Fu Lunda's Petzval lens.

Fu Lunda is the oldest manufacturer of photographic equipment. It entered the field of photography only one year after the invention of photography. 1840, when most people in the world didn't know what photography was, Fu Lunda had developed the world's first lens designed and manufactured by scientific calculation.

The invention of photography is also attributed to the efforts of artists. In order to more truly reflect the actual image ratio of natural scenery and buildings, artists have been using a tool to draw mirror boxes. This mirror box, which was first used for painting, existed for more than 65,438+000 years before the invention of photography, but artists have been unable to fix the images projected into the mirror box and appearing on the floor.

On August 1839 and 19, the French Academy of Sciences officially announced the invention of Daguerre's photography. Daguerre, a famous French artist and scientist, finally opened a new era of image recording through long-term hard research and hard attempts, and through cooperation with other scientists. This world-famous invention has far-reaching historical significance. This is the first time to save the image clearly by chemical means, which makes it possible to record the real image. The key to the invention of photography lies in using iodine vapor to form a silver iodide coating on a silver-plated smooth metal plate, and then irradiating it with strong light for imaging. But it takes a long chemical reaction process to complete, and people urgently need to shorten the exposure time of the bottom plate, so the improvement of the lens becomes the key.

The invention of photography has solved the key problem of image retention, but there is no breakthrough in optics, because the camera mainly consists of two parts: one is the lens and camera box that can introduce images into the camera chassis, and the other is the negative that can retain images. Although the photographic lens appeared with the birth of 1839 photography, before that, various lenses used for telescopes, microscopes and painting mirror boxes had already existed, and the movable black box with two black boxes to adjust the focal length of the lens was also very mature. Daguerre's wooden camera Daguerre uses the knight achromatic lens invented by the French optician Knight. It is a set of two achromatic lenses developed on the basis of describing the mirror box lens. The aperture of the lens is very small. Because the early metal films were not so sensitive to light, they were exposed in the sun for a long time, which was acceptable when shooting landscapes and buildings, but there were great problems when shooting people and moving objects.

After the invention of photography, how to improve the lens and shorten the exposure time has become the key to the development of photography. 1839, Fu Lunda III was a famous optical instrument manufacturer in Vienna, famous for making shell lens tubes and gold-plated opera mirrors in Franda. He is very interested in the invention of photography. According to documents, Fu Lunda III met with Mr. Daguerre, who had just obtained a photography patent, in Paris on August 26th, 2008. They discussed the difficult problem in photography: how to shorten the exposure time through a faster lens. After Fu Lunda III returned to Vienna, they discussed this issue with their father again, and they decided to seek the help of Professor Pei Cvar, a mathematician from Vienna University.

Mr. Pizwo was born in Hungary, 1807. His father is a famous musician and composer, but he is also good at mechanical engineering. In 1824, he obtained two patents, one is the improvement of the pendulum of a desk clock, and the other is the design of a typewriter. Mr. Pizwo's favorite subjects in primary school and junior high school are Latin and religion. He was not particularly interested in mathematics until he entered high school, and his talent in mathematics gradually emerged. 1826 After studying in Budapest University for two years, I got an engineering degree and began to study for a doctorate in mathematics. After receiving his doctorate, he stayed in Budapest University as an assistant professor, teaching mathematics, mechanics and practical geometry. He got the position of professor of advanced mathematics at 1835, when he was only 28 years old. 1837 Professor Pizwo was invited to be the head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Vienna, Austria. He worked in this position for 40 years until he retired in 1877. His main courses are: linear theory, differential equations, algebraic equations, analytical mechanics and ballistics. During this period, Professor Pizwo rented an abandoned monastery near Vienna and set up his own glass polishing workshop, which laid a good foundation for his later study of lens design.

The problem of making fast lenses brought by Fu Lunda III from France aroused Professor Pittsworth's strong interest, and his mathematician background and interest in optical lenses came in handy. After careful mathematical calculation, many attempts have been made on the curvature of lens surface and the gap between lenses. Professor Pittsworth invented a portrait lens with greater luminous flux and faster speed at 1840. This lens uses four groups of lenses, and the first two lenses are glued together. The rear two pieces are separated in the middle, and the aperture of the lens reaches f: 3.7, which is ten times faster than that of the knight structure lens. The lens is named after him and is called Pitzwo lens.

