Soft focus (portrait) lenses for 4x5

[analoguey]

Analoguey,

Take a look at my post here for soft focus on the cheap http://www.largeformatphotography.in...s-on-the-cheap

Good luck
Dan

I did, I am still new to the terminology - new even to large format - so it will probably need a bit of time to sink in.

yes, you need to remove part

shutters are easy, in that you don't really need one, simply find a fitting lens cap, remove for one or two seconds and replace, voila your film will then be exposed

older lenses were manufactured well before the Copal shutter sizes were invented, if you are using wooden lens boards, then simply cut a whole for the rear of the lens

regards

andrew

Hmm, right. Would one have a long exposure even if using flash? (speed lights)

Landscape meniscus lenses used to be the Cinderella of 1890/1910 brass lenses. At that period they were part of the budget photography set for the amateur. Regretably, they are very often with restricted apertures which require violence to open them up and they have become very popular (expensive, compared with 10 years ago).

Another source of similar achromats is the front part of a magic lantern lens. These are often damaged at the rear due to heat problems and ill treatment ( a light touch is required for dismantling and cleaning the two rear elements). The front achromat is usually in quite good shape and coverage for up to 8x10 will be no problem. The most common size is around 46-52mm barrel diameter. Look for plain tube type which attracts less interest than the brassy/wheel pinnion versions.

It is said that 1/2 rapid rectilinear lenses are not so much fun!

Ok, I shall try -although most of the terms above would require at least a wiki search to get what they refer too - especially the terms defining the type of lens!

[analoguey]

Also one can use a Packard Shutter.
http://www.packardshutter.com/

Alrighty! Quite a few on bay with these I think.

I would look into an imagon - the smaller sizes are easy to find and relatively cheap (and many have shutters). They are not made of brass and not popular with collectors, which is good - you will end up getting a solid value and will avoid paying inflated collector prices.

Aha. Yes, I'd prefer that the lens have more user value. Cant pay for a collector's item yet.

Well, if you really want cheap...

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ctorial-lenses!

That is an awesome suggestion, Mark. I think this would be something really awesome and easy to try!
I didn't get how you estimated the f stops though? And what you would do for aperture setting?

[Mark Sawyer]

That is an awesome suggestion, Mark. I think this would be something really awesome and easy to try!
I didn't get how you estimated the f stops though? And what you would do for aperture setting?

The f/stop is easy: The focal length (distance from the lens to the ground glass when in focus) divided by the aperture, (diameter of the lens). So a 12-inch focal length with a 2-inch diameter lens is 12 divided by 2... f/6!

If you want to shut down the aperture, cut some circular holes in black cardboard and put it in front of the lens. A half-inch hole on that 12-inch lens gives you f/24.

[Paul Ewins]

You could also look at the Fujinon SF lenses - 180 and 250mm - which are an Imagon style lens. As with the Imagon make sure that at least one of the "sink strainer" disks is included since they are what produce the desired effect. The BINs on eBay are around the $400 mark but I have seen them go for much less and indeed KEH has a 250 Fujinon with just the red disk for $225. The Fujinons should have a red and a yellow disk, while the Imagons usually have three disks labelled with the effective f-stop.

[Ken Lee]

A minor correction please if I'm not mistaken: the Fuijinon SFS and Rodenstock Imagon lenses are similar in that they both allow you to use special inserts, but their optical designs are different.

[Alan Gales]

A minor correction please if I'm not mistaken: the Fuijinon SFS and Rodenstock Imagon lenses are similar in that they both allow you to use special inserts, but their optical designs are different.

From my understanding on the Fujinon you remove a front element and place the strainer between the front and rear elements. On the Imagon the strainer goes in front of all the glass. There is no front element.

This design difference causes a slightly different effect. Some people prefer the "look" of the Fujinon and others prefer the "look" of the Imagon.

Clear as mud, right?

[jp]

For 4x5, the fuji isn't soft enough for me.
I would suggest these options
for minimal budget: speed graphic (has shutter)
1. magnifying glass/+5 closeup lens
2. Reinhold Wollaston meniscus 190mm
for mid-budget
1. old land-scape lens without aperture
2. Imagon
for bigger budget
1. verito
2. kodak 305 is your bellows are long enough

As far as shutters go,
you can use slow film and use a hat/darkslide for shutter for slow speeds. You can shoot after sundown or in dim light for more speed control
you can salvage a shutter from a lens with bad glass if it's big enough
you can use a speed graphic or graflex with built in shutter
you can use a sinar shutter

[Mark Sawyer]

...As far as shutters go,
you can use slow film and use a hat/darkslide for shutter for slow speeds. You can shoot after sundown or in dim light for more speed control
you can salvage a shutter from a lens with bad glass if it's big enough
you can use a speed graphic or graflex with built in shutter
you can use a sinar shutter

I mentioned this in another thread, but I'll cross-mention it here too. The ubiquitous Copal 3 shutter has 58mm threads front and rear. One can remove the "normal" elements and screw in a 58mm close-up diopter at the rear and have a soft lens with a modern flash-synched shutter. A 58mm UV filter will keep dust out of the front.

[Reinhold Schable]

Here's a clone of photography's first lens (1812).

http://re-inventedphotoequip.com/Home.html

It does a nice job on portraits.
A finished product at a reasonable cost.

Reinhold

[Dan Dozer]

You asked about using a flash, so I'll throw in my 2 cents worth.

I use a lot of older brass lenses for indoor portrait type of work that don't have shutters or flash sinc's in them. The simplest way to do flash photography for indoor portrait work is to connect your flash up to a remote triggering device. You simply darken the room after you have composed and set your flash accordingly, take off the lens cap, pop the shutter, then replace the lens cap. The one or two seconds that the lens cap is off won't register on the film as long as you darken the room somewhat. There are very inexpensive triggering devices available, but they do fail sometimes and don't work. My fall back position is to just connect the flash to one of my newer lenses that does have a shutter and use it with a cable release as the flash triggering device separately from the camera. Do the same process - turn off the modelling lamp(s), remove the lens cap, pop the shutter, replace the lens cap.

Another solution if you are a little creative is to get a packard shutter mounted to a board and fit it over the front of the lens. If you put together a little device on the shutter that the flash is connected to that opens the circuit when the packard shutter is open, it will fire the flash automatically and you have a flash that is sinc'ed to your shutter. Sounds complicated, but it is really pretty simple - a couple of brass or copper strips that the packard plunger trips. If you're interested, let me now and I can try to find a photo of the one I made.

Hope this helps