6x9 camera with Pre-Tessar lens?

[runswithsizzers]

I wanted to know why you excluded 6x6 folders.

I haven't completely excluded 6x6 folders from consideration, but...
a. I already have a Rolleicord V for 6x6 (I might try putting something over the taking lens to see what it looks like)

b. I've never had 6x9 negatives, so wanted to try out that format. I would probably not ever consider contact printing 6x6, but I might consider contact printing 6x9. Also, most of the old family photos I've seen are rectangular and not square, so I think the shape is part of the old time look.

c. The more recently made folders (early-mid 1950) are probably going to have more modern lenses, and make negatives that don't look much different from my Rolleiocrd V (1954-1957). And the older folders (1920-1940) which are more likely to have a pre-tessar lens designs, I think might be more likely to have damaged bellows or mechanical problems, but I don't really know?

 

[runswithsizzers]

Ensign box camera had models for 6x9. Might still be too sharp for him. The corners are definitely blurry though.

Thanks for that. I've just been looking at Ensign's 1930 catalog of camera models. Fascinating! They had some very innovative design features, and so many models!

https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/rl/00704/00704.pdf

 

[loccdor]

Thanks for that. I've just been looking at Ensign's 1930 catalog of camera models. Fascinating! They had some very innovative design features, and so many models!

https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/rl/00704/00704.pdf

Great catalog! Thank you, had not seen it.

 

[ChrisGalway]

Thanks for that. I've just been looking at Ensign's 1930 catalog of camera models. Fascinating! They had some very innovative design features, and so many models!

https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/rl/00704/00704.pdf

That catalogue is a great find!

For non-UK folks (or younger UK ones!), the currency of the time was pounds, shillings and pence (£,s,d) with 20 shillings to one pound and 12 pence to 1 shilling. And inflation since 1930 means that one pound £1 in 1930 is around £85 today. So the All Distance Pocket Ensign No 1 ("extremely attractive for ladies" ... how language has changed!) on page 8 at £2 is about £170 now, or about US$230.

 

[runswithsizzers]

I think I have a few pound notes in a cigar box somewhere, unused after returning from a visit in 1977. Do you think I can still get an Ensign for £2 ?

 

[Craig]

I think I have a few pound notes in a cigar box somewhere, unused after returning from a visit in 1977. Do you think I can still get an Ensign for £2 ?

Never know, you might get lucky in a charity shop.

 

[_T_]

I have a Kodak Brownie Special 616 box camera with uncoated 105mm f/13 meniscus lens, and the results are plenty sharp. You have to look for worse lenses to get those dreamy effects...

It appears that the thread has reached the totally useless conclusion that there are no lens designs, however primitive, that are not sharp enough for somebody.

We’ve achieved peak forum.

 

[blee1996]

It appears that the thread has reached the totally useless conclusion that there are no lens designs, however primitive, that are not sharp enough for somebody.

We’ve achieved peak forum.

I guess you speak from philosophy, while I speak from experience. This one is actually from the primitive lens of Brownie Special Six-16, Ilford Pan F+. I don't know if it is not sharp. We can agree to disagree.

 

[reddesert]

One way of reducing aberrations is to make the lens very slow by modern standards, like f/11 to f/13. The designers of Brownies knew what they were doing. I don't know exactly what each person means by "dreamy," but often some kind of subject isolation from a combination of limited depth of field, spherical aberration halo effects, and soft corners. These are going to push you to wider apertures.

It is possible, not very hard, to write down a list of demanded features in a camera+lens that is exclusive enough to have no clear-cut answer. I'm not singling out the OP, this happens all the time on Photrio and elsewhere. Then one has to decide whether to relax some of the specifications, to take up experimenting with possible solutions, or to turn away an ever longer list of proposed suggestions. Like, if one wants a simple lens, one could get the cheapest Kodak Tourist, but then it's not a fast or highly aberrated lens. One could mount an meniscus lens on a shutter and use it on a Baby Graphic to set the focus, but then it's not very compact. And so on.

 

[MARTIE]

You could always try something like this;

Flipped lens Brownie Hawkeye + modern strobes

Man, it's a one-trick pony, but what a beautiful trick. I bent the flash contacts in mine to work with electronic flash. pretty cool to see the little Brownie with a Pocket Wizard hanging off of it, firing speedo packs and heads! (Lith print on Ilford MGWT). Here it is out in the daylight -...

www.photrio.com

 

[RezaLoghme]

I guess you speak from philosophy, while I speak from experience. This one is actually from the primitive lens of Brownie Special Six-16, Ilford Pan F+. I don't know if it is not sharp. We can agree to disagree.

View attachment 417185

It is a great snap indeed. I guess the sun helped a lot; I found that vintage lenses (in my case: 90 and 135mm Elmar M Leica chrome lenses from 1960s) perform very well when the sun is up.