Test and Review of a Vintage Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson)
- Mohsen Jalali
- Aug 3
- 2 min read
Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson)
Today, we have a vintage Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) to test and review, which we removed from a 16mm Filmo Projector 57 Model G manufactured in 1927. In other words, it's at least a 99-year-old piece of old technology that we have in hand and want to test and review. A clean specimen of this projector exists in the Eastman Museum, which is much better than the one we took this lens from. This is what the projector looked like back in its prime days when it was in pristine condition.
Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens on a 16mm Filmo Projector 57 Model G
So, we took a handful of color shots with this lens exactly in the same area where we normally take photos, but this time mostly portraits. Here are the results.
Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Sample Shot Swirly Bokeh Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Sample Bubble Bokeh Shot Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Sample Portrait Shot Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Bubble and Swirly Bokeh Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Swirly Bokeh in Sample Shot Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Sample Portrait Shot Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Sample Shot Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Sample Shot Bell & Howell 2-inch Projector Lens (Made in England by Taylor-Hobson) Sample Shot
As you can see above, these are mostly portraits that we took with this lens mounted on our Nikon Z7. Note that it has some dust inside (as you can see in the last shots of the lens above), fungus traces that don't show no matter how hard you try to capture them in a photo, and a tiny chipped piece of glass in the rear element. Miraculously, these imperfections don't leave much of a trace in the shots above other than a slight halo. Otherwise, the shots are relatively sharp for such an old artefact.
Bell & Howell Company collaborated with different countries throughout its history. This specific one was made in England in the mid 1920s, but Bell & Howell procured its lenses from different countries throughout its history; countries as diverse as Japan, Germany, France, and, according to some records, Central European countries.
As you can see above, this lens does not cover the whole sensor area of a 35mm full-frame camera. The image is a circle in the middle of the frame, and vignetting is maximal. However, the bokeh that it creates is considerably swirly and beautifully bubbly, and as a result, has a unique character.
As you know, projector lenses rarely come with aperture blades, if ever, and you can see in the photos that there's no mention of the widest f-stop on it. However, dividing the focal length by the entrance pupil diameter, we reach a number close to 2.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this post and watching the sample shots. Always remember that you can communicate with us in case you want more of the sample shots, or have any questions about the lenses or the gears we test.
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