Just for fun, which large format lenses were designed by photographers and actually made it into commercial production? Although these were produced by commercial lens manufacturers, the designs were by practicing photographers who used these lenses themselves. I can think of a few, but I'm sure I've forgotten or don't know about others, so please add to the list if you know some I've missed.
1.) The Karl Struss Pictorial Lens. Struss was a pictorial photographer and an Academy Award-winning cinematographer.
2.) The Nicola Perscheid Portrait Objektiv. Perscheid was a well-known German portrait and pictorial photographer.
3.) The Objectif d’Artiste Formule Anachromatique, the Objectif d'Artiste, the Portrait Anachromatique and the Adjustable Landscape Lens by Puyo (and Pulligny). Constant Puyo was a leading advocate and practitioner for pictorial photography in France, aided in design by Leclerc de Pulligny, an important early optical designer/engineer.
4.) The Graf-Bishop Soft Focus Lens by Lloyd C. Bishop. Bishop was an Indiana portrait photographer.
5.) The Bodine Pictorial Lens by H. Oliver Bodine, a Wisconsin pictorialist photographer and photography retailer. (Note: the Bodine Pictorial Lens was reworked by Wollensak to become the famous Verito lens.)
6.) The Beach Multi-Focal Lens by Howard Beach. Beach was a New York pictorialist and portrait photographer.
As an aside, it's interesting that all these are soft focus lenses. I suppose this makes sense, as it would be difficult (and pointless) to design a sharp, well-corrected lens to compete with the conventional lenses being offered by the manufacturers. But to design a lens with aberrations deliberately left in, a lens with its own unique signature... well, that could be a wonderful and feasible challenge!
Okay, now which others did I leave out?
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