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It's possible, perhaps even likely, that -ar is derived from argentum, the Latin for silver, since a suspension of silver salts was used in black-and-white photography.

As corroboration, I offer protargol:

Etymology: < German Protargol (1897) < Prot- (in Protein protein n.) + classical Latin arg- (in argentum silver: see argent n. and adj.) + German -ol suffix.

A colloidal combination of protein and silver salts, used originally as an antiseptic and later chiefly as a stain for light and electron microscopy.

[OED]

Sony use Carl Zeiss lenses. User Jo Bedard has found a potted history of Zeiss lenses on a Sony website indicating that Prot(o)- means "first" as it was the first in a series of -ar lenses.

It's possible, perhaps even likely, that -ar is derived from argentum, the Latin for silver, since a suspension of silver salts was used in black-and-white photography.

As corroboration, I offer protargol:

Etymology: < German Protargol (1897) < Prot- (in Protein protein n.) + classical Latin arg- (in argentum silver: see argent n. and adj.) + German -ol suffix.

A colloidal combination of protein and silver salts, used originally as an antiseptic and later chiefly as a stain for light and electron microscopy.

[OED]

Sony use Carl Zeiss lenses. User Jo Bedard has found a potted history of Zeiss lenses on a Sony website indicating that Prot(o)- means "first" as it was the first in a series of -ar lenses.

It's possible, perhaps even likely, that -ar is derived from argentum, the Latin for silver, since a suspension of silver salts was used in black-and-white photography.

As corroboration, I offer protargol:

Etymology: < German Protargol (1897) < Prot- (in Protein protein n.) + classical Latin arg- (in argentum silver: see argent n. and adj.) + German -ol suffix.

A colloidal combination of protein and silver salts, used originally as an antiseptic and later chiefly as a stain for light and electron microscopy.

[OED]

Sony use Carl Zeiss lenses. User Jo Bedard has found a potted history of Zeiss lenses on a Sony website indicating that Pro- means "first" as it was the first in a series of -ar lenses.

It's possible, perhaps even likely, that -ar is derived from argentum, the Latin for silver, since a suspension of silver salts was used in black-and-white photography.

As corroboration, I offer protargol:

Etymology: < German Protargol (1897) < Prot- (in Protein protein n.) + classical Latin arg- (in argentum silver: see argent n. and adj.) + German -ol suffix.

A colloidal combination of protein and silver salts, used originally as an antiseptic and later chiefly as a stain for light and electron microscopy.

[OED]

Sony use Carl Zeiss lenses. User Jo Bedard has found a potted history of Zeiss lenses on a Sony website indicating that Prot(o)- means "first" as it was the first in a series of -ar lenses.

It's possible, perhaps even likely, that -ar is derived from argentum, the Latin for silver, since a suspension of silver salts was used in black-and-white photography.

As corroboration, I offer protargol:

Etymology: < German Protargol (1897) < Prot- (in Protein protein n.) + classical Latin arg- (in argentum silver: see argent n. and adj.) + German -ol suffix.

A colloidal combination of protein and silver salts, used originally as an antiseptic and later chiefly as a stain for light and electron microscopy.

[OED]

In Zeiss's Protar, the Pro- could mean "first" or "professional" rather than "protein".

It's possible, perhaps even likely, that -ar is derived from argentum, the Latin for silver, since a suspension of silver salts was used in black-and-white photography.

As corroboration, I offer protargol:

Etymology: < German Protargol (1897) < Prot- (in Protein protein n.) + classical Latin arg- (in argentum silver: see argent n. and adj.) + German -ol suffix.

A colloidal combination of protein and silver salts, used originally as an antiseptic and later chiefly as a stain for light and electron microscopy.

[OED]

Sony use Carl Zeiss lenses. User Jo Bedard has found a potted history of Zeiss lenses on a Sony website indicating that Pro- means "first" as it was the first in a series of -ar lenses.