[pure-silver] Re: Old Kodak Lenses
- From: "Gene Johnson" <genej2@xxxxxxx>
- To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 18:47:43 -0800
I would have never thought that lenses this old would be so good.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 6:31 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Old Kodak Lenses
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gene Johnson" <genej2@xxxxxxx>
> To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 5:32 PM
> Subject: [pure-silver] Old Kodak Lenses
>
>
> > I've been shooting quite a bit with 3 old Kodak lenses
> > lately out of pure coincidence. A 170mm f6.3 Tessar in a
> > Compound, a 6 3/8 inch Anastigmat in a barrel, and a 80mm
> > Anastar on a Kodak Reflex II TLR. I am very impressed
> > with all 3 of them for sharpness and contrast (lack of
> > coating considered where appropriate) even wide open. All
> > but the Anastar are uncoated. All exhibit excellent OOFA
> > qualities too. I now have all I need, so I'll tell
> > everyone. Don't be afraid of buying them because they're
> > so cheap. I am now a believer, Kodak made darn good
> > lenses.
> > Richard, and anyone else, I've done some portrait work
> > with this 6 3/8 Anastigmat, and frankly I just love it.
> > It softens just slightly wide open and generally gives
> > very pleasant skintone rendition. I've never heard
> > anything good said about Tessar designs for this purpose,
> > with Heliars and such getting all the ink. Is there some
> > technical reason for Tessars to be poopoo'd for
> > portraiture?
> >
> Tessars work fine for portraiture. Many lenses have some
> residual spherical aberration when wide open. Spherical
> tends to soften highlights by spreading them out resulting
> in a sort of halo effect. The problem with unsymmetrical
> lenses, like the Tessar, is that they also tend to have coma
> or oblique spherical (similar to coma but from a different
> source). This makes tear drop shaped smears out of the
> highlights which most people find unpleasant. These
> aberrations are absent at the center of the image but become
> progressively visible as the angle increases. Both disappear
> rapidly with stopping down. Spherical, OTOH, is constant in
> all parts of the image.
> Kodak made two series of Kodak Anastigmat lenses. The
> Series 30 are Tessars, the Series 70 are four element air
> spaced of the generic type sometimes called a Celor or a
> Dialyte. A great many very fine lenses are of this type, the
> Apochromatic Artar and Goerz Dogmar being examples. They are
> limited in coverage and have 8 glass-air surfaces leading to
> flare if not coated, so they were never as popular for
> general use as the Tessar. Most of the Kodak lenses are
> similar to the Dogmar in being not quite symmetrical. The
> shifting of a little power from one cell to the other helps
> to optimise the lens for distant subjects. The last of this
> series was the No.70 K.A. which became the f/7.7, 203mm
> Ektar. The 100mm Enlarging Ektar is also of this type. The
> other Series 70 K.A.s were discontinued around 1947, I don't
> know the exact date. Around this time Kodak also changed the
> names of all the remaining K.A. lenses.
> Some of these lenses became Ektanons, some other names.
> The front element focusing lenses previously known as Kodak
> Anastigmat Special became Anastars, lower quality, three
> element lenses became Anastons.
> The Anastar in the Kodak Reflex is a four element air
> spaced type, the one in the f/3.5 rangfinder version of the
> Kodak 35 camera is a modified tessar. The rear component of
> this lens has the order of powers reversed from the normal
> Tessar. A Kodak designer, I can't remember whether it was
> Aklin or Altman now, says this results in better performance
> where high index glass is used.
> Some of Kodak's cheaper lenses are quite remarkably good.
>
> ---
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
> dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
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