WTB: Uncoated portrait lens in shutter for 4x5

[Marc Wilson]

Hi guys,

Almost all of my photography involves shooting in colour, at high resolution, wether film or digital, showing lots of detail, documentary landscape subject matter, no grain, etc, etc.

I'm going to try out a few black and white portraits and fancy something a little different to put in front of my camera.

So I'm after something in a shutter, anything between say 200mm and 300mm or thereabouts, how about uncoated (or single) and with some character so the odd flaw, soft edges is ok by me.

I'm not looking to spend much on this experiment and just fancy something a bit more old fashioned than my normal gear.

Anyone with something that fits the bill they are looking to get rid of?

Thanks,

Marc

[IanG]

Single coating is a bit of a misnomer, many so called single coated lenses have two or more coatings on each surface, some were almost as good as Multi coatings.

My experience with coated LF lenses is they are almost indistinguishable from later Multicoated versions, I use an early 50's T coated 150mm f4.5 Tessar (CZJ) as well as 3 Super Angulons & a 90mm Angulon (1960). I should add my primary set of lenses is Multi-coated so the experience is from using both.

If you want a different look then an older pre-WWII un-coated lens will give you it, black & white or colour. Triplets & Tessars (or type) lenses are sharp at f22 but edge & corner sharpness falls of quickly as you open them up. The lack of any coatings drops the micro contrast giving a softer look, great for portraits.

So I don't think you'll see any benefit (over an MC lens) with an early coated LF lens, there's also a downside because the coating can have a big effect on colour balance, my Tessar's coating is distinctly blue, it doesn't flare but even on the screen you can spot the colour cast and it would need a strong warm up filter to counter act this.

I have two Ilex Paragon's one coated the other un-coated back in the UK, I guess I might sell one as I've not been using them at all, one's roughly 165mm the other 200/210 but I can't remember which is coated. I'm back in the UK sometime next week. Price would be what it cost me, both were very reasonable prices.

Ian

[Marc Wilson]

Thanks Ian,
Sounds great...so if you could let me know once you're back here that woudl be good.
Thanks,
Marc