Old Zeiss Tessar for portrait

[mylek]

I'm looking for a good 300mm lens for head and shoulder portrait on 5x7.

Will an old CZJ Tessar f/4.5 be good enough or i should go for something like the 12" f/6.3 Commercial Ektar.
Will a RR lens give a rendering close to it?
Will a 14" be better than 12" for the job?

Regards!

[Ian Greenhalgh]

There's a Russian Industar 4.5/300 that is pretty cheap on ebay, it's a tessar. (os is it a 5.6, I forget, but it's a tessar).

[drew.saunders]

To make a head and shoulders shot on 5x7, you'll be fairly close to the subject (with a 300/12" lens, maybe about 3'/1m away or so), so an f/4.5 lens that close will have very narrow depth of field. A 300/4.5 CZJ Tessar is a fine portrait lens, I use a c. 1951 165/3.5 CZJ Tessar on my 4x5, and used it for a very close portrait at f/3.5 (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/drew_saunders/5048609393/) and I ended up getting the subject's teeth in focus, but not her eyes. A 14" will give you more working room.

[Randy]

A B&L 8X10 1C might be a good choice. It's f/4.5. I have the 11X14 version which is almost 400mm so I am guessing the 8X10 version is close to 300mm.

[Ken Lee]

300mm is long enough that you will get strong blur rendition no matter what lens you choose. However, if you get a vintage lens in a vintage shutter, you will get a vintage aperture: round. That will help under certain conditions.

Another advantage of Tessars, Heliars etc. is that they open to wide apertures (f/4.5 for example). Not only are they easier to focus, but by f/8, such lenses are already stopped-down a bit: enough to be sharp in-focus, but soft elsewhere.

Here's a page (http://www.kennethleegallery.com/html/tessar/) of photos made with Carl Zeiss Jena Tessars, including some portraits. This portrait (http://www.kennethleegallery.com/html/tech/tessarportrait.html) was made with a 250mm Tessar on 4x5, and a 300mm or anything longer on 5x7 will be similar.

[Bernice Loui]

There is an old rule of thumb or lens focal length for head and shoulder, add the format edges together and the resulting number is the focal length.

Example 4x5, = 9" or about 240mm, 5x7, = 12" or about 300mm, 8x10, = 18" or about 460mm.

This rational is what's behind the Cooke PS9 portrait lens focal length of 9", Kodak Portrait in 12" and 16" and others.

Focal length used for head and shoulder portrait images is about distortion and foreground / background perspective and transitions from focus to out of focus and all the qualities related to this transition. In an extreme example of head and shoulder distortion, try using a wide angle lens and filling the view finder/ground glass of your subject's head and shoulder and note the geometric distortion of the subject's head and shoulder.... or why longer than normal focal length lenses are commonly used for head and shoulder images.


As for lens choice on 5x7 head and shoulder portrait images, my faves are 12" f4.5 Kodak Ektar, 300mm f4.5 (later coated version) Schneider Xenar and the 12" Kodak Portrait Ektar, These lenses would be used within f8 or at times wide open aperture depending on the desired image results. These are preferred in barrel with a real round aperture as this does make a difference in out of focus rendition.

Keep in mind the DOF is extremely shallow with this format and at these apertures. Camera alignment and focus accuracy is a must or the resulting image focus area will end up were it is not wanted. It is also challenging for the subject too as any significant movement from the subject will also result in a shift in focus area in the image.

There is another discussion, "Ektar Suggestions" that went into a more detailed discussion about Tessar Lens design in general.
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?104261-Ektar-Suggestions


-Typically the lens is focused on the eye.


Bernice




I'm looking for a good 300mm lens for head and shoulder portrait on 5x7.

Will an old CZJ Tessar f/4.5 be good enough or i should go for something like the 12" f/6.3 Commercial Ektar.
Will a RR lens give a rendering close to it?
Will a 14" be better than 12" for the job?

Regards!

[mylek]

Thanks everybody!

This will help me a lot.
As i missed a couple of good deals on CE 12" f/6.3 and Ektar f/4.5, i might give a try on a old CZJ 12".
I should have enough bellow on the B&J Rembrant.