Portrait lenses

[Alan Klein]

Currently I'm shooting 75, 90, 150, 300 in 4x5. I shoot landscapes mainly but would like to get one portrait lens that I can also use for landscape. What would be good for both and that has good bokah as well.

[BrianShaw]

Currently I'm shooting 75, 90, 150, 300 in 4x5. I shoot landscapes mainly but would like to get one portrait lens that I can also use for landscape. What would be good for both and that has good bokah as well.

Consider a 10-inch Ektar or Commercial Ektar. Will do what you want and fills in a gap in your FL lineup.

[jnantz]

modernish lenses I enjoy using a 21cm tessar and a 10"veritar for long lens work, or if I am on location doing an environmental sort of thing I'll use a 90(chrome barrel) SA.
sorry I don't have images to upload.. since my website was changed around some of the portraits were swapped out..

[Califmike33]

I agree with Shawn. Modern lenses produce too much of a cut & paste look. The newest lens i like for 4x5 portraits is an uncoated 12" Velostigmat.

Nice work.

[Califmike33]

The Ektar lenses sound very interesting to me.

[Califmike33]

https://www.largeformatphotography.i...rtrait-lenses/

Great link lots of information.

[Califmike33]

On 4x5 I've shot a lot of 210 for portraits - mostly a Sinaron 210 f/5.6. Any modern 210 f5.6 plasmat lens will do just fine, regardless of brand. A 10" Kodak Commercial Ektar also makes a very nice option, if your camera has enough bellows to focus it at portrait distance. What camera do you have? That will guide recommendations as much as anything else... well, that and the kind of portraits you want to make. If you want sharp, clear, highly detailed portraits, then one of those aforementioned 210 plasmats in a Copal 1 shutter will do just fine, and work very nicely as a general purpose lens as well. If you want expressive, soft-focus portraits, that is an entirely different animal.

Also, do you have a budget in mind? If you have a limited budget, then a modern lens is your best option. If you have a flexible budget, there are a lot of mid-century lenses (like those Commercial Ektars) that will be great options. If you have a very generous budget, then you can start looking at some more exotic glass like a Cooke Series II in the 8-12" range or a Dallmeyer lens, or one of the 305mm Kodak Portrait lenses.

Midrange budget.

[Kiwi7475]

This article should be used as a guide only, not absolute. Having been and done this same group of lenses discussed in this article, there are agreements and dis-agreements with what was written/shared.

Generally true, modern plasmas work for portraits, Tessar formula lenses Do have smoother into out of focus rendering, Heliar effect is good at full aperture to about f11 where it become most like any other similar lens, APO Lanthar is over rated, Dagor remains one of the best overall view camera lenses for a long list of reasons. APO artar, APO ronar, APO nikkor are essentially identical, If multi-coated contrast rendition will change. In to out of focus rendition is also affected by iris shape, Shutter mounted versions of these APO process lenses tends to produce non-round out focus products due to the limited number of iris blades in modern shutters.. exception are the ones mounted in vintage shutter with a round iris..

All that verbiage done. The long standing faves remain:

Kodak f4.5 Ektar, the 12" 4.5 Ektar remains one of the all time faves for head/shoulder on 5x7.
Kodak f6.3 Commercial Ektar, is a very similar alternative, real difference is in full aperture. This previously posted image was made using a 4x5 Sinar F (circa 1970's production) using a 8 1/2" Kodak Commercial Ektar..
https://www.largeformatphotography.i...n-a-LF-wedding

Schneider Xenar, the f4.5 variety.. Fujinar SC, f4.5 or f4.7 variety, Fujinon L, f5.6 variety.

Ilex Paragon, Boyer f4.5 Saphir, Rodenstock-Ysarex, Zeiss Tessar and a vey long list of other Tessar formula view camera lenses that have been designed/produced for over a century.

Turns out the 180mm f4.8 Zeiss Sonnar makes a dandy portrait lens on 6x7 or 6x9..

Planar or Double Gauss lens formulas for view camera portrait lenses remains Meh due to their in to out of focus rendition.. While they offer big lens full apertures of f2.8 to f3.5 their in to out of focus rendition remains ... Meh.

Typical 5x4 focal lengths ~200mm to ~300mm or ~8" to 12"... Keep in mind there Must be sufficient distance between portrait sitter to camera for lighting..
Putting the camera/lens real close to the portrait sitter often results in a less than comfy portrait sitter that can bend the expression potential of the portrait sitter.

Previously discussed on LFF (8x10, very similar applies to 5x4):
https://www.largeformatphotography.i...t-work-on-8x10

~Lighting remains one of the most important aspects of portrait fotos as does expression and pose.. IMO, expression followed by pose/composition is what most portrait image viewers respond to, the other aspect are often not as important.

~Then there is the universe of Sorta-Focus or soft focus view camera lenses..
Bernice

Why is the APO Lanthar over rated? Overpriced for sure but I was curious about where it falls short…

[Scott Davis]

Midrange budget.

Define midrange- $500-$1K?

If that's the range, then a Commercial Ektar is a great option.

[Daniel Unkefer]

The Repair Guru Ken Ruth (Photography On Bald Mountain), always had the back cover of Shutterbug for decades. He received an uber uber rare 150mm Apo Lanthar, in Plaubel Makiflex Automatic Iris Mount, which came all the way from Milan, Italy to his place in the Pacific Northwest. . He could not make the lens sharp, he returned it as such. He warned me not to buy one with shooting with it first. Apparently the elements are glued in, and can move around? Very sage advice before making a major purchase. By the way, I've only seen exactly -one- which was part of a Makiflex oufit in Germany. The Holy Grail of Makiflex.