Can anyone help with this. About a couple of years ago, a short article appeared in View Camera magazine on older Pictorial and Soft Focus Lenses, by, I believe Jay Lynch. The author had a small self published book, setting out, details of these type of lenses. Has anyone come across this book? What do they think of it and how to contact the author/publisher. Colin Myers
The guy you refer to is Jay Allen. He used to have a website, but it has since dissappeared. I have seen mention of him on the Cooke website (http://www.cookeoptics.com/product/ps945.html). I have never seen his book, but I have heard (this is all third hand, so take it with lots of salt) that his book is primarily a collection of ads.
For what it is worth, I found his article in VC to be pretty 'soft'.
I'm not a fuzzie-wuzzie, but I do remember seeing an online article about SF lenses recently. Imagons are the natural choice, but Lens & Repro has some older SF lenses listed.
The Allen book is a collection of verbatim excerpts from old (mostly) lens catalogs, arranged in a sort of order with a brief introduction. Physically, the "book" is xeroxed typescript. It covers a lot of lenses (maybe 30?), including most all the Wollensaks. The thing could certainly have been done better, but I'm unaware that anyone else has attempted it at all. -jb
Colin, I wrote an article on this subject recently which might be helpful to you. You can find it by scrolling down to "lenses" on the home page.
You can also find Ernest's article by searching for "soft focus".
Thanks everyone for your replies, especially Ernest - a very interesting short article. It does seem amazing that no one has covered this subject in depth. Colin Myers
Jay Allen now lives in Indianapolis,In.
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