link here  | |  tools  |  share:
photo size: medium 640 new

Conspiracy.of.Cartographers
recent  |  interesting  |  random  |  favorites  |  contacts  |  sets  |  tags:  
view large
Antelope, Oregon
Antelope, Oregon

I'm not really a gear guy. I eschew gear talk, and chit chat about lenses honestly bores the living hell out of me.

But let's talk about this lens, okay? This is a 135mm Steinheil München Anastigmat Actinar with an aperture of 4.5. Odd? Yes. But look at what it's doing to the image.

It's crisp, though not overly so. It's far from soft focus, which is great for these medium shots that I do sometimes (it's not great for landscapes). I assume it would be fun for portraits, though I have no idea.

The anastigmat actinar was invented by Steinheil. I knew that Zeiss put out one prior to this, but this one was a double anastigmat. Exactly what all this means has been explained to me, but it's over my head. We're talking eye doctor shit here.

All I know is that the lens is old and I like it. Anastigmat lenses were made to correct some aberations in earlier lenses, but this little guy comes complete with its own array of aberations - all of which I adore.

One of the charactoristics of these lenses is that they are sharp in the center, but tend to drop off very quickly around the edges. You can see in this image that the light is bent in the trees, and even the buildings are struggling to stand straight.

Lenses made prior to this are expensive. The price (less than $50) was the real selling point for me. The shutter that it came with was bad, so I swapped it with another (from a very soft focus lens whose name illudes me). That combo, however, works like a charm.

I'm not happily shooting 4x5 handheld and loving the results. Not that the stock Graflex lens was bad - it was rather nice, but also rather boring.

This isn't a lens for all occasions. I have specific shots in mind when I use it. I wasn't sure how it would work here, so I just gave it a try.

I'm digging the results.

.
.
.
'After Kings and Graves'

Camera: Graflex Crown Graphic (1954)
Lens: Steinheil München Anastigmat Actinar 4.5; 135mm
Film: Ilford FP4+
Exposure: f/4.5; 1/200sec; Yellow Filter
Process: WD2D+; 7min

Antelope, Oregon
October 2020

Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike Some rights reserved
Taken on: October 14, 2020
Sets appears in:   • Crown Graphic 4x5 (1954)    • Ilford FP4+   
Groups appears in:   • Pacific Northwest    • Do It Yourself Black & White    more » • Large Format    • B&W film / developer combinations    • On the Road in America    • Black and White Film Grain - film cameras only    • I Shoot Ilford Film    • DIE LIEBE ZUM GROSSFORMAT    • film means something to us    • Vanishing Pacific Northwest    • Silver Halide    • in explore    • Abandoned Pacific Northwest #abandonedPNW    • TRANSCENDENTAL    • Ugly Places all over the World    • THERE IS NO LIMIT FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC CREATION    • BEAUTY PHOTOS AROUND THE WORLD    • UFO OSNI BODIES PARANORMAL PHENOMENA AND PHENOMENA NOT EXPLAINED    « less
Camera: EPSON Perfection V800/V850 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: EPSON Perfection V800/V850
Color Space: sRGB
Software: GIMP 2.10.4
Show full info
Stats: 14,463 views / 11 comments
Antelope, Oregon

go back

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: