Info requested on Pinkham & Smith lenses

[Paul Wilson]

I asked this over on the regular Photo.net Q&A section but it was suggested I po st here as well

My grandfather was the Pinkham in Pinkham & Smith. Pinkham & Smith produced larg e format portrait lenses in the 30's, 40's and 50's. The lenses were rather famo us at the time since the design had purposely designed in optical defects to giv e a soft focus effect while being sharp at the same time.

Unfortunately, while I have a few of the lenses, I have very little information about them as all the records were lost. If anybody has any information about th ese lenses, in print or otherwise, I'd like to hear it. In fact if you use or us ed one of these lenses I'd like to see some of the results if possible.

Thanks.

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

Clayton Classic Cameras in Clayton, MO has either 1 or 2 for sale. He claims that there were only 50 14" soft focus P.-S.'s made. He's on the web, in Shutterbug and View Camera. When you call ask for Paul Mayberry.

[Michael Phifer]

Kingslake in, "A History of the Photographic Lens" Academic Press 1989. , has a couple of references to the Pinkham and Smith of Boston Portrait lens. T here is not much company history sited however... Mike Phifer