please post your petzval shots

[Jim Galli]

Yes, the Wollensak Series A is a Petzval and your Se Ro Co and Seneca is very likely a re-branded Wollensak Series A. It was VERY common in that era. Bausch and Lomb and Wollensak both did this a lot.

Swirls occur way out in the fringe area that was never meant to be used. A respectable portraitist 70 years ago would use a 16 inch petzval on a 5X7 plate and thus insure he was getting only the sweet center spot.

We on the other hand are a bunch of degenerates using petzvals too small for the medium in order to get swirlies on purpose

[Jay Decker]

... A respectable portraitist 70 years ago would use a 16 inch petzval on a 5X7 plate and thus insure he was getting only the sweet center spot.

This is exactly what I did, unknowingly, but I expected a different result... I put my "small" Dallmeyer Petzval lens on a studio camera with a 5x7 back. I expected swirl, but did not see any. What I did not recognize was that the "small" Dallmeyer 4D lens had a focal length of 17-inches, max aperture of f/6, and produces nice sharp portraits on 5x7 film. When I put a "large" Dallmeyer 3B lens with a focal length of 11-inches and max aperture f/3 on the camera with an 8x10 back... the image looked like a Petzval image.


While portraits made with the 17-inch Dallmeyer 4D on 5x7 are quite distinct, those portraits are more aesthetically pleasing in character to me than the same portrait made with a modern razor sharp coated lens... YMMV

[Steve M Hostetter]

7" Petzal on sinar P 4x5 Galli shutter,,, fuji instant film

[Steve M Hostetter]

7" petzal 4x5 sinar P fuji instant film

[gandolfi]

many years ago, I did some portraits, using my first LF camera (18x24 oak tree camera).
Without knowing it then, the lens was surely a petzval.
I since sold the camera/lens (shouldn't have, but that's life...) and I still mis that lens.

I used paper as negatives to make contact prints.

here are a couple of the ones I made:

[goamules]

Here's another I shot this week with the Voigtlander 6B on 5x7 wetplate. I don't like the weird effect in front of the rabbit's nose...something about the flare off the glass vase. But it shows another aspect of some petzvals; very short depth of field.


Larger on black

[Robert Hughes]

But it shows another aspect of some petzvals; very short depth of field.

And, apparently, reversed out-of-focus oil bottles.

[Ramiro Elena]

[Miguel Coquis]

Nice !
Peaceful !!
More please....

[Jim Galli]

.......another rather 'straight' shot with the 24 inch petzval on full plate film.

1907 thomas flyer that won the New York ~ Paris race