Spencer lens co Port-land -soft focus- info

[8x10 user]

There was at one point a Burke and James version.

[Lynn Jones]

I've had an 18" for decades and love it, but the aperture blades keep falling apart and it is miserable to re-assemble. I've tried to get several of my camera repair friends to assemble them but they just laugh and say, "you do it".

Lynn

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Mine looks like Steve's. And since we're at it, a shot taken with it:


Also linked some goody, a scan of a brochure I recently got from a dear friend...
http://www.macrolenses.de/bilder/Spe...s Brochure.pdf

[CCHarrison]

Here is an ad on the Spencer Pictorial Portrait Lens

Dan

[Jim Galli]

Mine looks like Steve's. And since we're at it, a shot taken with it:


Also linked some goody, a scan of a brochure I recently got from a dear friend...
http://www.macrolenses.de/bilder/Spe...s Brochure.pdf

dammit! There goes the prices. That's gorgeous! The picture, the picture. The lens is ugly, the pictures gorgeous. Why did I sell that 15" I had

[Steven Tribe]

Thanks Klaus and CC! Very useful info. Congratulations on the super colour effect - set up at F5.6 perhaps? I didn't really register Russ's earlier comments that the 18" covers 14x17" - but both your sources say the same. I will lug my Sinar out into the garden when the weather here gets a bit more stable! But I can only manage B/W and 8x10.

[csant]

Why did I sell that 15" I had

I hope I'll put it to good use This thread is very interesting and inspirational - thanks all for the precious info!

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

dammit! There goes the prices. That's gorgeous! The picture, the picture. The lens is ugly, the pictures gorgeous. Why did I sell that 15" I had

Well Jim,

these words from you, "the master", makes me blush...!!! I wanted to re-create that old still life painterly "effect" and that lens helps a lot to get closer to what I wanted. The partly wilted flowers also helped. It was just a test shot set-up in a few minutes after I had received the lens from Sydney, but honestely I was very positively surprised, too.

And now I'm still looking for a Hanovia KALOSAT - darn hard to locate one...any ideas??

@Steve: it is stopped down a bit more, maybe f8, since otherwise the result was a bit too undefined (for me).

[csant]

@Steve: it is stopped down a bit more, maybe f8, since otherwise the result was a bit too undefined (for me).

A cyclamen I took the day I received my lens - also stopped down to about F8:

[Dr Klaus Schmitt]

Nice one! Did you blow the highlights on purpose for a high-key look?