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Thread: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

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  1. #1
    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    I asked this not long ago, but didn't get a clear answer; forgive my raising it again...

    Another one has popped up on ebay as a "soft focus" lens:

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ILEX-OPT-SEMINAT...QQcmdZViewItem

    I bought one a while back, but it seems to have no soft focus or pictorial qualities beyond a nice-but-not-spectacular bokeh. But this is the third one I've seen go by on ebay advertised as a "soft focus" lens.

    Any enlightenment?
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    If you want a lens soft , and I do not care which one: get a Nylon stocking put it over the lens , either single layer or double and prick a hole in it::
    Lauren MacIntosh

    Whats in back of you is the past and whats in front of you is the future now in the middle you have choices to make for yourself:

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    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    Quote Originally Posted by seawolf66 View Post
    If you want a lens soft , and I do not care which one: get a Nylon stocking put it over the lens , either single layer or double and prick a hole in it::
    And if you want to go to bed with Audrey Hepburn, get a cheap hooker and just hold a picture of Audrey in front of her face...
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    seawolf

    If you have ever use a true soft focus lens like a Petzval. or Verito or others of their kind, you will know that a nylon stocking with a hole in it does not produce the same type of image. I thought it did until I started using soft focus lenses almost exclusively.

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    All metric sizes to 24x30 Ole Tjugen's Avatar
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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Noel View Post
    ... If you have ever use a true soft focus lens like a Petzval. ...
    A Petzval is not a soft-focus lens either.

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    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ole Tjugen View Post
    A Petzval is not a soft-focus lens either.
    I think some are, though most aren't. The Verito, Veritar, and Vitax are Petzvals, aren't they? But yes, most Petzvals are just soft at the edges from field curvature, and have swirly bokeh beyond standard coverage.

    I'm not sure what design the Seminat is...
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

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    All metric sizes to 24x30 Ole Tjugen's Avatar
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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    There are a few "Petzvals" with adjustable spacing between the two elements in the rear cell which introduces "softness".

    But the vast majority of Petzvals are unbeliveably sharp in the central part, which is all that was intended to be used. Somewhere I saw scanning electron microscope pictures of a daguerreotype - the (Petzval-exposed) picture was still sharper than anything you can do with modern equipment and film!

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    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ole Tjugen View Post
    There are a few "Petzvals" with adjustable spacing between the two elements in the rear cell which introduces "softness".

    But the vast majority of Petzvals are unbeliveably sharp in the central part, which is all that was intended to be used. Somewhere I saw scanning electron microscope pictures of a daguerreotype - the (Petzval-exposed) picture was still sharper than anything you can do with modern equipment and film!
    Yup! And you can buy a state-of-the-art refracting telescope with a Petzval lens because that's still what's sharpest in that narrow field of view.

    But no one knows what a Seminat is...
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer View Post
    But no one knows what a Seminat is...
    Being the curious type, I bought one to find out. 5" f3.5.

    Preliminary investigation consisted of shining a flashlight on it, and comparing to similar lenses. It appears to be a bog-standard Tessar, but the spacing between the front elements seems to me to be larger than even my Wolly Velo II adjustable soft focus.

    There is 1 guy online who has posted some images, I think they definitely qualify as 'soft focus', or possibly just 'junk':

    JOHN NANIAN: Ilex seminat

  10. #10
    multiplex
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    Re: Is the Ilex Seminat a soft focus lens?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jody_S View Post
    Being the curious type, I bought one to find out. 5" f3.5.

    Preliminary investigation consisted of shining a flashlight on it, and comparing to similar lenses. It appears to be a bog-standard Tessar, but the spacing between the front elements seems to me to be larger than even my Wolly Velo II adjustable soft focus.

    There is 1 guy online who has posted some images, I think they definitely qualify as 'soft focus', or possibly just 'junk':

    JOHN NANIAN: Ilex seminat
    LOL

    might be junk, just like the guy who wrote the article said .. that guy is clueless.
    Last edited by jnantz; 25-Jun-2023 at 16:17.

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