Greetings-
I am going to begin setting money aside and in a year’s time I should have around $1800 to spend on a lens (plus another few hundred for shipping and a new Packard Shutter and a lens board). I would like to ask you gentlemen for recommendations for the best Petzval lens that you think I might find at around that price. I would like a lens in excellent working order with a flange so that I can mount it to a lens board and make photographs with it. I am eager to know the history and the stories behind these lenses, but I am not a collector - I can’t afford to be. I want to actually use this equipment.
I shoot portraits, mostly in natural, cloudy bright light on an 8x10 Ansco Studio No. 5 that takes 9” lens boards.
Currently I use a 14” Rodenstock Sironar-N, a 10” Kodak Commercial Ektar, and a 7.5” Gundlach. Recently I bought a 1907 Voigtlander Heliar 4.5 / 360mm that I’m about to put into service (I posted a question about this lens a couple of weeks ago).
I’ve read everything I can find about Petzval lenses, including Dan Colucci’s excellent article. I was feeling pretty sure that I wanted a Voigtlander Euryscop next, but since it will be quite a while before I can afford another lens after next year, I’m thinking now that a Petzval lens layout will throw an image that is more dramatically different than the Heliar, and so would be a more interesting contrast to the lenses I already own.
If you have this information, please include as many details as possible in your recommendations (manufacturer, model name, model number, focal length, aperture, etc.) because from what I’ve seen, the names and numbers and series of these lenses can be quite convoluted, and sellers often don’t seem to know much about what they are selling.
As ever, thank you for your input.
-Cameron Cornell
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