The Bausch & Lomb f4.5 / 9" (229mm) lens for reflected UV II

Quite a few years ago I got an older lens, which was made many years ago by famous lens maker Bausch & Lomb, Rochester NY. It is a golden color coated, heavy and well made f4.5 / 9" (229mm) Phosphor lens which attracted me, since it was made to record images displayed by a P-16 phosphor screen. Nothing special actually, but since P-16 phosphor emits at about max. 380nm, that attracted me most for my UV work.

 

A while ago I tested it against the Coastal Optics Micro Apo 105mm and the Nikon UV Nikkor 105mm and it perfomed very well.

[click on image gets you a larger image]

The spectrometric results in comparison to the Kuribayashi 3.5/35mm lens, one of the best performing "normal" lenses for UV reveals that is very useful for reflected UV:



The B&L lens has a very high UV performance, at 365nm it transmits 74%, whereas the Kuribayashi has 80%, so very close to it. A very useful long focal length lens for reflected UV with quite high UV transmission and reaching rather deep into the UV range for a non quartz fluorite lens.

So and here a few shots I took the other day with it, first the roof of the neighbour house about 20 meters away:

Then a Rudbeckia hirta flower on my balcony from about 4 meters away:

It is indeed a rather sharp lens for reflected UV, which allows a nice working distance, if so needed. A good addition to the rare tools for reflected photography!

I have written HERE more about it.

Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...

More info on this very interesting field may be found on my site http://www.pbase.com/kds315/uv_photos