Characteristic "looks" of different BRANDS?

[Sirius Glass]

I think we're prone to see differences because we need to justify the money we plunked down on a new lens.

Yes, we are all probably guilty of that at one time or another.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Carry with you a couple of prints you made from 4x5 and pull them out when they sneer at your film. That ought to shut them up.

True but those who will not see cannot learn, so I would not bother to do it.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

I think we're prone to see differences because we need to justify the money we plunked down on a new lens.

Rationalization

In psychology and logic, rationalization or rationalisation (also known as making excuses) is a defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner to avoid the true explanation, and are made consciously tolerable – or even admirable and superior – by plausible means.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Honey, this Wizbang X-Doppelganger f/0.6 15mm to 2800mm AF zoom triple reflex lens will be the last lens that I will ever need to buy! :w00t:


Uh, that is what you said about the lens you bought last month!

 

[DREW WILEY]

The cost of a cult lens is always proportional to what a divorce attorney charges. If it has a high enough maximum aperture in long enough focal length, it just might double as a stool or table, just in case you're booted out of house. Or maybe the attorney would take it in collateral.

 

[Dan Fromm]

If it has a high enough maximum aperture in long enough focal length, it just might double as a stool or table

Case in point: http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/t1524.html

I have seen this very lens at Surplus Shack. They were using it as a coffee table.

 

[paul ron]

holy macrel! that'll be a great portrait lens!

hahahahahaha

 

[Truzi]

Rationalization

In psychology and logic, rationalization or rationalisation (also known as making excuses) is a defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner to avoid the true explanation, and are made consciously tolerable – or even admirable and superior – by plausible means.

I think "cognitive dissonance" is a better choice here.

 

[Vilk]

I'm not looking to start another "brand x is better than brand y" dog fight. [...]

rrrrrright... cuz nuthin' is better than brandy!

 

[Ian Grant]

Honey, this Wizbang X-Doppelganger f/0.6 15mm to 2800mm AF zoom triple reflex lens will be the last lens that I will ever need to buy! :w00t:

Uh, that is what you said about the lens you bought last month!

I've just the lens for you A nice fast Wollensak 3" (75mm) f/1.9 Oscillo-Rapture 1:0,9X lens Great for soft focus close-up portraits . . . . . . . . . .

The cost of a cult lens is always proportional to what a divorce attorney charges. If it has a high enough maximum aperture in long enough focal length, it just might double as a stool or table, just in case you're booted out of house. Or maybe the attorney would take it in collateral.

With many "Cult" lenses it's often far cheaper to buy them alongside a camera etc, that's how I acquired my 12" Goerz AM Opt Dagor, it came with a 10x8 camera and the previous owner told me he'd never used it but the original owner had it coated post WWII. The lens was a bonus I wouldn't pay the prices they usually sell for, in practice after a thorough clean it's a superb lens.

But if you shop around carefully cult lenses in good condition can be found at decent prices, I've just paid £30 ($44) for another Dagor a 120mm on Ebay.

Ian

 

[Dan Fromm]

Ian, I had no idea that Dagors were cult lenses. Who'd have thought it?

Ain't thread drift wonderful?

 

[Ian Grant]

Ian, I had no idea that Dagors were cult lenses. Who'd have thought it?

Ain't thread drift wonderful?

Well we all see the threads about Petzvals, Apo Lanthars, Heliars, Dogmars etc and the prices get driven up, these are all lenses with quite different characteristics some made in MF focal lengths. And then there's websites dedicated to using vintage lenses usually on digital bodies.

The only uncertainty is which or what lenses will be the next cult.

Ian

 

[Dan Fromm]

Cult lenses that we rarely discuss are the main topic here: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-TW&u=http://oldlensclub.hk

Some of them fetch much more than, e.g., Apo-Lanthars. I've sold a few lenses into that market (not via oldlensclub.hk) and have always been astounded at how much they brought. The worst of it is that I thought my lenses that appealed to those cultists weren't very good. Dagors, at least, aren't bad lenses.

 

[Ian Grant]

Interesting Dan, it's definitely worth looking through. I photographed a friends late fathers Ikonta last year for listing on ebay and we were both surprised that HK bidders drove the price up quite substantially, way over the normal typical price.

Ian

 

[Dan Fromm]

Ikontas aren't worth beans. Look for the Super Sixes I know you hid in your attic.

