Hi folks
I'm planning to do a portraiture series on 5x, and I don't think I have a suitable lens as I'm looking for a classical smooth look which probably means a lens with residual spherical aberration.
These are what I have for 5x7 above 150mm:
Wollensak Enlarging Raptar 4.5/162mm - not tried it, doubt it will cover 5x7, might be quite soft wide open?
Ilex Acuton f4.8/215mm - plasmat, doubt the rendering will be what I want
Eskofot Ultragon f9/210mm - process plasmat, again probably won't have a suitable rendering
Wray HR Lustrar f5.6/7" (178mm) - tessar type, intended to be shot at f8 or smaller, don't know what the rendering is like wide open
Staeble Ultragon f9/240mm - another process plasmat
Wray APO Process Lustrar f10/12" (300mm) - dialyte, doubtful it will render in a suitable way
So, what options do people recommend - trying out the lenses I have first, perhaps using a diffusion filter?
What lenses do people recommend for 5x7? A Pentac 2.9/8" might be the ticket, I know the image circle turns to mush in the corners on 5x7, but for portraits, that will probably look nice, and wide open it's soft and glowy.
A petzval appeals, but I have no idea what length would be needed for 5x7 and I don' know how to find a Petzval without paying more than my meagre budget can afford, any tips on Petzvalhuning would be appreciated, aren't some magic lantern/projection lenses Petzvals? I do happen to have a pair of Kershaw projection lenses from the 1950s that are Petzvals but they are 5 and 5.5" respectively and are very heavy as the barrels are very thick aluminium to dissipate the heat of a 35mm projector's lamp. I shot this with the 5" one ad this is the wort of smooth rendering I like for portraits:
P.S. Shutter isn't an issue, I'll be using paper negatives so a lens cap will suffice.
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