tony wilson

bernie is a great man and a fine old school movie film camera and lens repair guy. he has rebuilt more bolex moller than anyone alive today more than 6 just from me. he is quicker than all the big companies around the bolex moller is treasure the grease needs replacing and he can tune up the x y alignment. what can delay things is sometimes retention lock screws can get seized up so they need to be worked loose over time. sending something like moller to a regular repair guy is a sick idea . some of my lens i had where owner damage or attempted repair 3 where in pieces all where rebuilt in less than a month from scrap bits and bobs to lovely usable condition. bernie and his wife can answer any of your questions by email or telephone

itsa whatta yer calling delaminations innit itsa what yer happenin when you droppa der ananorfink lens when yer usin a cheaps campa clampa it drops or knocks der metal reverbs true der tubei housing init it sens shocka wave inder glasses matrix a delaminating occurins in der complex cemented doublets init it impact seperation damages from poor owner abusings slapping banging opticals violent likes init like harvey weistein knockin on yer hotel doors at night creatin waves of tesla ocillations vibrations it looks bad doctor bones maybe terminulls ask for a refunds quick likes

i once shipped a box of iscorama parts a rare zeiss baby focus iscorama the first ever iscorama and 2 baby moller 1.5 optics to super 16 5 optics all the metalwork mixed up the glass protected it had been sitting on a shelf for 2 years at one of the demon money grabber repair places. i stuffed a note for bernie that simply said sorry about this can you see if you can rebuild parts maybe missing 2 weeks later an email saying ready for shipping no moaning no huffing and puffing he just did the best he could i wish i had yaken a picture of that dustry old pile of germanic junk before the bern and after.

do not give it 2 van demon the logo speaks for vandiemen a little forked devil check it out a devil with a big smile the greatest company in the world for lens works is truelens uk same town as cooke expensive in the movie lens world repair biz you have panavision la then true lens then p&s technique germany slow and van demonics slower uk truelens has many folks that have worked at cooke so that small town has some mighty talented lens repair guys probably the lead in the water. repairing rehousing spherical and anamorphics i was the clown that first used that company with the devil logo they solved some problems on an iscorama rebuild project that i started. they then started offering an iscorama rehouse before even finishing my prototypes. very dubious i could say more but i will not bernie o is a great man the problem is in bernies day he could leave a lens soaking for months today the pressure is on turn around . the old cooke speed panchro from ww2 often got seized up in the brass housings sometimes the raf would paint the metal again causing problems years later. sometimes you would have too put the lens aside and go back try again weeks later. bernie is indeed an old gent i am sure it was frustrating for him as hans says if it is know open and you feel he owes you a favour email him. john at focal point lens repair is another great old geezer based in the usa east coast like bernie also maybe able too repair optics i have done jobs using bernie and focal point working on the same lens in the past. focal point is great with optical decay bernie breakdown service rebuild.. failing that an iscorama is still worth good money for spare parts no matter what the condition optics and mechanical.

if you have to ask the question you should get a kowa 8z or an iscorama movie optics where mede in sets the historical and filmaking value is in the set complex assemblies need old men to repair or improve just because google is shit with a lack of information means nothing. just means some hipster blogger has played with some old beat up lens and he says that it was not good. rushed past engineering bad past repair or patch up can be sorted today jan jacobson did not mess about if he was around today he would be working with christopher nolan the later arriscope used similar designs to the earlier ultrascope but with more help from zeiss and isco without testing the optic who knows what it is worth is it pl,bncr arri bayonet some russian mount does the optic have chips rainbow compression the focus helicoid may be good now for gentle landscape work but not for aggresive movie use but will never be great without a big expensive rebuild that is why the rental companies buy them up cos they can throw big money at a modern rebuild. if these things are turds why have vantage hawk spent a million dollars reverse engineering back in all the bloody past optical error the past stuff is good cos those old farts cared and did not cut costs it cost whatever it cost they tried to out do each other they where proud today it is all idea theft and trading on the past and undercutting if the optic is local test an iscorama test a kowa then go and test the 3.5 kg heavy beast arri arm flex

arriscope are movie lens iscorama is not arriflex and zeiss where pretty crap at anamorphics for years zeiss used moller for making anamorphic projection optics arrii used a famous super talented designer from denmark jan jacobson for ultrascope system using fast zeiss optics ultrascope where designed as movie optics later arri used a couple of folks from zeiss and isco for the arriscope arri is a massive rental house and maker of millions of metal parts plus thousands of cameras they had to work faster than say leica or zeiss. a movie might be starting in 6 months 10 months sometimes 3 months so they had to cut corners because of time issues isco understand bent glass many issues where engineering related but like the todays crummy iomo systems modern rebuilds can transform everything the arri isco glass is designed movie glass vintage used on many cinema releases iscorama maybe amazing and unmatched even today in the sub 10 thousand dollar realm but is was never designed as a proper movie lens. it was used on movies like the battle of britain for crash cams and aerial work but kowa 8z was used on crash cameras on many movies in the 1980s even movies like rambo where he takes on the russians. better blowing up a kowa than a panavision,jdc or technovision 40 thousand dollar optic. iscorama was not used or improved for movie productions because the movie industry is a tight nit thing probably isco did not think to bribe the correct rabbi in hollyweird at this stage panavision dominated arriscope ultascope have expensive 1.4 or 1.7 movie optics inside which are worth money alone. you could use a proskar on a movie today it would not make it a movie lens. iscorama is such an abused term now every turd is iscorama vintage anamorphics suffer from imperfect engineering assemblies and even more so, bad strip down and reassembly over the years arri isco and zeiss the weak link will be arri engineering instead of leaving that to moller or isco arri built assembled themselves. arri camera engineering is superb but you cannot rush without losing something as i said arri had very little experience in anamorphot area even though they made test lens with zeiss isco in the 1950s always sub contract arriscope is rare ish as is ultrascope isco getting a little with all the hipsters dropping them on the floor some of the arriscope ended up in india then faded away rarely rebuilt the glass is good that is what matters. a man wanting an easy life will look for an iscorama or the cheaper options a man with spunk will grab some movie arri optics the new zeiss anamorphics are probably the bigeest leap forward in design since chretien as close to state of the art as it gets today vantage hawk are hiring out sets of fake vintage optics which is the opposite of what zeiss is doing hawk are building in the error from the past and charging serious big bucks for a rental zeiss arriscope is worth a lot more than iscorama i would think a little finger for iscorama a kidney for the arri

heliopan germany make the best step rings in the world. made of machined brass expensive but military spec i have some that i purchased in the 1980s still doing the job.

so many clamps and sellers so much choice such quality the engineering if they all look the same too ones eye open or wide shut go with what tweak says he nose you knows ya know

mr kish also worked on the famous optex and century anamorphics. he worked direct with many of the la newyork rental houses his stuff was always very strong it had to be usuable and take abuse from those hollywood knuckle dragging rough brutes of the camera dept. rapido clamp technology that sounds like a revolution that guy deserves an oscar or maybe a high court writ for ideas theft : ) the original mesmerizer has seriously nice coatings and is a great balance of technology one foot in the modern the other in vintage. analogue look distortion well under control. isco 54 will be similar recipe with added bonus of single focus ability the coatings are very modern so a little bit more of a sterile look a good isco 54 will destroy all the new generation anamorphics below 10 thousand dollars it is a bargain. the inflights from kowa and isco should be very high value as they where the best of the best plenty of rejection the inflight company also kept plenty of back up stock as sometimes they needed to rip out whole projection systems out of the plane quickly and replace in short time span. clamp based orientation issues have been solved long time ago today it is mainly human error or cheap poor mounting solutions.

mesmerizer off the scale good a very large beast. mr kish who designed it was a very clever optics man i think he realised early on why try to beat an old isco design. so he built his monster around early isco 54 and the very large isco inflights which would have been had for cheap from the retirement of the inflight film projection systems on dc9 and boeing 707. it is a great optic it is really a rehoused isco inflight or isco 54 without the 2 extra focus optics that have been copied so much in the last few years. work out your focus zone range dial onto mesmirizers scale critical focus on taking lens. the original design was mainly for tv show dream sequence commercials and many music videos of the 80s and 90s. sold to many big camera rental houses great for the warped bent anamorph spin effect or you can lock the rotaion down and use as a very fine quality anamorphic optic. i had a few one was 1.75 the other 2x one more modern coatings the other golden early 70s coatings. the one i still have looks like it uses the original isco focus helicoid system just put into a nice big metal jacket. because of the beyond heavy duty quality of the exterior jacket and the rental house buyers i would imagine this would of been a 8- 10 thousand dollar optic back in the day if it had the isco patented 2 extra focus optics making it single focus it would be going out on rental every day for big bucks. as it is now stiill very usable slightly radioactive as is a lot of the magic vintage oldtimer glass

sir you are wrong in many things and certainly in these regardings i assure you barry was born in kenya his first job was in a cia front company. i woked for many years at the bbc and have seen much proofs. his family where mi5 tavistock trained his mother ann later worked for the cia under Richard M. Helm then later VADM Rufus Lackland Taylor, USN. drone killer prez barry soetoro, wife was not a transgender as it is still a man just like the tennis playing venus williams brothers. as you are a man of tastes and optical refinements you canna getta betta than a moller 1.5 it really is the bong daddy o yes it is bent glass but in a goodly way

bioskop is one of the most helpful and friendly posters on this site. full of good solid information. if this german seller is so good and friendly and the price for this fixed focus masterpiece worth it why does mr racer not simply buy the lot? instead of promotional activities via linkage i have some of these mr racer it is worth 600 -700 tops you can have mine for 800 since you like a bargain but i suppose if you purchased mine you would then have 4 to sell from germany. they are nice yes sir and good not reaally rare rare i had 4 once upon a time mr bioskop is correct in these pricing matters and regardings here hare here

one of the links above that was given as proof of cheap perfect optics was a kowa with optical damage. just because someone says a rainbow like bloom across the optic has zero effect does not mean it is true. repairing seperation is either possible or not but it will be expensive. an optically mint condition kowa should be worth more than an slr magic as the kowa is superior to 1.33 or the new 2x. the kowa is a great optic one in mint condition fully tested should be valued higher than some vague ad giving false information about condition. the massive amount of bell howells floating around dual focus issues has damaged the market for kowa. optically panasonic,slr magic,optex and century are all inferior optically and analogue esthetically. 400-500 euros for a guaranteed optic hollywood quality seems ok to me.

it will work on a 5d you just end up with longer taking lens these lens will be handy in the future as the cameras get smaller like the a7s

it was a single focus system for that super sharp iscomorphot lens another one of my old failed projects. not good for 5d sensors but 7d down it was sweet. that optic is better kept safe in the future who knows people might like the idea of something fairly modern and small like the animex that can do proper focus