ISCO Göttingen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isco Edixa West Anar 1: 4/180 mm, 1952-1957
Tele-West anar 1: 4/180 mm for the Exakta , 1961–1964
Westagon 1: 1.9 / 50 mm
ISCO Berolina Westromat 2.8 / 35 mm (version for Exakta Varex / EXA )

ISCO Göttingen is a traditional German manufacturer of optical systems, especially lenses. From the very beginning there was a close relationship with Jos. Schneider Optische Werke , Kreuznach . Today ISCO is integrated into the Schneider Group as ISK OPTICS GmbH .

Company history

ISCO was founded on March 30, 1936 with the name "Jos. Schneider & Co., Optische Werke, Göttingen" as a limited partnership . The production of lenses was started by Jos. Schneider, Albrecht Wilhelm Tronnier , built and recorded in 1936.

In 1941 a new factory building was built next to a barracks at Reichsstrasse 27 after earlier plans for a factory near the Leine Canal on the Ruhstrat site had not been realized.

During the Second World War , ISCO produced around 45,000 lenses for aerial cameras . ISCO was thus the main supplier of these lenses to the Air Force. Forced laborers were also used in war production .

After the end of the war, extensive dismantling took place. The first lenses for cinema projectors were produced in 1946. From 1947 glasses were produced with 50 employees. Anamorphic attachments for wide screen projection were developed in 1953. In the 1960s the company, now called ISCO, employed around 600 people. Production was limited to lenses.

While the parent company, then Schneider AG , went bankrupt in 1982, ISCO was restructured. Kurt Lindstedt took over the company with two others and renamed it Isco-Optik . At the end of the 1980s, new premises were moved into on Anna-Vandenhoeck-Ring in Göttingen. In 1990 the production of lenses for digital projectors began. Since 1995 there has been a cooperation with Texas Instruments for digital cinema.

In 2003 the company now trading as ISCO Optik GmbH had to file for bankruptcy itself . In summer 2004, ISCO with 82 employees was taken over by a Swiss investor and the insolvency proceedings ended. The company then went back to the original parent company Schneider-Kreuznach as "Schneider Kreuznach ISCO Division GmbH & Co. KG". In 2011 the company was reorganized and renamed ISK Optics GmbH . In 2014 the company was reintegrated into the parent company.

Products

ISCO was founded as an armaments company. The internal production code for military products from Göttingen was "kqc". Produced Ultron - and Xenar models. A Xenar 1: 2 / 12.5 cm from Göttingen was used in aerial reconnaissance cameras, for example .

The camera lenses manufactured after World War II were sold under the brand names Westar , Westanar , Westron , Westromat , Isco-Mat , Iscotar , Isconar , Tele-Iscaron and Iscorama . In addition, projection lenses for film and slide projectors (e.g. the Cooke Triplet Projar ) were also manufactured. ISCO also took on contract manufacturing for projection lenses, for example the Rollei Heidosmat 150 mm f / 3.5 with a tube diameter of 72.5 mm.

Today the company presents four product groups here:

  • Components for industrial optics,
  • cinematographic projection lenses,
  • cinematographic lenses,
  • Projection lenses for the " home cinema ".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Archive link ( Memento from October 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Anniversary brochure of the Jos. Schneider (1938).
  2. ↑ http://www.wiki-goettingen.de/index.php?title=ISCO_B_%2B_W_Filterfabrik_GmbH_%26_Co._KG , accessed on June 29, 2011
  3. ↑ http://www.wiki-goettingen.de/index.php?title=1996#Juli , accessed on June 29, 2011.
  4. ↑ http://www.goettinger-tageblatt.de/Nachrichten/Goettingen/Dossiers/Unter-uns/Otto-Klink-schliff-einst-fuer-Isco-Linsen , accessed on October 16, 2016
  5. ↑ http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic.php?t=23503&sid=336f852fa39e38110085b7bd71794292 , accessed June 29, 2011.
  6. ↑ a b http://www.isco.eu/index.php?id=isco-history , accessed May 10, 2011
  7. ↑ a b http://www.wiki-goettingen.de/index.php?title=2004 , accessed on May 10, 2011
  8. ↑ http://www.isk-optics.de/index.php?id=isco-history , accessed on January 22, 2015
  9. ↑ available online; from Hans Seegar: Binoculars and Telescopes ( Memento of May 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), ISBN 3-00-000457-2
  10. ↑ http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Biotar.html , accessed on June 29, 2011.
  11. ↑ http://www.novacon.com.br/odditycameras/GXN.htm , accessed September 13, 2012.
  12. ↑ http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Isco , accessed on May 10, 2011.
  13. ↑ http://www.isco.eu/index.php?id=products