Hi,
I'm putting together a couple of single meniscus camera lenses (about 250mm) for 4X5 shooting, and wanted to know if anyone has tried to optimize the distance from the front stop aperture and the concave element surface???

I poked around online, and there was mention there is a balance between spherical aberration and rectilinear distortion there somewhere... My last attempt came out great simply taking a 270mm element and positioning it as close to the iris as physically possible, but wanted to know if there was a variation of "special" effect at different spacing distances???

Then there's the addition of the "magic" spit Steichen used early in his career for that dreamy soft-focus stuff??? ;-)

Thanks,

Steve K