 

[Ian Grant]

Ikontas aren't worth beans. Look for the Super Sixes I know you hid in your attic.

I have a 3" f1.9 Dallmeyer unfortunately like the 3" f1.9 Raptar on its way to me at the moment it's an Oscilloscope lens

Ian

 

[DREW WILEY]

Today's cult lens or collector camera will be tomorrow's bookend, nothing more, once the next generation forgets that there ever was something special about it, which in some cases was an innovation which practically every quality lens or analogous camera soon acquired
as well. It's also fun to see that many of these "rare" and "collectible" items have been sitting parked on the auction site seemingly forever. If a lens does in fact have a special look that I personally want, well fine; but that has relatively little to do with price. Some of my favorite lenses have come for free, and I don't mean fuzzy-wuzzy clunkers.

 

[Alan Gales]

Ian, I had no idea that Dagors were cult lenses. Who'd have thought it?

Ain't thread drift wonderful?

Dan, I think Commercial Ektars are cult lenses now by the price some are asking on Ebay. Crown Graphics are now cult cameras.

 

[Nathan King]

I regularly enlarge 35mm 12x. The only way I can tell the difference between my Leica Summicron and Canon FD 50mm 1.4 in an image is a hint of spherical aberration in the Canon lens that only manifests itself in about 2% of the shots I take. Everything we do between firing the shutter and pulling a print from the archival washer has a much greater impact on the look of the image than a lens ever will.

 

[flavio81]

Some specific lenses, not brands, have distinctive looks, for example:

- My Nikkor-H 28/3.5 has strong vignetting, zero flare, and strong points of light sources can become very nice stars on the image. Quite distinctive look.

- The Canon FL (or R) 58/1.2 has a quite distinctive look as well, due to the aberrations involved

etc.

 

[Roger Cole]

Carry with you a couple of prints you made from 4x5 and pull them out when they sneer at your film. That ought to shut them up.

Kinda hard to carry around 16x20 DW FB (or even MW RC) prints though. And easily portable sizes aren't going to impress as any better than what they can do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk and 100% recycled electrons - because I care.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Dan, I think Commercial Ektars are cult lenses now by the price some are asking on Ebay. Crown Graphics are now cult cameras.

I dunno, Alan, I just took a quick look at Commercial Ektars offered on eBay. Today's highest asking price is $775 for a 14 incher in barrel. The vendor is gokevincameras, whose asking prices are usually absurd. Asking unfortunately isn't getting. Sales prices are typically lower.

A lens coveted by members of the HK Old Lens Club, viz., a 60/2.8 Boyer Saphir in a barrel that looks like it goes into a projector brought $860 in November. Closer to home, two TTH Cooke soft focus Ser II brought at least $6k each. Closer to my home, as in I have one that cost much less, a 4"/2.0 TTH for Vinten F95 aerial camera brought $1,998. That's pretty cultish.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[Ian Grant]

Part of what makes some of the lens "Cult" is they weren't readily available in all parts of the world, We never had Commercial Ektars in the UK, the only Kodak LF post WWII lens in the UK was the 203mm f7.7 Ektar M370 in a #0 sized shutter, initially Epsilon, then Prontor SVS and finally Compur.

It does appear the HK Old Lens Club are more interested in fast lenses thay can use on a digital (or 35mm) camera.

I wouldn't call the Commercial Ektars cult lenses yet rather that they are desirable coated lenses that deserve to be used, they don't have the myth that some give to the DAgor, the Heliar and the Apo Lanthars. I wouldn't buy a barrel version of a Commercial Ektar, I'd go for a post WWII CZJ Tessar just as good but cheaper, however I would get a Commercial Ektar in a shutter if I needed another 10x8/12x10 lens and the price was right.

Ian

 

[Theo Sulphate]

I would buy a Dogmar lens just for the name alone.

 

[Alan Gales]

Kinda hard to carry around 16x20 DW FB (or even MW RC) prints though. And easily portable sizes aren't going to impress as any better than what they can do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk and 100% recycled electrons - because I care.

Ya roll a couple up and put em in a tube.

Sirius is probably right though. They wouldn't know what they were looking at. I was at one of my daughter's High School softball games about 5 years ago. A fellow was shooting his daughter with a Canon 5D Mark 2. He had several lenses for his camera. I asked him how 8x10's looked from the camera and he replied that he never had anything printed that large.