Dan,
OK, if an Aero Ektar can't be used on my 4x5" R.B. Super D Graflex to create soft focus images what other lens might you suggest I look for?
Golly, it kinda makes me mad that I've had that camera for who knows how many years and have done nothing with it until my sunset years.
Thanks,
Terry
Terry, I can't answer your question. I've never been interested in soft focus lenses and know very little about them. Aero Ektars aren't soft focus lenses. USAF didn't buy soft focus lenses.
Since you want advice I suggest you start a discussion in the Lenses etc. section. You might also click on this link http://research-repository.st-andrew...ndle/10023/505 and click to download. You'll get doctoral dissertation on soft-focus lenses and pictorialism, not a lens catalog per se, but people interested in pictorialism or soft-focus lenses might find it an interesting read.
SF lenses are very specialized and there's not a lot of agreement about them except that when needed they're good things. Do check your budget, though, respected ones don't go cheap. I say this even thought I once bought a 210 Busch Nicola Perscheid Objectiv for only $42. I don't expect to see a deal like that ever again.
Good point. Aero Ektars were made to take high resolution reconnaissance photos from altitude. I'm not even sure why they needed fast lenses.
Garrett
flickr galleries
Probably. Is there an internet?Originally Posted by AtlantaTerry
Garrett
flickr galleries
Well, for one they sometimes shot at night. For another, the primitive cameras that used Aero Ektars didn't have forward motion compensation, instead used high shutter speeds to reduce motion blur.
I am not Dan, of course, but soft focus is not the same as de-focus, shallow DOF, diffused focus or just plain screwed up Softar or Vaseline smeared lenses.
What about a Dallmeyer Pentac? I have seen this lens going til f2.9 and and it have been used by the British Air Ministry staff. Maybe a lens to consider also, in this days where an Aero Ektar is costing so much, and few of them are in mint condition,
Cheers,
Renato
I was going to suggest the 8" f/2.9 Pentac. It's probably the best aero/fast lens to use on a 4x5 RB camera. It will reach infinity without any modifications to the camera (unlike the 7" AE). A 210mm f/3.5 Xenar might be another nice choice.
Yes, of course an AE is not a soft focus lens! Silly me.I wrote that in haste when other folks in the house wanted to go out to get something to eat. My bad. Sorry about that.
What I should have asked for was a suggestion for a fast lens that would work on my 4x5" R.B. Super D Graflex, one that would give me a shallow depth of field. Much of my work is on the sets of film and television productions where I create character photographs of actors in costume and makeup that will be used to promote the production in press releases, ads, posters, magazine covers, etc. So I am always looking to give the producers photographs that are different or something "interesting" about them. A fast optic that is sharp, such as an Aero Ektar, would be the kind of tool I am looking for.
BTW, since I would be mainly creating portraits with fast sharp lenses, I don't have to worry very much about focusing to infinity.
Here are some of my large format portraits of actors from the set of an 1845-era film about slavery in the southern United States, "Doin' Time". These were created with a 240mm f/6.8 TeleCongo on my Crown Graphic, both of which were stolen in 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/Terry.Thoma...0413908&type=3
Thread re-planted in the proper garden.
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