Unlike those lenses that require the photographer to stay still for a long time to complete shooting, Pitzwo lens can shorten the shooting time to seconds, which is a revolution in lens design. Moreover, unlike in the past, it is necessary to repeatedly polish the lens and rely on experience to complete the lens production. This is the first photographic lens in the world after scientific calculation, which realizes the standardization of lens specifications and is convenient for mass production of lenses.

The characteristic of this lens is that it can shoot a very clear image in the central part under the condition of short focal length. Although the periphery of the image will produce dazzling light spots and even become blurred, it has little effect when used to shoot portraits, and can achieve the effect of highlighting portraits. Even when shooting telephoto vision, the lens can produce hazy beauty. Fu Lunda III gave full play to his long-term specialty in manufacturing monocular telescopes, equipped the Pitzwo lens with beautiful frames and added a magnifying glass for accurate framing. 184 1 year, Pitzwo lens all-metal camera was listed as Fu Lunda brand. The camera looks like a howitzer shell on a shelf, and the fuselage is divided into two parts. The first half is the Pitzwo lens, and the middle is the focusing screen. After focusing, the focusing screen is replaced by a metal negative that can be exposed, and the second half of the lens is a magnifying glass. Photographers use the rack on the fuselage to adjust the focal length of the lens, realize accurate focusing through the eyepiece, and control the exposure time through the switch of the lens cover. The camera can shoot a circular metal film with a diameter of 96 mm.

Although there is a lens that can be quickly exposed, the negatives of the Daguerre era still have to be loaded and unloaded in the darkroom, which makes the shooting process still very complicated. A British photographer once used the Fu Lunda "cannonball" prototype with number 84 to restore the shooting process at that time: (1) open the lens cover to compose a composition and focus on the focusing screen; (2) Cover the lens cover, remove the camera from the bracket, remove the focusing lens, and enter the darkroom to install the negative film. (3) Reinstall the camera and open the lens cover to start exposure. In the process of loading the negative, the main body can't move, otherwise it will lose focus; (4) Go back to the darkroom and unload the film for development. Scientists then invented the method of coating catalyst on the metal plate treated with silver iodide to enhance the sensitivity of the bottom plate and further shorten the exposure time. With the improvement of lens structure and the chemical reaction technology of bottom exposure, the new camera has changed the shortcoming of sitting for a long time in portrait shooting and can finish shooting quickly.

The first all-metal camera in Fu Lunda was expensive, with a price as high as 120 aud (at that time, a riding value was 100 aud, and a senior ladies fur coat was 10 aud), but its advanced performance was highly recognized by the market, and 184 1 year sold 70 aud. In recent years, Fu Lunda Company has continuously introduced new Pitzwo lenses, and the business is very hot.

The combination of scientists who have made great achievements in the field of optics and successful businessmen of optical instruments seems perfect. Professor Pizwo is in charge of in-depth research on improving lens quality, while Fu Lunda III is devoted to the design, manufacture and marketing of cameras. Fu Lunda's Pizwo lens was widely recognized by the market in the first few decades after the invention of photography, and Fu Lunda Company became the earliest and most successful camera manufacturer because of its excellent performance.

Unfortunately, the successful launch of the camera did not bring satisfactory results to both sides, and the cooperation between Professor Pizwo and Fu Lunda III was not pleasant. Neither Fu Lunda III nor Professor Pittsworth expected that their joint invention would bring such an amazing sensation, nor did they apply for a patent for the Pittsworth lens in the first place. Therefore, lens manufacturers all over the world, including Fu Lunda, are using this advanced design without patent protection to produce Pitsworth lenses. The cooperation agreement signed between Fu Lunda Company and Professor Pizwo is also very imperfect. Professor Pizwo only got a one-time compensation at the beginning of the cooperation, but did not get the corresponding commercial benefits in the subsequent mass production, which made Professor Pizwo very dissatisfied. The cooperation between the two sides ended in failure, and the smart optical wise man became the loser of the smart businessman in the mall. 1859, Professor Pizwo suffered another blow. His precious manuscripts and related optical materials were lost due to theft at home. Desperate, Professor Pizwo retired from the field of optics and began to study acoustics until he retired at the age of 70. He died in 189 1.

