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Thread: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

  1. #1

    Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Hello! I'm new here and am just starting out with large format. I've been obsessively reading posts in this forum, and I'm so impressed by the wealth of collective knowledge.

    I just bought a Zone VI 4x5 Classic - the one made by Zone VI in Vermont around 1991. I want to shoot pictorial-style portraits - soft focus but not super, super soft, glowy highlights, shallow DOF, natural light, etc. I have a fairly good handle on lighting, exposure, and composition, but I have no idea what I'm doing yet with large format. I don't want to make things harder on myself with a Packard shutter just yet, so barrel lenses and petzvals are out for now.

    I'm thinking maybe a Voigtlander Heliar or a Wollensak Vellostigmat? Are there others I should be considering? Do options like an Imagon 250 or Fujinon 210 give a similar look? What about a Zeiss Jena Tessar? Budget is about $500, maybe up to $700 if it wasn't likely to need a CLA.

    I appreciate any advice you can give. Please forgive me if I've revealed my ignorance too much.

  2. #2
    jp's Avatar
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    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Veritar is a variation of the Verito which came in a shutter
    Once in a while a Verito can be found custom mounted in a shutter
    The Fuji soft focus isn't very soft.. More of a smooth lens
    Tessars and most triplets are not soft but can do a very fine smooth non-pictorial style portrait.
    Imagon are plentiful and Ihough they are meant to be used with the strainer, they are a pretty normal soft focus doublet without the strainer which is how I'd be inclined to use it since I don't like the Kühn bug the strainer can make.. Someone will get bent of out of shape for me suggesting that...

    I use a speed graphic for soft focus 4x5 since it has a built in shutter. I've got several barrel lenses and some homemade lenses.

  3. #3

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    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Buy the biggest, cheapest shutter you can fit, preferably with a lens. That could be a 240mm f5.6 from Nikkor, Symmar-S or (Apo-)Sironar-N in a Copal #3. Ask Skgrimes.com for one or two rings to fit filters to the shutter, facing outwards. Buy some achromatic and non achromats close-up lenses of similar focal length. For 250mm, use two +2 close-up lenses , for 167mm use two +3 close-up lenses. Use one +4 achromat close-up lense on the back to resemble a 250mm Kodak portrait lens, or +3 for 330mm. You will have little dof at portrait distance anyway, so close down aperture to reduces the soft effect.

    Big Wehman, Toyo 5x7" and a small Chamonix

  4. #4
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Pictorial portraits, you mean ala William Mortensen? Anyway, do you want head-and-shoulders or more? I also don't remember the bellows extension on your camera. Anyway, assuming you are after William Mortensen style photos, he generally use a normal focal length lens. With 4x5, that puts you between 150 and 210mm. As someone new to the format, I'd get a decent classic lens in that range, but I'd avoid the soft focus ones, as they are very challenging to focus, and they're expensive. There are a lot of lens that will have some character, and will be good to learn with. Are you going to use available light, flash, or....? If flash, then you need a shutter with flash sync. I recommend getting a cheap but decent lens to start. Nothing fancy. That will allow you to get started. After you get some experience, then you can be more knowledgeable about the direction you want to go.

    Kodak Ektars, Ilex Paragons, Wollensak Raptars can all be very good. They often have unusual flash sync and filter sizes, though. Whether that's important depends on the situation.

    Modern Plasmats are affordable and high quality. Some people snobbishly reject them, but tons of great pictures have been made with them. Fujinon, Nikon, Schneider, Rodenstock......they can be had for little money in modern shutters. Posing, lighting, direction will all be way more important than using a cult lens.

    Soft focus lenses are a rabbit hole. While I generally love Fujinon lenses, I don't particularly like their SF ones. I prefer Imagons, Veritars, Veritos.....A 1950s Veritar is a good lens.

    Where are you located? There's a good chance that one of us lives nearby and can demonstrate various lenses.
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
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  5. #5
    jp's Avatar
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    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Member Jim Galli has been selling some custom creations of shutters with glass which are soft focus lenses. Very affordable.

  6. #6

    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Wow! Thanks! So many ideas I hadn't really considered yet!

    Where I'm located: Minnesota, near the Twin Cities

    Flash sync: I am going to go with natural light/available light for now, so I'm not concerned about flash sync at this time.

    Look I'm after: Less William Mortensen, more sort of Robert Demachy/Julia Margaret Cameron/Gertrude Käsebier with a dash of Sally Mann. I mostly do portraits of my family, especially my 12-year-old son on the autism spectrum.

    Focal length: I usually like to shoot normal, ranging from a slight tele to slight wide angle. I'm thinking 150mm to 210mm would be ideal.

    I think that answers all the questions so far.

    Thank you so much for thinking about this!

  7. #7
    http://www.spiritsofsilver.com tgtaylor's Avatar
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    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Wollensak Veritar, which is the updated version of the Verito made to work with color film which, became popular in the 50"s as well as B&W, is available in 10" (250mm) which should cover 4x5 and perhaps smaller FLs'. I use the 14" Veritar for 8x10 and 5x7. Here is a salt print made with the 14":

    https://www.spiritsofsilver.com/yaho...3323_large.jpg

    Rodensak Imagon's are available in 250mm FL (which is designed for the 4x5)as well as smaller FLs'. This print of a Japanese Monument Lantern which is toned with Nelson's Gold was taken with the 250mm on a 4x5:

    https://www.spiritsofsilver.com/yaho...5849_large.jpg

    Although not LF, the Pentax 67 120mm soft is an excellent soft focus lens which possibly can be mounted to a 4x5 camera and used with a 6x7 film roll adopter:

    https://www.spiritsofsilver.com/yaho...1248_large.jpg

    Thomas

  8. #8

    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Oh, that's beautiful work, Thomas! I especially like the character of the Imagon in the second one. Did you use that with diffusion discs or without?

    I do shoot a Pentax 67, actually. I will take a look at the 120mm soft focus for that too.

    Thank you!

  9. #9
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    In looking through samples of the artists listed, it looks like fast, non-coated lenses would get you the closest. The had slow film, and so they used fairly long exposures. There are some that look like true soft focus lenses, but most are not. They often use a printing process that looks more like an illustration, such as bromoil. Are you planing on printing, and if so, how?

    This is an Imagon with a 47mm round aperture:


    Here's a 300mm Symmar, a plasmat:


    Here's an Aviar at f/8


    Here's a Buhl slide projector lens at f/4
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
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  10. #10
    Peter De Smidt's Avatar
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    Re: Soft Focus Lens With Shutter for Zone VI 4x5

    Veritar at f/6:


    Paragon f/16:


    Collinear f/16:
    “You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
    ― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know

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