Hi everyone,

I have been looking in the archives and around the net and have sort of narrowed down my choices. I want to do some 5x7 and Whole Plate portraits and contact print them. Portraits have never really been my thing, but some of the work on this forum has motivated me to try something new. I am not really a soft focus guy. My lens arsenal tends toward the sharp.

So, my choices are between the 12 inch f/6.3 Ilex/Caltar/Acutar/Orbit, the 300mm f/5.6 Fujinon L, and the 300mm f/5.6 Xenar. (And OK, maybe a 14 inch Ilex/Caltar/Acutar/Orbit would be a good choice instead of one of these 300mm. Feel free to chime in on that too.) I arrived at these choices because I am not a soft focus guy. I like much of what I have seen done here, but the older swirly soft focus lenses are not for me. Many of the portraits I really like were made with older Tessar types, so I am pretty sure that is my direction.

I have a 300mm Nikkor M, which is a Tessar type, but multicoated and pretty sharp for portraits, so I am pondering these other lenses.

I am interested in your experiences with them. Are they suitable? Have any of you had a chance to work with more than one of these? Any other recommendations?

Thanks for your help.