Thambar lens announcement.

[Shashin]

As far as modern optics go, Mamiya had two soft-focus lenses for their RB/RZ 67. Rodenstock made a 300mm soft-focus lens for large format. Fuji made one for their 6x8 camera and large format. All came with a lens sieve. Soft focus lenses have always been a rather low-volume product aimed at a small group of photographers. They have never been cheap, unless you are just referring to badly made lenses on Holgas etc, which are not really soft-focus lenses, but sharp focus lenses that are soft.

 

[richardman]

The best soft focus lens I ever owned was the Cooke PS945. It was based on the first Pinkham & Smith Semi-Achromat lenses made in the late 1890s and a conventional sharp lens. I used Softars for a few years with 500 series V cameras, and they were certainly better than diffusion filters, but the Cooke was the best as it never did mess with the catchlights. I sold it when I sold off my last 4x5 box, and regret it.
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Kind regards,
Darr

Darr, rest assured that your ex-PS945 is being used. I have taken at least 600-700 sheets of 4x5 with it for my various projects.

 

[Knorp]

You can take a look at Dpreview's "exclusive Leica Thambar sample gallery".
Permission to say "underwhelmed" ...