Lens design: super-sharp center gradually fading out.

[penauts]

Hi to all, I'm searching for a lens that will produce images that are super sharp in the middle and gradually unsharp toward the edges, like those pictures:

http://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net...Plg/larger.jpg
https://www.artnews.com/wp-content/u...master1050.jpg
http://i.pinimg.com/736x/e6/13/85/e6...tographers.jpg

I read discording opinions about Rapid Rectilinear-type lenses, someone saying that those are bad at the margins and just less bad in the middle. Can you suggest me what to look for?
Thank you

[Corran]

Petzval

[Jac@stafford.net]

Petzval

++1, Petzval

[penauts]

Wow, that's exactly what I was looking for
thank you again!

[mdarnton]

The examples you show were probably shot with something like a Tessar working on a size far beyond it's design. I suspect a Petzval would be more unsharp away from the center than you wanted. Once a Tessar gets out to the size it's designed to cover, things go bad quickly. Though some articles say Sally Mann worked with old "broken" lenses, this sounds like something a writer, not a photographer, would say. Pictures of her working show a variety of lenses. You might also look at photos shot with a modern Wollaston lens, but like the Petzval, these go much worse much faster than the examples you showed, which really aren't too bad.

[penauts]

Oh ok, that would explain the severe vignetting

[mdarnton]

Here's a thread you might find interesting:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...at/t8a_FUREFZQ

Also notice my additions to my previous comment....

[Corran]

The curved plane of focus in the second example is what makes me think Petzval. It could be swing but it seems like the tarp-covered thing behind the girl would be in focus then. Perhaps a slower, more mundane Petzval with a bit more DOF than your super-fast portrait ones that would show much more swirl/aberrations? Just guessing. I always thought SM used Petzvals for a lot of her work but I must admit I am not sure.

[Greg]

Got the same effect with a Fujinon SF lens without one of its aperture disks. The coverage of these optics are huge (250mm actually covered 11x14 and maybe even more) but sharpness quickly degrades. A Petzval a serious option but at ten times or more the price of a Fujinon SF.

[mdarnton]

Surely a Petzval used right out to its edge should be showing quite a bit of swirly, right?