Comparison of Portrayers Filters - Soft Focus

For no particular reason except that I had an hour to kill on Monday I did the following comparison test to compare the soft focus effect of the Minolta Portrayer Soft Focus Filters on a non-portrait subject.

1) No filter
2) Portrayer P1
3) Portrayer P2
4) Portrayer P3
(photos are labeled to avoid confusion and P2 and P3 photos are lower resolution because of upload space restrictions)

The "P" series are supposed to be used with portraits and are reputed designed to softed skin tones only without affecting other areas. I normally use these with female portraits as the 85mm G series lens lens is often too sharp and thus a bit unforgiving. There is another set of Portrayers the "S" series but I don't own a set of those.

Lens: Minolta Maxxum 85mm f/1.4 G Series
Exposure: 1/5 second at f/5.6
Lighting: Photogenics PL375 with 30"x40" softbox to the right and black gobo opposite to the left.

I have Zeiss softar. Are that minolta the same think (random small lenses on the surface of the filter, or circular grooves?

F5.6 for portrait and 80-85 mm is large oppening, might be top ussible. Effect of softar is very different at different oppenings and different light.

Thanks for your post and your time, I think that test is very useful think.
Where one can get that minolta "softar"? B&H?

www.Leica-R.com

How do Portrayer filters work?

Daniel_OB said:

I have Zeiss softar. Are that minolta the same think (random small lenses on the surface of the filter, or circular grooves?QUOTE]

Yes, the Minolta Portrayers have small randomly places lenses. I have a B+W Softar that has circular rings/groves and I am not as fond of the soft effect that it produces.

???I wonder if anyone reading this could explain how, as Minolta claims, the Portrayers have their greatest effect on skin tones???

Click to expand...

Sorry for this late answer (if it's of any interest to anyone here at all), but I think there are neither small lenses nor grooves on the Minolta Portrayer filters of type P. As I understood from a magazine article that was published in the mid or late 80s (when I bought my set of 3 Portrayer type P, 72 mm), they are patches of color selective coatings which slightly blur colors that are typical for skin impurities (reddish / rose / purple) but not others, so that pictures taken with these filters retain a good overall detail and contrast, but skin impurities such as pimples or acne are less visible.

And now that this old thread has been revived ...

I have a B+W Softar that has circular rings/groves

Click to expand...

If they have circular grooves, they are not Softars, but Dutto filters.

This is the first that I have heard of the Portrayer filters. If they were made in 49 and 55 mm sizes, I might be interested.