Verito in the landscape?

[Shen45]

I recently acquired a 9" Verito and a 14" Veliostigmat II from the Nevada lens mine. They are truly beautiful pieces of glass. I have started doing some initial tests with both lenses for portraits and cannot get over how soft and yet sharp the images are. The look is really different to modern glass. I know that is an obvious statement but until you actually use one of these lenses you aren't really aware of the differences

I'm wondering if anyone has used the Verito for landscape work. Not the grand view so much but more the intimate water scene etc?

Does anyone have any examples of images they have done?

I hope to get out and shoot some film tomorrow but with Australia in a massive drought water scenes are not on the menu.

Steve

[Jim collum]

i've used the Cooke soft focus lens for landscape shots.. i have some examples at

cooke examples (http://web1.omniblog.com/_smartsite/modules/local/blog/blog_display.php?cmd=blog_with_comments&map_id=1191)

[Shen45]

Thanks Jim,

Although different lenses I imagine the 9" [229mm] Verito is somewhat similar to the Cooke in the way it handles the elements of a landscape. Selection of the subject would need to be carefully considered I suspect. I believe my Verito is about 1910 - 1920 vintage.

The Nevada lens miner did a very good job of restoring it and the studio shutter -- which now by the way works beautifully fully open to f4.5.:)
Must have been the plane flight back to Australia and the very curious xray scans at "every" airport security. Brass barrel lenses seem to get security attention as they appear solid.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've tried it. If you're an APUG subscriber, you can see a sample shot here (I think if you're not a subscriber, you just get a thumbnail)--

http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7729&cat=500&ppuser=60

You can see other shots of the same scene with other lenses if you click on "see this user's gallery."

I think the Verito works best with hard light and/or another means of increasing contrast, like using a red filter or extending development. If the light is too soft to begin with, it all turns to mush. You'll find most of the glowing effect happens between f:4 and f:8.

[Jack Flesher]

I used a 9" Verit*ar* for a few color landscape images and found it wonderful. I would have bought it except I already had a Cooke Portrait.

[jnantz]

hi steve

i have a verito, but haven't had a chance to stray too far away from shooting portraits with it. i do however have an ilex seminat ( 1920s f3.5 ) and a 10" veritar that i have shot some things with ...

have fun!

-john

[william linne]

Here's one made with the Wollensak Versar, which I find to be the most interesting of all the Wollensak Portrait lenses.

http://static.flickr.com/103/288562282_0aa660dc27.jpg

[Andrew O'Neill]

Where do you guys find such lenses? Does the Nevada lens miner have a website?

[Frank Petronio]

This thread is making me so excited! Tim Sharkey has my old new Verito and I can't wait to get it back (in a shutter no less!)

[Jonathan Brewer]

Googling Jim Galli should give a bunch of links, also 'cameraeccentric' has old brochures with pictures and specs of these classic/brass/soft focus lenses.

Lens and Repro has a section devoted to soft focus, and there is Tepper, and some others I can't think of, also check out old, so called 'vintage'/'antique' cameras for sale that are sometimes sold for next to nothing, folks don't know what the lens is on the camera, and think because it's brass/old looking, that it's near useless for shooting.

These folks here know all this, but many times you can come up with a classic lens in some category nobody's looking for, or in the case of my Gundlach Meniscis, I think I got the a 'jump' on everybody since whoever did up the ad mis-spelled the name of the lens.

The good part is that these lenses are now getting their due, unfortunately, now that everybody knows about 'em, where before, you could get some of these lenses for $5-$10-$25-$50.00, a good Velostigmat II w/the 1-5 soft focus control @$150.00 or more is still the equal some of the more expensive portrait/classic/soft focus lenses going a grand and up.

Jim Galli to his credit, has almost single handedly changed the mindset of a lot of folks as making photography w/these lenses, 'Nevada Lens Mine', I luv it.

[Jonathan Brewer]

Well Frank, maybe we ought to keep you from getting your lens back, since you like to photograph old men, hopefully that'll keep you and Kirk Gittings from getting together.

[william linne]

I'll have quite a few interesting lenses up for sale on ebay over the coming three weeks. A beautiful soft focus Zeiss Unar and a Versar clone and many other rare and beautiful lenses. Check under "ineffablething" on ebay.

[Frank Petronio]

Oh Kirk is my dream model, except I'd have to be using an enlarging lens ;)

Or think about doing this kinda shot: A really, really hairy old guy, total back coverage, all wirey and coarse --- really, really over sharp.

Neither are Verito shots of course. But any volunteers?

[snuck]

Where do you guys find such lenses? Does the Nevada lens miner have a website?

