Here's 'Upon Reflection' w/this version from my Petzval w/the rear elements screwed away from each, and in this config I consider it definitely putting out the kind of softness as my other soft focus/portrait lenses such the Kodak Portrait, my Velostigmat II(w/limiting screw removed) and some other glass, the question of the difference is one of degree.
In this mode it still may not be a Vesta, Vitax, or Dallmeyer, but it's trying. One thing is for sure, w/o me srewing out the rear elements from each other, it's still VERY fast, and you can obviously still take portraits, again the difference between what you get from the lenses original config and screwing the rear elements away from each other being a difference in the degree of softness.
This goes along w/the original point, and contrary to the way my ad and I have characterized in this thread, I've studied all this, from James Petzval, his life, to the definition of a 'zero Petzval sum', read up 1000 times CC Harrison's good stuff and everything else I could find on Petzvals for quite a long time.
My Petzval lens ISN'T a Vesta, Vitax, or Dallmeyer, and if the expectation from somebody considering buying a portrait lens is that he's getting a certain degree of softness/or something approaching a Vista or a Vitax, then my lens isn't that kind of lens(in its orgiginal config) even though it is STILL a Petzval, STILL fast, and can still be used on portraiture.
This of course is why the Vestas and Dallmeyers fetch more bucks and it's because of the difference in degree in softness, not the consideration of the creation of the Petzval by James Petzval resulting in a faster lens photographers could take advantage in using this lens for portraiture.
I would knock my own lens as a portrait lens in its original config(I get a portrait lens, my expectation is that is has a degree of softness), so that doesn't mean somebody else can say because of that that I'm saying that 'Petzvals aren't for Portraits'.
Yes, the Petzval took us to the faster lens for Portraiture, that's a given, it's used differently now in many cases, for the transition from fairly sharp in the center to the 'swirlies', I am aware of that, and was aware of that when I posted my ad.
I guess this also boils down to what someone's concept of what a portrait lens is, regardless of whether the lens happens to be a Petzval or not
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