Calypsophot

Does anyone know if any French lenses other than the 35mm f/3.5 Som Berthiot Flor actually went into production for the Calypsophot. For an iconic camera it remains well shrouded in mystery. Actually any information would be interesting - the web goes so far but doesn't actually have a lot. I'm interested to know whether Som Berthiot simply adapted an existing lens (I suspect they did) and any other interesting information.

Does anyone know if any French lenses other than the 35mm f/3.5 Som Berthiot Flor actually went into production for the Calypsophot. For an iconic camera it remains well shrouded in mystery. Actually any information would be interesting - the web goes so far but doesn't actually have a lot. I'm interested to know whether Som Berthiot simply adapted an existing lens (I suspect they did) and any other interesting information.

I don't know much of the history of calypsophot, but the original Nikonos 35mm lens was a double-gauss design (six elements in four groups arranged symmetrically around the aperture, ignoring the flat glass plate in the front of the Nikonos 35mm f/2.5). This page from Nikon says that the Nikonos W-Nikkor 35mm f/2.5 was based on a Nikon lens being sold for the S/M39 rangefinder mount cameras.

The earliest double gauss photographic lens that I know of is Planar lens from Zeiss, released in 1890. The design was used extensively in the first half of the 20th century, although by the time of the Calypsophot in 1961 it was starting to get a little old-fashioned, and the lack of sharpness was becoming an issue.

I don't know much of the history of calypsophot, but the original Nikonos 35mm lens was a double-gauss design (six elements in four groups arranged symmetrically around the aperture, ignoring the flat glass plate in the front of the Nikonos 35mm f/2.5). This page from Nikon says that the Nikonos W-Nikkor 35mm f/2.5 was based on a Nikon lens being sold for the S/M39 rangefinder mount cameras.

 

The earliest double gauss photographic lens that I know of is Planar lens from Zeiss, released in 1890. The design was used extensively in the first half of the 20th century, although by the time of the Calypsophot in 1961 it was starting to get a little old-fashioned, and the lack of sharpness was becoming an issue.

Thanks for this - I know that the Som Berthiot was actually a Tessar design which actually probably performed less well than the Gaussian design. I suspect that it too was based on (if not simply the same as) an earlier rangefinder lens but finding out whether this is so is proving difficult.