There are years and years of future exploration ahead for these lenses.

Take care

Hey

I just got through checking out the lens comparisone, the Aviar reminds me so much of the AeroEktar, and the Bi-Quality has a background 'fizz' that is always diff from other lenses, but bottom line, the permutations/variation component to all this is endless.

I've come to the end of my lens collecting stage, as I now have more lenses than I could ever explore in all the combinations of lighting conditions and exposure for the next 40 or 50 years, and I only have approx. 15 lenses compared to as many as 70 lenses in the stable of others.

The last lens I acquired, the Taylor-Hobson 5inch F1.5 Projection lens was dis-assembled and the front two groups are now mounted on my Speed Graphic and I'm trying to find some appropriate subject matter to give a taste of what this lens is about.

After doing a few things w/this lens, I intend to get around to some extensive testing with the P&S VQ IV and the P&S SA SerIII, NoIII. Once that's done, I then want to take stock of what I've learned longterm, and I may just start working with fewer lenses and less experimenting to see how much I can 'stretch out' with the lenses I want to use on a regular basis.

The tests you've done keep restating the obvious, same subject matter, same paper, pretty much the same exposure, same lighting, and still so many diff versions of the same shot with different lenses.

I think in terms of four diff kinds of lenses now, the first class includes the Turner Reich/Wollensak Raptor/Wollensak Velostigmat type of lens which to me really isn't so much soft focus but 'smoother' for a more muted pallette.

The second class includes the AeroEktar/Aviar type lens, where the dof is so shallow that you can play up the contrast between the sharp plane of focus going to an abrupt transition to oof.

And then there are the P&S/Gundlach Achromatic Meniscus going from a little soft to dreamy where you can play up a crisp/smooth plane of focus to just surreal bokeh and background.

The fourth class would be the projection lenses and Petzvals, which I call 'Surprise Lenses', cuz that's what you never fail to get if you keep shooting with these types of lenses, surprises. There is absolutely no predicting what these you will come up with shooting with this glass. They are very fast, starting at F1.5, and the background/bokeh can be as much the 'star of the show' as the foreground subject matter.

Jonathan, did you notice these are all paper negs. Very easy to do and something you might consider when you get going with the monster P+S III. All you need is a closet and some Dektol and you get instant feedback. I scanned and inverted the pages on my site. That said, I finally got around to contact printing paper to paper the other evening. Glorious. The paper fibers add another dimension to the softness. I only had time to print one so I picked the 18" Hyperion. I made 6 extra prints and offered them at $45 each and I'll be darned if I didn't sell 2 of them. hey, it's a box of paper and I'm out of 11X14.

The paper neg exposures ranged from 4 to 13 seconds mostly wide open. Bowler hat stuff, no shutter needed. The paper to paper contact prints were done by flipping on the room lights for 26 seconds. Our hobby is truly a bottomless pit. Cheers. Jim

Hi

Yes I understand about the paper negs, and will probably jump in soon. I'm also going to get around to finally getting started w/the Kentmere Centennial POP paper that I've had in the freezer for several years. I've got a great wood contact printing frame from Doug Kennedy, and want to try these lenses w/FP4, HP5, the POP paper w/Gold Borax.

I'm curious, since you've gotten good at this, have you ever held up a handheld strobe and flashed the negative before developing the negative out for a Sabattier effect, I used to do this w/Polaroid 55 pos/neg. I'd expose a sheet, count to 10/15, pull the film apart, hold my Vivitar 285 about 10 inches from the neg and positive, and flash at full power, got some interesting stuff.