Fwd: [LargeFormat] cult lenses
Les Newcomer
largeformat@f32.net
Mon Jun 2 12:24:02 2003
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Joseph O'Neil <joneil@multiboard.com>
> Date: Mon Jun 2, 2003 12:01:00 PM US/Eastern
> To: largeformat@f32.net
> Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] cult lenses
> Reply-To: largeformat@f32.net
>
> At 11:41 6/2/03 -0400, you wrote:
>> What are Dagor, Cooke, Dallmeyer, Goerz, Dallmeyer, and Wollensak
>> lenses and
>> why are they held in such reverence? I was checking out Dagor77's
>> auctions.
>> What a character!
>
> Personally I dunno. I used to have a 135mm, wide Field Ektar
> - the "classic" everyoen raves about. It was a very nice lens to be
> sure, and when I bought it many moons ago, modestly priced. Today,t
> heya re quite pricey, IMO>
>
> I later sold it, and bought a brand new Rodenstock Sironar -N,
> 135mm. IMO, having used both, the new Rodenstock is the superior > lens.
>
> Some old lenses are wonderful. I currently use an old 8.25
> inch , F9 red Dot Goerz APO Artar. Very nice lens. Very sharp. I
> picked it up dirt cheap form a local darkroom clossing up and
> dismantling thier process camera.
> But it is very dark to focus at F9, and the price of ones on
> Ebay is outrageous, IMO. Again, for the extra money, go buy a brand
> new Rodenstock or Schneider 210mm.
>
> My personal speculation on how these "cult lenses' got thier
> reputations is guys liek me woudl find an old process camera being
> trashed and junked, go in, grab the lens dirt cheap, try it out,a nd
> then report "wow, this thing is great" . And a lot of these old lenes
> are/were.
>
> You might get some good deals off ebay, but first you ahve to
> worry about the condition of ht lens - I ahve seen some real dogs at
> camera shows going for a pretty penny. then, with any used lens, you
> either have to pay to have it mounted in a shutter, or have the
> shutter sent off for cleaning & recalibration.
>
> So go to Calumet, look up the price of a brand new 210mm
> comapred to any used 210mm on Ebay, factor in the above conditions,
> and maybe some fo these old classics aren't always the deal they first
> appear to be.
> joe
>
I agree with Joe until you get to the 10" WF on an 8x10. I don't think
there's anything new out there that can touch it in its price range.
Can the new lenses out perform it? Sure. But if I recall some
magazine did a head to head comparison and said the WF has more
resolution that you need and slightly less contrast than a new one. So
I get enough sharpness and detail in the shadows.
In the 2x3, 4x5 format, the 80 and the 135 gets beat by several lenses.
And this comes from a guy that owns a 135mm WF serial EO 000.
Actually it doesn't say Wide Field, this one was a pre production
prototype that said "Wide Angle"