well I was browsing around in the "rainy day" thread when I stumbled on the link to Jim Galli's website. I really love his pictures with the petzval portrait lens on 4x5. But now I have a problem, I have the bug but I'm a student and it's after Christmas. Can anybody recommend a good petzval for 4x5 that performs alright, but isn't as crazily priced as say a cooke, or the other lenses? Are there any relatively overlooked petzvals?
Cheers
Its a trial and error kind of thing. Look for old brass lenses that the sellers are clueless about. If it has a focusing gear chances are its a petzval. Many wont have much info on them, and the magic lantern lenses wont have an aperature or a slot for water house stops. I have one I picked up with only the barrel and the air spaced doublet element, the single element had a FL of about 24", I taped a cemented doublet from a Rapid Rectilliner of about the same FL on the front of the barrel , sharp center, swirly fall off.
Count on it taking some time and getting a few duds along the way, or be prepared to drop the dime.
Another entry level possible is to get an old rapid rectilinear (spelled cheap) about 6 or 7" focal length and replace the front group with a +3 close up lens. Won't be quite the same, but fun to play around with.
Here's the pics Vic referenced.
And if you follow Jims advice you wont go through the anguish of having Jim snipe the prize you thought was yours, and end up just buying one from him : ) The things we go through to get a curved field....
There are lots of cheap Petzval types out there. Projector lenses are sometimes Petzvals. You might try borrowing one from a slide projector and seeing what it covers at portrait distances.
When searching for something like that, I ended up buying a 13x18cm plate camera because it came with a complete 7-element Aplanat casket set. I can confirm that a rear group of an aplanat (=rapid rectilinear) has an amazing field curvature! I discovered how the old photographers managed to get everything in focus when shooting down a city street - field curvature again!
There is a parallel discussion going on here: www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23132
Note that the Cooke PS945 is not a Petzval, rather it is a modified Rapid Rectilinear. Are you are looking for a soft focus lens? If so, you won't find it with a Petzval.
If you want a cheap Petzval your best bet is a Magic Lantern lens.
Thanks for the terrific input. not the least to mention Jim Galli. Thanks for sharing your wonderful pictures and other materials!
Brook, am I correct in thinking that a rapid rectilinear WITHOUT your treatment provides a standard undistorted image, but it gets that way by putting the doublet up front? Just want to confirm.
Nope I'm not looking for a soft focus lens really.... just something with the same look and feel as the gundlach that Jim was using. blur by distortion is it? I dunno... I guess I'll just have to drop by the nearest photographica fair. One's happening soon in Toronto I think.....
Cheers all!
Vic,
My understanding is that a petzval is an air spaced doublet in the rear and a cemented doublet in the front. A RR would be two cemented doublets, and is an adaption of the petzval design. Both are rather sharp designs, with the petzval having a smaller area of sharp coverage, thus the need for longer that "normal" focal legenth, unless you are looking for the fall off and distortion.
I will humbly defer to some of the other posters here as most of what I know beyond my own fooling around with old glass I picked up from them.
A Petzval has always a large aperture, usually 3.5 , which is one of the caracteristic why is so sought after, blurring the background in a way that only such lens can( the oter lens I love is the Heliar for this matter). The other is the sharpness in the center of the image and then there is the distortion at the edges .
My feel is that if you don't get a real petzval design, you won't be satisfied.
Unfortunately, these lenses don't come cheap.
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