History of vintage lens? website or book?

[ryanmills]

I'm working on a project and I want a really 20's - 30's feel and texture. Been trying to research lens but I cant find anything more than fragmented information. Has anyone put anything together? Sample images would be a real help but not required. But a starting point to start searching on what I can get my hands on would help.

[IanG]

The 30's/30's feel comes mostly from the films and papers, also the developers, used at the time, lenses were quite reasonable by then and Tessar and similat type lenses were very common.

Ian

[E. von Hoegh]

I'm working on a project and I want a really 20's - 30's feel and texture. Been trying to research lens but I cant find anything more than fragmented information. Has anyone put anything together? Sample images would be a real help but not required. But a starting point to start searching on what I can get my hands on would help.

An uncoated Tessar, say 135mm/4.5 as used on old Speed Graphics, or a Rollei Standard with a 75/3.5 Tessar would be a start. As Ian said, film paper and developer all matter too.

It would help if you could tell more about the project - landscape or strret photography? Still lifes? Portrait? Each would utilise a different lens and method of working.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Ian is correct. Earlier film was not panchromatic. Pan film did not catch on until the forties, and even then it was not very popular.

You might begin by mimicking earlier film which was largely sensitive to blue, and blind to red. Use a deep blue filter.

Are you wanting to do outdoor or studio work?

[henk@lf]

Maybe this could interest you :

http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/accesso...aphy-book.html

[IanG]

Because lenses were uncoated and exposure meters rudimentary or non existant films were developed at lower EI's and for longer thatn we would now to a higher contrast and density. However the papers matched that, a consequence is that it's very difficult to get prints that match from 20's &30's negatives with modern papers. You only have to see pre WWII Kertesz prints and compare them to 60's and 70's prints off the same negatives and the differance is startling, the pre war prints are small and jewel like, the later prints very good in fact superb by modern standards but the feel is very different.

Ian

[ryanmills]

This will be a mostly outdoor portrait project. I knew film would be an issue but it was something else to research, I will have to look into a blue filter thou. Are there any other tricks to mimicking film from the 20's-30's?

The Tessar's were what I was looking at, specifically a Zeiss Jena Tessar 135mm I saw on ebay. That got me wondering if there were some others I should be looking at around that focal length (will be shot on a sinar F, 4x5). With it being that old i'm worried that the shutter might not be that accurate anymore. I know a few places I could send it but was going to wait and see if its something simple I can just oil and be good.

Worst case I figure it wont be too hard to just buy up some old damaged lens, with a working shutter works and free of fungus. Then just play around and see what I get.

[E. von Hoegh]

This will be a mostly outdoor portrait project. I knew film would be an issue but it was something else to research, I will have to look into a blue filter thou. Are there any other tricks to mimicking film from the 20's-30's?

The Tessar's were what I was looking at, specifically a Zeiss Jena Tessar 135mm I saw on ebay. That got me wondering if there were some others I should be looking at around that focal length (will be shot on a sinar F, 4x5). With it being that old i'm worried that the shutter might not be that accurate anymore. I know a few places I could send it but was going to wait and see if its something simple I can just oil and be good.

Worst case I figure it wont be too hard to just buy up some old damaged lens, with a working shutter works and free of fungus. Then just play around and see what I get.

You might see if you can get some orthochromatic film, I don't know if any is till being made but there are films which have some 'ortho-ish" response.

As for old shutters, they can be made to work just fine. I have a ~1908 Compound which is accurate. Don't attempt to oil it unless you know how, a single drop of oil will suffice for half-a-dozen large shutters when properly applied. Other lenses would be the Tessar type Kodak Anastigmats, Wollensak Velostigmats, Bausch and Lomb made some uncoated Tessar types (IIRC). The faster Tessars give a nice look for portraits when used at max. aperture. None of these lenses should be expensive.

As for damaged lenses, they give a damaged lens look, not a 20s/30s look.

[goamules]

Hey Ryan, for fun, and for us to help more, why don't you post a few links to the style pictures you want to emulate?

[ryanmills]

@goamules: I don't really have any one photo in mind. It more about using period specific gear just as I plan to use period specific clothes etc.

@E. von Hoegh: When I said damaged I just meant cheap lens so I can just try some different ones and see what I get. I don't care if they have scratches or imperfections. In fact some I might enjoy. I did read up on some films and efke still makes a ortho film will have to play with it some.