The Gundlach Hyperion is truly rare. I've seen and owned very few. Comparatively. I think the Series IV Pinkham is perhaps more common even than the Hyperion.
Even though the lens design is similar to the Pinkham & Smith Series IV Visual Quality and the Eidoscope, both of those were symmetrical. The Gundlach lens is not, and thus it has three possible focal lengths. In this case, 12", 18", and 30" and all of them are spectacular.
I feel that the Hyperion's are softer wide open than either the Pinkham or the Eidoscope. And to my eye, that's a plus. I go for the most buzz I can get with these things. Now if you've been dreaming about using soft focus on a ULF camera, the 18" would be superb for portraits. Got a 16X20? Want to do some portraiture? The 30" would work for that. You can see some images on my page here.
Every one of these that I own in the larger sizes has some 'yellow' showing in the glass. It just seems to be a Gundlach trademark. Whatever. The worst one I have is my 14", and it makes the best images of any of them. It truly doesn't hinder what these lenses can do. This one has some yellow in the front element. I've made spectacular images with it. Don't buy this if you're a person who can't sleep unless your stuff is factory perfect. Buy it if you want to make fantastic soft focus images.
You almost never see these on the bay, and when you do they're crazy money. They're so rare, you may as well give it a shot I guess. I'll need $1800 for this one. Substantially less than the eb ay numbers I just looked at to get a feel for current value. Please feel free to discuss with me and/ or make offers.
Even though the lens design is similar to the Pinkham & Smith Series IV Visual Quality and the Eidoscope, both of those were symmetrical. The Gundlach lens is not, and thus it has three possible focal lengths. In this case, 12", 18", and 30" and all of them are spectacular.
I feel that the Hyperion's are softer wide open than either the Pinkham or the Eidoscope. And to my eye, that's a plus. I go for the most buzz I can get with these things. Now if you've been dreaming about using soft focus on a ULF camera, the 18" would be superb for portraits. Got a 16X20? Want to do some portraiture? The 30" would work for that. You can see some images on my page here.
Every one of these that I own in the larger sizes has some 'yellow' showing in the glass. It just seems to be a Gundlach trademark. Whatever. The worst one I have is my 14", and it makes the best images of any of them. It truly doesn't hinder what these lenses can do. This one has some yellow in the front element. I've made spectacular images with it. Don't buy this if you're a person who can't sleep unless your stuff is factory perfect. Buy it if you want to make fantastic soft focus images.
You almost never see these on the bay, and when you do they're crazy money. They're so rare, you may as well give it a shot I guess. I'll need $1800 for this one. Substantially less than the eb ay numbers I just looked at to get a feel for current value. Please feel free to discuss with me and/ or make offers.
