Found an old 16mm lens, is it any good?

[Bryan]

A couple years ago I worked as a student assistant in my video production department in college. The chair of the department asked me to clean out the office of an old professor who had retired. Turns out this professor used to teach 16mm film back in the 70s and he had random bits of equipment in his desk drawers and cabinets. I told the chair and he said I could keep what I wanted and toss the rest.

So I found what looked to be a pretty cool 16mm lens (among other things). Made by Kern in Switzerland. It's a Macro-Switar 1:1.1 f= 26mm. It looks to be in near perfect condition, like it was never used.

I threw it in a box and never thought about it, but I recently came across it again and decided to search for it on eBay. Seems like these things may be rather valuable! Anyone know anything about this lens?

I'm guessing I'd never have much use for it (unless I was shooting 16mm, not likely), so I was thinking of selling it.

[Evro]

Sounds like a very fast prime lens. Do you have a picture of it?

[cyclone]

The 26mm Macro Switar is one of the most prized lenses in the Switar line. Sharp, fast - and able to focus extremely close. A clean one can fetch $400+ on eBay.

[egproductions]

26mm is not wide for a 16mm lens. Its roughly translates to a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera (or 35mm on a s35mm)

[Bryan]

The 26mm Macro Switar is one of the most prized lenses in the Switar line. Sharp, fast - and able to focus extremely close. A clean one can fetch $400+ on eBay.

Cool. Thanks.

Yeah, I'll post a pic soon.