Re: Infrared lenses

["Rubem Amaral" <rubem@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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> I wish you had, too--I'd love to know more about this mysterious lens
> (or supplementary lens).  Although I'm an avid reader of such things,
> I've never seen anything fitting this description in the ads or
> catalogs of B&H, Adorama, Focus, Porter's, or Spiratone, all of which
> I'd trust more than 47th Street.  So while it may have seemed like a
> fairly common item on the American market during your visit to New
> York, I assure you that, unless I'm misunderstanding your description,
> it is by no means common.  Furthermore, given the level of chicanery
> that goes on in the discount photo market (of which 47th Street is a
> progenitor), I'm sorry to say that outright misrepresentation of the
> product, whatever it was, is a distinct possibility.
> 
> Bob Long
> (boblong@xxxxxxxxxxx)

It makes sense. The thing could be really so uncommon (and maybe so
useless) that it may explain why all the photo stores sellers to whom I
asked about Kodak HIE tried to offer me the lens so insistently. I went to
New York in a Brazilian Navy vessel and I remember that the doctor of the
ship had been asking me (since I was supposed to know something about
photography...) if I knew any slide films that could capture accurately
the aspect of human tissues during an autopsy... Few days later, he came
to me, very happy, and said "look what I have!" It was precisely that IR
lens. He had asked somebody in a photo store about a film that could suit
his needs and the guy gave him the lens... "Will it help me?", he asked
and my answer was "I honnestly don't know..." By that time, my main
interest was finding IR film and I didn't pay attention to the lens. I
thought I could buy at any moment...

Rubem Amaral

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