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vintage lenses for 4X5

viablex1

Active member
My question what are some of the best and do they translate into a vintage look on black and white film?
 

jsf

Active member
I would think that a lot of that vintage look was because of the film and paper more than the lenses. Saying that, lenses without any of the modern coatings will give you some of that look, not too much however. The only really vintage lens that I can think of would be the old soft focus portrait lenses, like the Cooke and others like that. I would shoot my 8x10 with a Cooke and I would use paper negatives, so there was some halation, and no red sensitivity at all, the resulting effect was similar to vintage photos. Joe
 

Oren Grad

Active member
Huge can of worms! :)

Depends what you mean by "vintage look", what attributes matter to you, and how you intend to use the lens - what subjects you want to photograph, and what kinds of prints you want to make. There are grillions of old lenses offering a wide range of "flavors", ranging from barely distinguishable from modern glass to very distinctive in any of several different ways - resolution, contrast, flare, aberration correction (or lack of it) in the plane of focus, out-of-focus rendering, image circle/vignetting, etc.

So tell us more about what kinds of effects you have in mind, and what kinds of pictures you'd like to make.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Agreed, HUGE can of worms! That said, I like (actually loved) Gold Dot Dagors and faster Xenars for classic LF looks. If I were getting back into LF, I'd collect a few of those first.
 

viablex1

Active member
yes I hear you out of my league really just looking at older photographs from the fifties etc I noticed a different look but I guess I am going to have to do some research and ask some very specific questions. I like what Jim Collum does with some the old lenses he uses on his betterlight but you pros know glass...any idea where to start sounds like a huge learning curve..
 

Oren Grad

Active member
For a teaser, check out some of Jim Galli's tinkering with antique lenses. Jim's especially into soft-focus effects:

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/

On the Large Format Photography Forum there are plenty of folks who like to use older lenses, ranging from not so old ('50s/'60s) to truly antique and/or exotic stuff. There are regular image-sharing threads where many of the posted pictures are made with older glass, and also some discussion threads specifically about classic lenses.
 

viablex1

Active member
thanks, I am actually looking for an older wide angle lens for my chamonix 4X5 maybe a little wider than 90mm to shoot this theater in youngstown, I started going through the mountain of threads at the large format photography forum..
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
I used to love the old Goetz Dagors in Compur shutters. Seems like there was a ton of them around back in the 70s. Lovely, open shadows. When combined with some careful pulled development they rendered a smooth, vintage look. At least it seemed "vintage" to me. Maybe it's just MY vintage. :p
 

maddoc

New member
I am very new to LF photography, realized a dream in the end of last year by buying a used Technika IV and two lenses, a modern Fujinon-W 180/5.6 and an old Schneider Angulon 90/6.8. While not really vintage, I very much like that lens for BW:

 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Is that your finger in the frame??? Let me guess -- you were shading the lens? (Been there myself!)

The Angulons were very nice as are Fuji "A" lenses.
 

maddoc

New member
Is that your finger in the frame???
... No, that was the dark slide of the film holder ... :banghead: The morning sun was directly shining into the frame and I have no hood for that lens so the dark-slide substituted the hood and forgot how wide a 90mm lens is on 4x5 ... :cry:
 

MKK

Member
Vintage Lenses is a trip I am on at the moment. For the life of me I cannot remember why I was so hooked on modern, multicoated, etc..lenses.

Thank God I did not insist on live view then. :D

I shall be getting a batch of older, some soft focus lenses next week, I will post some results.
 
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