Wollensak 18" f4 Verito lens

[steve simmons]

I've had this question e-mailed to me and do not know the answer. If anyone does I would appreciate some info'


thanks

steve simmons


I am writing to follow-up on a request that I made a week or so ago regarding the image circle capacity for a Wollensak 18" f4 Verito lens mounted in a studio shutter. I did get a response from the seller and he did confirm that the lens was listed as an 11" X 14" compatible design. As I previously mentioned, I am working with a 12" X 18" format (which is vertical only) and would like to use as much of the full frame as I can. I have gone to your web site - to the subscriber's section - to see if there might be an article in the archives that contained specifics for this lens but found nothing. The diagonal for the 11" X 14" format is approximately 18" (17.8+) and the same parameter for the 12" X 18" format is approximately 21." The possibility that this lens did cover the 12" X 20" banquet size as well is what I am trying to learn.

I would be grateful for any assistance that you cou provide that would enable me to pin-point the exact coverage this lens was designed for. I thank you in advance and hope to hear from you soon.

[Mark Sawyer]

Kerik uses the 18" Verito on his 14x17 and gets illumination to the corners, but this is outside Wollensak's recommended coverage of 11x14, and he gets a pronounced "swirly bokeh" effect. The 18" also had an interchangeable front element, which turns it to a 22", and if you use only the back element, it converts to a 30" focal length.

[Nick_3536]

http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/wollensakcatg/p11.html

If he looks around that website he'll find other Wollensack catalogues pages. From trying to figure out a similar question on the Vitax the feeling I get is it depends.

http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/wollensakcata/vitax.html

The quote on this page about coverage might give a clue on how Wollensack rated the lenses. Last paragraph.

Sounds to me when they state which lens for which format they are really talking about matching focal length to the portrait job. Not really talking about coverage. The smaller #4 Vitax on this page also covers 8x10 but they suggest the #5.

[cowanw]

I was puzzling about this too for my 10 inch wollensak, for which there is little help to be found in the wollensak literature. I found a post that suggested pointing the bare lens out a bright window and having a white card behind which is moved to bring the image into focus. It works.
set the lens on t or lock it open on b or use the focus lever.
f stop wide open for maximum light.
(or any f stop to test at that f stop ( but you will need to darken the room you are sanding in more.))
hold the lens to a window and hold the card behind the lens moving it closer and farther to focus the image ( i found sun reflecting on distant cars giving specular bright points helped)
Draw a 4X5 line Or 8X10 or whatever and you will see how much of your image falls beyond your film size.
This technique seemed to match my expectations of my leitmeyr 90 and my xenar 135 ( not much more than 4X5) and my nikon 300 m ( way good coverage)
I would use mounting board at 12x20 size and an assistant.
Regards Bill

[Jim Galli]

Kerik has posted photos using this lens on a 14X17 but focused significantly in from infinity and even at that it is well beyond it's design parameters. They also made a 22" extension front element for these. It changed it to f5.6 instead of f4 but gave a longer focus, more coverage. The 22" option doesn't appear too often but they were made.

[steve simmons]

Thanks for the information. I have passed your answers along.

steve simmns

[wfwhitaker]

So much depends on how the lens is used - the distance from the lens to the subject and how the subject is lighted. I've used my 18" Verito on 14x17 and found the coverage (or rather, the circle of illumination) to be somewhat marginal except at closer lens-to-subject distances. With the 22" extension I've used it once on 20x24 for a portrait, again with a fairly short lens-to-subject distance. In that case the subject was photographed against a black (or dark) background. If the lens did not cover adequately, it would have been virtually impossible to tell. In both cases mentioned the lens was used between f/4 (wide open) and f/8 which is where the Verito is characteristically diffuse.