2"), this lens will work anywhere from 5x7 and fullplate formats.


In landscape mode it will have an estimated focal lenght of 500mm, covering huge ULF formats like 14" x 17" !

It comes with a fitting flange, washer stop.



height: 17cm
width: 8cm
weight: 1000gr

Insured and tracked shipping cost:

Germany - 20 eur
EU* - 40 eur
Worldwide - 100 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)

** the high cost is due the high insurance value

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.