Important Notice: i will be at the storage untill February the 25th. If you want to order a lens or camera, please use this time window. Starting from March i will be travelling again for at least 1-2 months and wont be able to ship any items during that time period.

History: The Orthoskop is probably one of the most misunderstood and elusive lenses out there. The Orthoskop originated as the second design py Josef Maximilian Petzval, which he presented Voigtländer in the very begining of lens calculation/production era. His portrait lens (known to everyone as the Petzval lens) earned him and Voigtländer a great deal of respect and aknowledgement, while his second design: the landscape version of a petzval lens was almost forgotten. It was only around 1856 that Voigtländer started to produce this layout under the brand name 'Orthoskop'.

The most interesting part here is, that the landscape version was not free of stigmatism (as the portrait version also) and thus only a few lenses were produced by Voigtländer back then. A few years later Ross made some lenses under Voigtländers patent, but those were a smaller and stopped down version. 

Now comes the big turnaround: like with the portrait petzval version, flaws that did limit a lens in the past, do make a lens even more interesting today. Not unlike the portrait version, the Orthoskop lens offers its own 'character', especially towards the edges and when shot wide open. There are not many landscape lenses that offer such a unique bokeh, since most Aplanats and Dagors show a rather flattened down image field.

This and the historical fact that it was the second lens design by Josef Petzval himself, make the lens even more sought after today.

The serial number is 14.605 which dates it back into the year 1863.

The lens offers a focal lenght of 611mm with a starting aperture around F8.7. It will work for formats from 14x17 up to 20x24.

Condition: This specimen comes in a overall great condition, worthy of any collection. The brass still shows the nice and warm patina of time passed. The glass is in good condition also, i can spot only very minor cleaning marks here and there, which wont affect the image qualitiy at all.

The best part about this lot is the fact that it comes with the 3 original washer stops for this lens. Even if you manage to find an Orthoskop, which is a feat on its own, the stops are always missing.

Lens comes with a fitting.




height: 9cm
width: 11cm
weight: 1000gr

Insured and tracked shipping cost:

Germany - 20 eur
EU* - 50 eur
Worldwide - 120 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.