Vitax?

[Shen45]

Does anyone know if this lens or the Vesta is a Petzval design.

Also do you have any images you have created with a Vitax or a Vesta?

Steve

[Darren Kruger]

Does anyone know if this lens or the Vesta is a Petzval design.

Also do you have any images you have created with a Vitax or a Vesta?

"... a modern studio lens like the Vitax, an improvement on the popular Petzval formula ..."

"Built on a modification of the Petzval formula, the Vesta, like the Vitax ..."

both snips are from the 1913 Wollensak catalog (http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/wollensak_13.html) at http://www.cameraeccentric.com

-Darren

[goamules]

I have both, and both are petzvals. The vesta is f5, the vitax f3.8. I'm not sure but believe they will have less sperical abberations (swirl) than the petzvals of a generation earlier.

[Toyon]

What lens are you referring to?

[Mark Sawyer]

The Vesta, like the Versar and the Voltas, was a "budget" general purpose lens, not a "soft focus" or "diffused focus" lens. But the Vesta, being a Petzval, will still show those "Petzval swirls" under some circumstances and when pushed past their intended coverage. (But then again, so will some non-Petzval designs...)

The Vitax is a Petzval with a moveable internal element, similar to the older Dallmeyer soft-focus Petzval, to get the diffused effect, but where the Dallmeyer moved the element by rotating the lens barrel, the Vitax had a little knob on the outside of the barrel.

[Shen45]

From what I can gather is that the lens i have is an early Wollensak Series A which remained the same except for the name change to Vesta.

Thanks for the links and help.

[pinetar]

Greetings gentleman. This is my first post and I came here as a result of googling "soft focus". I was using a B&J 8x10 sunday with various old lenses and decided to find out more about the Wollensaks I have.

I was pleased with the results wide open of a W 14" f6 Veritar. I will be mounting a W Vitax f3.8 16" soon.

I adapted a dslr Canon 5D Mark II to the back, went to an old farm and tested.
I found light leaks around my adapter and on various lens boards but fixed them yesterday.

I will post a pic of one image. I was also shooting HD video with the same setup.
http://homepage.mac.com/nam65/.Pictures/large.format/fry57.jpg

[ljsegil]

Can't quarrel with soft.
Or interesting, looking forward to more.
LJS