Antique & Classic Soft Focus Lens Article - Part I

[CCHarrison]

Hi All,

I just finished an article ( part I ) on antique and classic soft focus lenses. You will find it here:

http://antiquecameras.net/softfocuslenses.html


Please feel free to contact me if you have any corrections, edits or additions that you think would be helpful.

I hope to publish part II in 2 or 3 weeks, and part III by March.

I will also be adding a few more pictures of some Pinkham & Smith Lenses in the next few days - so be sure to return next week !

Enjoy.

Dan

[alex from holland]

Great info !!

many thanks

alex

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Enjoyed the read! Looking forward to part II (the Kalosat will it also be mentioned?)

[Hugo Zhang]

Dan,

I have a Dallmeyer 12" F/3.5 Portrait Anastigmat lens. One of my favorite. The softness is controlled by aperture ring like that of Heliar lens. I can not find any literature about this lens.

This is a great article and I can not wait to read the following parts.

Thanks.
Hugo

[Steven Tribe]

Very good collection of material. For course, we all hope "our" specialities will be covered - and perhaps even with images of our pristine examples! I hope the newly discovered huge Cooke II D will make it!

[Emil Schildt]

what lenses will you describe in part III?

Oscar zwierzina "Plasticca" ?
Oskar Simon "Kronar" and "Kronarette"?

and others...(Universal Heliar ?)

Looking foreward to read it.

Thanks for this

[Marko Trebusak]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for posting this. I too am looking forward to part II.

Cheers,
Marko

[Stephane]

Hello Dan
Thank you for doing this. Knowing the designs and types of aberration is good to know how to focus.
Which brings me to what I want: use these things properly.
So I also want to thank you for including the link to the PhD thesis on sf lenses (in particular the technique chapter): it is not easy, and the learning curve is so gentle that it may take a long time to climb it half-way. There still some tips disseminated in there.

Maybe you have seen this one article here that shows examples at different f/ settings. It is in "easy french" that google translate can handle rather well.
http://www.galerie-photo.com/soft-fo...rait-flou.html

Waiting for part II now, and part III later...

Stephane

[Alex Wei]

I am sure will read it and enjoy it fully, thanks for the hard work.

Alex W.

[CCHarrison]

Thanks for all the nice comments. I plan to write about as many different SF lenses that were produced as long as I have some good data (images,examples,catalogue pages) to share with you all.

I just updated the page with an image from Geoff Berliner of his collection of 6 Pinkham & Smith Lenses !

Dallmeyer Portrait Anastigmat - Hugo - I have very little data other than this was a very late entry in the SF lens market - perhaps as late as the 1940's. It was produced in 10, 12 and 14 inch versions and were reviewed in the British Journal Photographic Almanac 1954 page 218. Do you have an image of the lens?


Thanks again,

Dan