Rapid Rectilinear for portraits?

[sdivot]

I'm waiting for my new Kodak Portrait 305mm f4.8 to arrive for the 8x10 (woohoo, thought I'd just throw that in), and in the meantime I was fooling around with the 4x5. I have an old brass f6 Rapid Rectilinear that I have really never used, and I was wondering if there were any thoughts from you experts about using the RR for portraits. I'm going to just try it of course, but I wonder if there are opinions out there.
Thanks,
Steve
www.scdowellphoto.com

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

No reason at all why you shouldn't. The RR is a great lens design, and many were made for doing LF portraits.

 

[Barry S]

I've done some portraits with Rapid Rectilinear and Aplanat lenses and they usually do a great job because they're fairly sharp, but with softer out of focus areas than modern lenses. The edges go a little soft with RR lenses, but that's immaterial for portraits. I have a Dallmeyer 12x10 RR that I particularly like for portraits.

 

[Anton Lukoszevieze]

Yeh, go for it, Julia Margaret Cameron did all of her major later work with one.

 

[removed account4]

the wollensak verito and veritar are based on
the rr design. i have a few ( rr's ), and i LOVE to
use one named laverne to shoot portraits.

have fun!

john

 

[EASmithV]

the wollensak verito and veritar are based on
the rr design. i have a few ( rr's ), and i LOVE to
use one named laverne to shoot portraits.

have fun!

john

You named your lens? =D

Don't feel bad...

I named my 8x10...

 

[removed account4]

You named your lens? =D

Don't feel bad...

I named my 8x10...

nooooo
its etched on the barrel by the maker
i have a feeling that doesn't count ...

 

[pgomena]

Hey, B.B. King names his guitar "Lucille." No harm done.

Peter Gomena

 

[sdivot]

I sometimes call my equipment names, but I guess that's not what we're talking about.....
Thanks for the replies.
Steve
www.scdowellphoto.com

 

[keeds]

12x10 RR

I have a 12x10 RR that I really like for portraits. With a Packard shutter they are a doddle wide open...

My father. Lith contact print on Fomatone. Please excuse the damn bellows intruding at the bottom of the image. Doh!

 

[Rolleiflexible]

Steve, I've shot with RR lenses. A
word of warning: Do not assume,
by the examples mentioned here and
the age of the design, that you will
get "period" looking negatives from
the lens. My experience is that the
RR lenses render amazingly well,
and that you have to go farther back
in lens designs -- the Petzvals and
beyond -- to get the sort of optical
irregularities that one associates
with very old photographs. When
I shot with RRs, I would have been
hard-pressed to distinguish their
work from the negatives I made
with modern Tessar-design lenses.

 

[luvcameras]

Did you know you can also shoot with just the front cell or just the real cell from an RR Lens...yup...it usually doubles the focal length and becomes half as fast....now you are shooting with a 2 element Doublet, telephoto lens with a whole new character to the lens.

Dan