If you didn't have any (pretend!) of the following lenses but were going to be given your choice of 2, which 2 would you pick and why?
Verito
Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality IV
Cooke IIa Portric Knuckler
Nicola Perscheid
Spencer Port-Land
B&L Sigmar
Darlot or Hermagis Petzval
Which 2 would you pick over and above those listed?
Last edited by Richard K.; 12-Mar-2010 at 16:05. Reason: I wrote Peztval which is VERY rare; I meant Petzval..
When I was 16 I thought my father the stupidest man in the world; when I reached 21, I was astounded by how much he had learned in just 5 years!
-appropriated from Mark Twain
Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality IV
Nicola Perscheid
i already have:
Cooke IIa Portrait Knuckler
Hermagis Petzval
My YouTube Channel has many interesting videos on Soft Focus Lenses and Wood Cameras. Check it out.
My YouTube videos
oldstyleportraits.com
photo.net gallery
I only need one:
Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality IV
GRRRR He mocks us!Originally Posted by Hugo Zhang
I only need one:
Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality IV
When I was 16 I thought my father the stupidest man in the world; when I reached 21, I was astounded by how much he had learned in just 5 years!
-appropriated from Mark Twain
The P&S, (I don't have one), for it's historic aura, and because it's flat-out waaaaaaaay soft.
The Cooke Portric, (I do have one, and a couple of Portrellics!), because it's so darned pretty. And because it's a good counterpoint to the P&S, having just a touch of softness, (and that's adjustable to razor-sharp). And somehow, the tonal scale from a Cooke just seems a little richer...
And I'd still go down to the 99-cent store to buy a cheap magnifying glass, just to show it can produce images as beautiful as anything on that list!
"I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."
They're all great soft focus I'm sure (except the last two, which aren't SF). I think I'd like a Cooke, for the quality build and gentle treatment of "soft".
In my soft head I confused soft focus with Portrait but I'm probably still wrong...
When I was 16 I thought my father the stupidest man in the world; when I reached 21, I was astounded by how much he had learned in just 5 years!
-appropriated from Mark Twain
Straight answer :
Verito
Struss
I agree 100% with racer . Verito is my first choice and Struss in second but i have to ad a Synthetic P&S as well .
I didn't see Struss in the list. From your list I'd pick the P&S Viz and the Cooke. That covers 2 very different styles of soft focus, the Cooke is very smooth, very classy, and the P&S is just about the best soft lens ever contrived. It is very different from the Cooke. The other important look is Petzval, but in spite of the current flurry of interest on petzvals, they are easier to come by than the other 2.
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