"The Holy Grail of Pinkham lenses" What is your Holy Grail of soft focus Lens

[Petzval Paul]

Geoffrey, Weren't the Series II S.A.'s also doublets? If I had to guess, I would say that maybe this "holy grail" was an early example of the Series II model. I know of one other quite similar to this owned by a forum member (it just reads "Doublet" - no "Special"). The serial #'s are very close, too.

As far as what could be defined a "holy grail", that depends on the individual. For a collector, it could be quite different from a user. Of course, every collector and user has his own criteria, so who can say? Naturally we all have our own conceptions and we certainly don't need every ebay seller to declare that his particular item for sale is the HOLY F'ing GRAIL!

That being said, when I purchased my P&S Synthetic, the seller also had it listed as a holy grail. Lame, I know... but I don't regret buying it!

[Geoffrey_5995]

Geoffrey, Weren't the Series II S.A.'s also doublets? If I had to guess, I would say that maybe this "holy grail" was an early example of the Series II model. I know of one other quite similar to this owned by a forum member (it just reads "Doublet" - no "Special"). The serial #'s are very close, too.

As far as what could be defined a "holy grail", that depends on the individual. For a collector, it could be quite different from a user. Of course, every collector and user has his own criteria, so who can say? Naturally we all have our own conceptions and we certainly don't need every ebay seller to declare that his particular item for sale is the HOLY F'ing GRAIL!

That being said, when I purchased my P&S Synthetic, the seller also had it listed as a holy grail. Lame, I know... but I don't regret buying it!

Hi Paul, You are absolutely right. Semi-Achromat Series II f6 is also a doublet. But I should add that Pinkham sold many special order lenses and seemed to have experimented quite a bit. I have several Pinkhams that don't appear in any of their catalogs, at least the catalogs I've seen. Geoff