Pictorial/ Soft Focus Lenses - Jay Lynch

[Colin Myers]

Can anyone help with this. About a couple of years ago, a short article appeared in View Camera magazine on older Pictorial and Soft Focus Lenses, by, I believe Jay Lynch. The author had a small self published book, setting out, details of these type of lenses. Has anyone come across this book? What do they think of it and how to contact the author/publisher. Colin Myers

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

The guy you refer to is Jay Allen. He used to have a website, but it has since dissappeared. I have seen mention of him on the Cooke website (http://www.cookeoptics.com/product/ps945.html). I have never seen his book, but I have heard (this is all third hand, so take it with lots of salt) that his book is primarily a collection of ads.

For what it is worth, I found his article in VC to be pretty 'soft'.

[jantman]

I'm not a fuzzie-wuzzie, but I do remember seeing an online article about SF lenses recently. Imagons are the natural choice, but Lens & Repro has some older SF lenses listed.

[Jeff Buckels]

The Allen book is a collection of verbatim excerpts from old (mostly) lens catalogs, arranged in a sort of order with a brief introduction. Physically, the "book" is xeroxed typescript. It covers a lot of lenses (maybe 30?), including most all the Wollensaks. The thing could certainly have been done better, but I'm unaware that anyone else has attempted it at all. -jb

[Ernest Purdum]

Colin, I wrote an article on this subject recently which might be helpful to you. You can find it by scrolling down to "lenses" on the home page.

[QT Luong]

You can also find Ernest's article by searching for "soft focus".

[Colin Myers]

Thanks everyone for your replies, especially Ernest - a very interesting short article. It does seem amazing that no one has covered this subject in depth. Colin Myers

[muzzy42]

Jay Allen now lives in Indianapolis,In.