What is the Holy Trinity for 5x7?

[TheFlyingCamera]

90mm f6.8 Rodenstock Grandagon will cover 5x7 with limited movements. Any 210-240mm will make a nice "normal" lens for 5x7. I have a Sinar Sinaron 210 f5.6 plasmat, and I also have a 240mm Heliar f4.5 for when I want to do portraiture. A 12" Commercial Ektar makes a good longer lens for 5x7 - the 14", while beautiful, is in an Ilex #5 shutter and is just too big for the front standard of most 5x7 field cameras.

regarding Vaughn's comments on the 159mm f12.5 Wollensak - I think there was significant sample-to-sample variation in those lenses - I have one with the purple "WoCoated" mark on the front ring, and it covers 5x12 with perceptible but not objectionable sharpness loss at the corners stopped down to f22.

 

[Vaughn]

...regarding Vaughn's comments on the 159mm f12.5 Wollensak - I think there was significant sample-to-sample variation in those lenses - I have one with the purple "WoCoated" mark on the front ring, and it covers 5x12 with perceptible but not objectionable sharpness loss at the corners stopped down to f22.

I think I got one of the lazy Wollensaks (with the "WoCoated" symbol, also)...it just does not want to do the heavy lifting.

But I do like an image I got from it:

Scanned 8x10 platinum print