Soft focus lens suggestions requested

[russyoung]

https://research-repository.st-andre...=6&isAllowed=y[/QUOTE]
Thanks for posting the link to my dissertation. I apologize that there is not more information on modern lenses and how to use them effectively but I was already well over (+20,000) the normally allowed word limit.

In total agreement with the assessment that the Fujinons are not true soft focus lenses. JP's comment seems most accurate. I own all three focal lengths and they just aren't SF, either with or without their tea strainers.

The problem with the otherwise marvelous Kodak Portrait 305mm is the #5 shutter, which requires a lot of lens board real estate to mount. It covers 5x7 with ease wide open and 8x10 at studio portrait distances (assuming the corners have a detailless backdrop field).

Pre-war Imagons render better tonality IMHO, especially sans tea strainers. The modern f/6.8 models are not worth owning. If using the tea strainer, you must be ultra-careful to not have hot highlights which will render almost as an image of the strainer; in the 1950s, this effect was named "Kuhn's spider" or bug. Ugly and distracting under all circumstances. I have a pre-war 250mm which is a shining beauty on a 6x12 rollfilm back (sans strainer). N.B.: not all Imagons have an iris in the shutter.

A Verito is the easiest true soft focus lens to learn to use. Although shorter focal lengths will cover a 4x5, a 9 inch will yield a better rendering. To some extent, excellence in SF rendering is related to focal length; 12" (Kodak, Port-Land, Hyperion, Dallmeyer, Verito) appears to be the shortest for optimal SF effects.

Enjoy your journey into this new world.

Russ

[tgtaylor]

I use the 250mm and 300mm Imagon (4x5 and 5x7), Pentax 67 120mm soft focus (6x7), and 14" Veritar [5x7 (color) and 8x10 (B&W)]. Of the 4 I lean to the Veritar. It's important to learn to focus at the taking aperture. This is a print taken with the 250mm Imagon with the small strainers open and printed on Ilford Art 300 about 20 years ago that I just ran across while recycling old clothes:

Thomas

[russyoung]

I use the 250mm and 300mm Imagon (4x5 and 5x7), Pentax 67 120mm soft focus (6x7), and 14" Veritar [5x7 (color) and 8x10 (B&W)]. Of the 4 I lean to the Veritar. It's important to learn to focus at the taking aperture. This is a print taken with the 250mm Imagon with the small strainers open and printed on Ilford Art 300 about 20 years ago that I just ran across while recycling old clothes:

Thomas

Which size of strainer? There should be three...

Inquiring minds, and all that.

Russ

[Bernice Loui]

Some Jmagons have six strainers..






Bernice

Which size of strainer? There should be three...

Inquiring minds, and all that.

Russ

[tgtaylor]

Which size of strainer? There should be three...

Inquiring minds, and all that.

Russ

The H=5 something open. Here is a straight Ansel Adams image for comparison: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/74.52.15/ The focal lengths appear to be the same but he ended-up with a slice of the peak appearing on the left and only a portion of the treetops on the right. There is a trail that climbs up from the bottom that will probably give that view, but I started from the top and climbed down to a spot where I could barely set-up the tripod on the incline but gave me a view looking straight down Market Street over the now centered treetops. I like my view better but Adam's view with the clouds looks good.

Thomas

[Bob Salomon]

The H=5 something open. Here is a straight Ansel Adams image for comparison: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/74.52.15/ The focal lengths appear to be the same but he ended-up with a slice of the peak appearing on the left and only a portion of the treetops on the right. There is a trail that climbs up from the bottom that will probably give that view, but I started from the top and climbed down to a spot where I could barely set-up the tripod on the incline but gave me a view looking straight down Market Street over the now centered treetops. I like my view better but Adam's view with the clouds looks good.

Thomas

5.8

[russyoung]

The H=5 something open. Here is a straight Ansel Adams image for comparison: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/74.52.15/ The focal lengths appear to be the same but he ended-up with a slice of the peak appearing on the left and only a portion of the treetops on the right. There is a trail that climbs up from the bottom that will probably give that view, but I started from the top and climbed down to a spot where I could barely set-up the tripod on the incline but gave me a view looking straight down Market Street over the now centered treetops. I like my view better but Adam's view with the clouds looks good.

Thomas

Thanks!

[russyoung]

Some Jmagons have six strainers..






Bernice

Yes, this is a pre-war set. I'm not totally convinced that the optical formula is the same in the later Imagons with three three (or two) perforated diaphragms. The behavious seems rather different IMHO.

[xkaes]

I finally found some time to put together some home-made "Wollaston Landscape" and "Verito Portrait" lenses made from supplementary lenses -- AKA, close-up filters.

I'm pleased with the results, and created a couple of tables that I can use to simplify their use -- and I thought to pass them along. They are only useful to me because they largely apply to my lenses & shutter.

The first table estimates the focal lengths that can be created with combinations of supplementary lenses -- on the front or rear of a shutter (on any film format). Whether the lens will cover the format is a separate issue.

The second table estimates the f-stop for each focal length at using the maximum diameter of my shutter. My Polaroid shutter does have an adjustable diaphragm, but I'll probably only use it wide open.

At this point, a #0.5 lens on the front and a #10 on the rear -- producing a 95mm f4.3 lens -- looks like a winner. It easily covers 4x5 and I'm quite surprised at the quality.

www.subclub.org/cufocallength.jpg




www.subclub.org/cumaxfstop.jpg

[Scott Davis]

The unasked $64,000 question here is:

What camera do you have?

If you've only got a field camera that takes Linhof-sized lens boards, that is going to limit the lens choices you have - a lot of the soft-focus lenses also happen to be quite fast, with commensurately large diameter barrels, and may not even fit on your camera in barrel configuration, let alone trying to throw an appropriate Packard shutter behind them.