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Most aperture blades in a lens?

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I was just looking at my old 5cm summarit, and it has 15 aperture blades that form a near perfect circle at all apertures. Are there any lenses with more aperture blades than that? I assume it is going to skew towards older lenses and rangefinder lenses since they did not require automatic stop down. I am guessing maybe some of the old large format portrait lenses have lots and lots of blades, but does anyone know of lenses with more than 15? That seems like a lot...
 

monza

Active member
As soon as I saw the title to this post, I was thinking '15', thinking of older Leitz lenses. That's still more than at least this large format portrait lens:

 
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Vivek

Guest
Stuart, I never bothered to do these counts on the countless lenses I have.

A quick cursory look of the largest lens (weight >18 Kgs) I have, an OPTICOPY U.H.R. 585 f/7 shows a count of 20 blades, perfectly circular from wide open to all the way down.

The diaphram diameter is ~15 cm.

I have a feeling that this isn't the most number of blades in a lens that I have.;)
 

Lars

Active member
My APO-Nikkor 1:9 f=610 mm has 12 blades. But it only weighs about 2 kgs so it's a bit wimpy. It is, however, a moderate wideangle lens - huge coverage circle, probably 600-700 mm.
 

jonoslack

Active member
Stuart, I never bothered to do these counts on the countless lenses I have.

A quick cursory look of the largest lens (weight >18 Kgs) I have, an OPTICOPY U.H.R. 585 f/7 shows a count of 20 blades, perfectly circular from wide open to all the way down.

The diaphram diameter is ~15 cm.

I have a feeling that this isn't the most number of blades in a lens that I have.;)
Wow . . .I've been googling that lens, and all references lead back to . . . . . Vivek!
So,
1. how many lenses do you have
2. how many diaphragm blades (in total)
:bugeyes:
 
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Vivek

Guest
Jono, Just a few hundred (I think. I am not good at cataloging.). Very meagre compared some people I know- that I am confident of.

After I bought the G1, I searched through one pile and found out that I had a Schneider Xenoplan 25/1.9 (four bladed aperture :ROTFL:) and it was usable. ;)

All the APO Nikkors, Process Nikkors and such have 12 blades. They do not form circular shapes when stopped down.

The Xero-Nikkor 135/2 (it is a big lens, though light weight, would cover ULF) I have has 15 blades and yes it does form circular apertures at all the stops.
 

gero

New member
the other question is:

Least aperture blades in a lens?

It has to be 3.

This reminds me of the movie "9", I would love to have a lens with the apperture in the eyes of #1.
 
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Vivek

Guest
the other question is:

Least aperture blades in a lens?

It has to be 3.
Zero. Perfect circles. Many lenses.

There are two bladed apertures as well.

Example: Minoctar lenses in Minox 35mm cams.
 

Lars

Active member
All the APO Nikkors, Process Nikkors and such have 12 blades. They do not form circular shapes when stopped down.
Yep it's far from perfect. It came with waterhouse stops too (it's a single blade with a hole in it that you slide into the lens to use instead of the variable aperture).
 
Biggest number on any lenses I´ve owned were either an old Kilfitt Makro-Kilar 90 mm, or a Novoflex Follow-Focus 5.6/400. I don´t have either lens now, so I can´t count´em, but they were MANY (I dismantled the Novoflex once for cleaning; don´t ever do that.... ), and the apertures were almost perfectly circular.

Fewest were 2, or 1 depending on what qualifies as a diaphragm mechanism. My Minox 35 had 2 blades, giving a ´cat´s eye´ look to the lens. An old Agfa cheapie had one - a strip of sheet metal with a hole in it, which you either swung out of the way for wide open (f/5.6) or swung in for f/11 (´sunny´). And, they were PERFECTLY circular, both of ´em...
 
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Vivek

Guest
Yep it's far from perfect. It came with waterhouse stops too (it's a single blade with a hole in it that you slide into the lens to use instead of the variable aperture).
Lars, The APO Nikkors came with waterhouse stops. Everything was sold in a custom wooden box.

Not all the process Nikkors (that include some APO Nikkors) were offered with waterhouse stops though.

Nevertheless, none can be found wanting with their image quality. Gems!
 

M5-Guy

New member
I one owned a Leitz 5cm Summarit (LTM) with 18 blades.... all my Voigtlander have 10, My 90mm Summicron has 12. Not sure on my Sigma EX lenses... 9 maybe?
 
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