Yousuf Karsh's lenses , fujinon 600mm f11.5 C

[Kazuhiro Tsuji]

Hi

Anyone know what lenses Karsh used for his portrait, I am sure his picture is no t just lens, but curious. And have you ever used fujinon 600mm F11.5 C for close to 1:1 reproduction? Is t here any other lens you recommend 600 to 720 mm? Thank you for advance.

[andrea milano]

Dear Katzuhiro, In the appendix to the Book "Portraits of greatness" he says "I always use a 8" x 10" camera and employ a range of Ektars, From 127 mm to 14".." he said that he also used 4"x5" and Rolleiflex ,Retinas and Leica. The Famous "Churchill shot" was, I think I remember, I saw the original negative a 5" x 7". Judging from the pictures he was using 210mm to 240mm the most. Good Luck

[M.]

I was just going through John Loengard's wonderful little book, "Pictures Under Discussion," and there on page 90 was a picture of Karsh's Churchill negative held up by his printer. Well, not exactly. It was 7.5"x9.25"; Loengard thought it was a copy negative from the original 8x10. The portrait was made in an antiroom of the Canadian House of Commons, and is a 3/4 body view with lots of space above his head, so I would guess it was probably taken with a 10" lens. It would have to be a pretty big room to use a normal 12" lens.

[Tracy Storer]

Somewhat surprisingly, the Fujinon 600C covers 20x24 at infinity! I have been using one of these as my "normal" lens since 1997 on the Polaroid 20x24 in San Francisco. Wisner is supplying them with his 20x24 systems now. I often use it for up to 1.5x magnification, looks great. I've never made negs and enlarged them though...Tracy Storer, Director, Polaroid 20x24 Studio San Fran