Portraits done with a slightly "tweeaked" 1860's Darlot Petzval

For those of you who enjoy following the fuzzy picture posts,
I've uploaded a new page of portraits done yesterday with an
1860's Darlot Petzval!

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/Da...rlot4Sale.html

The occasion was a visiting brother in law who is very photogenic ;)

I had to include a couple of self portraits as filler :o

I "tweaked" the Petaval for added softness and glow. It can be un-tweaked in 5 minutes or less.

Go have a look if you're interested and let me know what you think!

Nice Jim. First one of your bro-in-lo is way cool..

Damn, now that lensboard I ordered to put my HB&H lens onto my 4x5 is just not arriving soon enough. You are causing me to become more eager to try out my ancient 1850s lens. Nice images.

What is proper protocol on cleaning up these lenses? I noticed on your sales posting that your Darlot is nicely polished. My HB&H has a brownish patina, which I am somewhat tempted to leave intact. Should I consider polishing it?

Also, my brass lens shade is slightly dented. I am considering having it straightened, unless someone points out a simple process for dealing with a couple slight dents. Or should I leave that alone too?

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gordon Moat

Damn, now that lensboard I ordered to put my HB&H lens onto my 4x5 is just not arriving soon enough. You are causing me to become more eager to try out my ancient 1850s lens. Nice images.

What is proper protocol on cleaning up these lenses? I noticed on your sales posting that your Darlot is nicely polished. My HB&H has a brownish patina, which I am somewhat tempted to leave intact. Should I consider polishing it?

Also, my brass lens shade is slightly dented. I am considering having it straightened, unless someone points out a simple process for dealing with a couple slight dents. Or should I leave that alone too?

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

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I think protocol is to satisfy your own personal preference. Some like them as is, some others can't resist the temptation to make it look like new. I lean towards the former myself. I'm a lot more interested in the pictures than what the picture taker looks like.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gordon Moat

My HB&H has a brownish patina, which I am somewhat tempted to leave intact. Should I consider polishing it?

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Not having dealt with any old lenses (one of mine goes all the way back to the 1970's ;) ) I'd have thought that you'd takes some pictures with the patina in place and see what they come out like. If you don't like then you could always have it polished but at least you'll have seen "before & after."

If you don't like the "after," it's a bit of tough luck as I doubt you'll be around long enough to build up the patina again... ;) (unless you've got an accelerated life test equipment or you can carry out a "mixed flowing gas" standard test that replicates something being sat on a shelf for years but the gases involved are not the best for your health :( )

Andrew

Haven't you ever watched Antiques Roadshow? Never clean the patina off brass.

Use a high quality Micro Crystalline wax polish like Renaissance to clean and protect the brass. As for the bent lens shade, I would just leave it alone. Of course, if you want to buy an specialized tool to fix it you can pick up a filter ring vise or plyers at micro-tools.com

Okay, that patina stays. I did have to clean up the mounting flange ring (separate item), but only because there was some gooey stuff on it that kept coming off every time I picked that up (probably some type of old lacquer).

Thanks Jason for the tip about a filter ring vise. While the dents are not bad, I would like to get the shade round enough to accept a lens cap more easily. I might have a leather lens cap made for this ancient lens; should make a nice shutter.
:cool:

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio