Positively great series Jim..............I think it boils down to which lens at exposure setting, best fits what sujbect matter, and just looking at the shots, I think the best marriage of lens, exposure, and boot, was the Hermagis Eidoscop.

Of course when you've got lenses like these to choose from, you've got about another 100yrs of endless joy in experimenting.

Curious as to why you didn't go at the boot with you 'secret weapon'????

But all in all, a great exposition of what these lenses do, and of course using 'em at wide open is just the start of the adventure.

Take care

J said, "Curious as to why you didn't go at the boot with you 'secret weapon'????"

Hmmm, that's not a bad idea at all. Wonder if I could make all this high $$$$ stuff look bad? Actually the modified G would rock too. So many lenses, so little time.

The Synthetic is already growing on me too. I think it's got lots of potential. BTW turns out it had been through the Burke and James mill at some time in it's live and got "coated". A coated PS!

Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, the center of the image is sharper in the center and goes soft at the edges.............a lot.

But this could be the boot sitting at an angle, so the plane of focus along the boot and plants giving the illusion of that. It looks like the plane of focus is somewhere at the front of the ankle at the holes where you lace up the boot.

Center sharpness in this example is from depth of field, not lens design as in how a Petzval acts. I arranged the scene so that most of the lanterns were in a flat plane.