I got mine, a Perkin Rayment Optimus (discovered to be a petzval), which I will be posting pictures by.. hopefully tomorrow as I'll be printing tonight...by searching for 'brass lens' or 'antique lens' on fleabay. If you look hard enough there are still some deals to be had. I kind of took a big risk because the lens had the most 'orrible photography iin the world done of it. Much to my delight, it cleaned up spotlessly. Unfortunately i discovered that it vignettes 5x7. Stilll.. the pics look nice.....

Cheers

[jnantz]

Where do you guys find such lenses? Does the Nevada lens miner have a website?

sometime ago i bought the seminat from dagor77 .. it was less than 50 including shipping ... and i dunno maybe 6-7 years ago a friend/dealer sold me the veritar

... as others said you can usually find stuff that is in the wrong place on e-boo,
i found my verito that way under "old lens"

... sometimes you can find the real-deal, when a seller doesn't know anything about a lens or shutter and lists them as broken or missing parts (kodak portrait lenses) ;)

--john

[william linne]

I got a box of 15 old portrait and view lenses (including a Verito and 5 petzvals) for 20 bucks (the shipping was more!) on the Goodwill auction site.

[wfwhitaker]

Something to keep in mind is that, at least by my own observation, Verito's usually came in a Studio shutter or in a barrel. There are some in Betax's and other shutters (my 9" is in a Wollensak Regular (pneumatic)), but even so, fast shutter speeds are unreliable or nonexistant. Combined with the fact that these lenses do their "stuff" at wide apertures, you're going to need to think about a significant amount of ND filtration, depending on light and film speed, of course.

Just glancing at the 9" makes me think that it may be a candidate for transplant to an Ilex #5, but I've not measured it. The larger examples are beyond any reasonably modern shutter. One thing you don't want to do with a Verito is to limit its maximum aperture. That is, unless you think it's too dreamy or something, in which case you wouldn't be using it in the first place.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll keep an eye out for your lenses, William...even though I hate that auction place...

[Jeremy Moore]

Just glancing at the 9" makes me think that it may be a candidate for transplant to an Ilex #5, but I've not measured it. The larger examples are beyond any reasonably modern shutter. One thing you don't want to do with a Verito is to limit its maximum aperture. That is, unless you think it's too dreamy or something, in which case you wouldn't be using it in the first place.

William, my 9" verito is mounted to an Ilex#5 and it works very well--also gives you a flash sync (with the correct #5).

[wfwhitaker]

William, my 9" verito is mounted to an Ilex#5 and it works very well--also gives you a flash sync (with the correct #5).

That's neat. Yesterday I took a closer look at mine and if it weren't for the different thread pitches, it would be close to a direct fit. Still, it would be a simple job to have it remounted properly. Having real shutter speeds and a flash sync is nice. My 8 1/4" is in an Ilex #4 sync shutter, so it wouldn't really be worth the cost to have this one remounted to gain an additional 3/4".

[Jim Galli]

Hey Steve! My computer is broke and I've been away a bit, but here's one:

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/VeritoBristleconeF6ss.jpg

Done with the Eastman Improved #2 7X11 camera and 18" Verito.

[Kerik Kouklis]

Here are a few with an 18" Verito on 14x17. All are gum over platinum prints.

[Amund BLix Aaeng]

Ah very nice Kerik!

Far from a Verito, but still fun, I a B&L 8x10 1c I got. Only sharp in the middle, weird fuzziness everywere else.

[Shen45]

Great images posted so far.

I went out on this past weekend and shot some images with my 9" Verito and hope to get in the dark today or tomorrow. The thing that amazes me about the older optics is the fact they were actually quite [very] high quality.

Keep the "fuzzies" coming guys as they are really interesting to look at.

Steve

[roteague]

Great images posted so far.

I went out on this past weekend and shot some images with my 9" Verito and hope to get in the dark today or tomorrow. The thing that amazes me about the older optics is the fact they were actually quite [very] high quality.

Keep the "fuzzies" coming guys as they are really interesting to look at.

Steve


I'll bet you regret not bringing it to Ormiston Gorge now, for that rock shot. That lens would have been sweet on that shot.

[Shen45]

Yes Robert :)

And -- it is just a touch more than a weekend drive.

If the shot of the rock comes out ok I will bump the enlarger when I print it :)

Steve

[Shen45]

These were done on the weekend. I haven't printed them as yet. These are digisnaps off the lightbox.

All done with 9" Verito and a studio shutter on Efke 100 5x4 film

[roteague]

Nice work Steve.... looking forward to seeing the final prints.