I stopped using my 5x4 about 12 years ago, but last year I started to use it again as I've really had my fill of digital - and I'm a full-time photographer...! Besides landscapes I've started to shoot some portraits but I don't like them. My Schneider lens is too sharp, too clinical and too precise. Then I had a biblical moment when I realised that there was other lenses besides modern lenses - which is when i discovered that those lovely old portraits with lots of edge aberrations were taken with Petzval type lenses.
So digging deeper I learnt that after the Petzval and Achromat lenses evolved, and behind them came the anastigmatic lenses. And then I learnt how expensive and rare Petzval-type lenses are. Alas, in the UK we're not allowed to sell blood, organs or family members, so the quest is to find something affordable: but what....?
So, my first question is: Usually antique camera dealers list lenses as anastigmatic or non-anastigmatic, so is a Peztval type lens a non-anastigmatic lens?
My second question is: In looking to buy an "affordable" lens in order to recreate "some" of those old aberrations, would I be right that I should be looking for a non-anastigmatic lens, or an non-anastigmatic lens maybe before the 1930's, and before lenses became coated?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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