210mm Process lens as soft-focus

[paulMD]

So, I picked up a 210mm f/9 process lens in the For Sale forum. It's got an iris that is still closed quite a bit at the "maximum" aperture, probably another 1-2 stops' worth or so. If I get in there and take out the iris or the stop, will I get something passable as a soft-focus lens or will I just get mush? Has anyone here tried it? I couldn't find anything with the search function.

[John Kasaian]

Smear a thin coat of Vasiline on the front.

[Fotoguy20d]

Process lenses are generally pretty sharp - not what I would choose as a starting point for a soft focus lens. If soft focus is your goal, and you don't like the Vaseline suggestion, try a cheap meniscus lens with the restriction removed, or maybe a rapid rectilinear wide open, or better yet, just one half of a RR wide open.

Dan

[ic-racer]

Also, try just the front or rear cell alone.

[c.d.ewen]

I've put a few process lenses into shutters, where the max opening of the shutter was more than the max opening of the lens in its barrel. My memory of the results are that you don't really get softness, but rather "glowing highlights".

Charley

[jnantz]

you could try to unscrew the back element a little bit
( quarter or half turn ) and see what that does,
front focusing sometimes helps too ..

have fun