So far, the prototype of "cannonball" produced in Fu Lunda between 184 1 to 1842 has not been found in the market. It is said that there are only about 10 existing prototypes, only 3 complete prototypes and accessory boxes. These prototypes are in the hands of museums and private individuals in different countries. 1939, Fu Lunda company made a few complete sets of copies based on the original paper. These reproductions have a lens length of 3 1cm, a support height of 38cm, metal negatives and vials filled with photosensitive materials and chemicals. These replicas have become treasures that people are scrambling to collect. 1978, Fu Lunda company produced 100 limited edition based on the original camera No.84, each with serial number. This set of copies is made according to the actual specifications of the original Fu Lunda Pitzwo metal camera. It is very beautiful to take a circular photo with a diameter of 96.6 mm with modern film. Even these copies are hard to find now.

In addition to "Voigtlander &；; Sohn's cursive brand logo usually has the place name logo of "in Wien und Braunschwein" (Vienna and Brunswick). 1849 During the period when Fu Lunda Company started to move its factory from Austria to Germany, there were factories in Vienna, Austria and Brunswick, Germany, so there were also two place names on the lens barrel in this period, which is also the characteristic of Fu Lunda lens in that special period.

After the invention of the lens with Pittsworth structure, although we first cooperated with Fu Lunda Company to mass-produce lenses specially used for wet-plate cameras of various specifications, some big lens manufacturers in the world also rushed to produce lenses with this structure because they did not apply for patents, such as Ross, Dahlmeyer and Bosch &; Famous brands such as Lomb, isco, Cook, Grabots, Harrison, Tetra Pak, etc. There are also a large number of lenses produced by unknown brands according to Pitzword structure, which have been widely used in cameras, film projectors, slide projectors and other fields. Many large-format photographers are still taking portraits with Pizwo structural lenses.

There are no other marks on Fu Lunda Pisvo's lens except Foran's logo and lens serial number. We can only judge the type and delivery time of the lens by its serial number. According to the year correspondence table of Fu Lunda lens serial number (see attached table), it is relatively easy and accurate to judge the age of Fu Lunda's early lenses, especially after we have mastered several key nodes in Fu Lunda lens production, this judgment can even be accurate. For example, an 8840 series Pizwo lens with a water chamber aperture can basically be determined as 1860, because Fu Lunda produced the 5000th lens in 1854 and the10000th lens in 1862, during which the average annual output of lenses was/kloc-. The year of another Pitzwo lens with the number 15247 can be determined by the following judgment methods: from 1862 to 1884, Fu Lunda produced 17449 lenses on the basis of the original 10000 lenses, with an average annual output of 7449.

During the decades from 1840 to 19, the pitzword lens has been playing an important role. Although people constantly improve the quality of the lens and introduce many new portrait lenses, it is still talked about by photographers and amateur photographers. Fu Lunda still enjoys a good reputation among all the surviving Pizwo lenses, not only because of Professor Pizwo's contribution 1840, but also because of Franda's continuous improvement of product quality. Each lens has been carefully measured and hand-polished, and those well-preserved lenses can still take beautiful photos. The price of Fu Lunda's early lenses has been very high in the market, which is the favorite of large-format camera lovers.

As early as the film photography era, someone made a new Pitzvo lens according to the principle of Pitzvo lens and using modern materials and processing technology, which was used for modern cameras to shoot portraits. In the era of digital photography, people are still curious about this lens 100 years ago. In recent years, Zenit Photography Equipment Factory in Russia has started mass production of artistic portrait lenses of Pitzwo. These lenses can be connected to modern digital cameras, instantly presenting the elegant demeanor of Pitzwo lens. Because the depth of field is too shallow, the local clear central image and fuzzy background, as well as exaggerated and artistic spots around the image, it brings surprises to people who are used to seeing clear images. People can even control the deformation degree of background spots through the accurate calculation of lens offset, and modern people can fully appreciate the fuzzy beauty of characters brought by historical vicissitudes and imperfect images through these retro lenses.

180 years ago, Professor Pizwo used his wisdom to create the structural lens of Pizwo, which brought photography technology to a brand-new situation. No one would have thought that in today's world-shaking changes in photography, Pizwo's lens can still have such tenacious vitality, and it can still glow with a gorgeous brilliance in modern photography a hundred years later.