I was out yesterday testing a couple of 12-inch lenses for my 8×10 and smaller sheet film cameras. I recently got a 12-inch Kodak Commercial Ektar, a lens with a great reputation. I’ve had a 12-inch Goerz Dagor for some years. Mine is one of the later coated Dagors. So, I needed to see the Ektar in action up against the Dagor. As it happened, I went out to lunch with another photographer right after the shoot. He mentioned a new digital lens he might get saying that it tested better than other lenses. I asked what did they actually test; which turned out to be sharpness, contrast and clarity. Frankly, if sharpness and contrast don’t add up to clarity, I don’t know what I’m missing.
I am interested in sharpness with a view camera lens; however, I am much more interested in a lens that shows long tonal gradation than one that is contrasty. The tonal gradation is a big part of the feel of a classic view camera lens. The late view camera lenses were optimized for shooting transparency film for commercial work and so they were quite contrasty. These days I prefer a different tonality for my black and white work. So, for me, a good view camera lens will show the shape of an object. In the test negatives I included columns, which are an excellent way to evaluate the way a lens records shape.
Another critical aspect of a view camera lens is bokeh, probably not in the way you think. When I first heard about bokeh it was in regard to view camera lenses. A lens with good bokeh showed more presence and detail in the out of focus area of the image, than a lens with bad bokeh. Pretty much the opposite of the way the word is understood now. Now people use the word to mean a lens which tends to isolate the subject from the background. I don’t like this because I want the subtle gradation and a presence in the background to create a greater sense of three-dimensionality in my photographs.
Now, perhaps you wouldn’t photograph a highway underpass, but I think it’s a perfect subject to evaluate lenses: columns and long tonal range. I’ve included scans of the complete negatives, which were made with Ilford HP-5 processed in Kodak Xtol. However, these scans are lower resolution because I can’t upload a 1.3 gigabyte file. I also included a couple of cut outs from the full image, which are at the full resolution of the original scans. Probably the easiest difference to see, in these scans, is the change in detail in the distant part of the image. The Goerz lens has much more detail than the Kodak. This is not a surprise. The Kodak lens is a 4 element, in three groups, design: a Tessar type, while the Dagor is a 6 element lens in two groups. Both lenses are in the same shutter and have similar diaphragms, so the difference is in the glass. I used my Toyo 810M field camera for these tests.
The first shot was made at f16.5 with a 1/150 shutter speed. The cut outs are from the front column, where I focused and the left side of the image. I did not use camera movements to adjust the focus, since I was particularly interested in how the lens deals with an out of focus image.
The second image was made at f11.5 and a 25th of a second. The Goerz might be just a little sharper, but it’s hard to tell. You may note that the image from the Kodak Ektar appears slightly closer to the subject. I did not move the camera. It appears that though both lenses are marked 12-inch, they have slightly different focal length. This image was made with a lot of front rise on the camera which is probably why both lenses appear to vignette at the base of the image.
Both are good lenses, but the Goerz will remain my go-to lens in this focal length. There are some links to my recent work at the end of the post. Thanks for your attention
12 Inch Goerz Dagor, coated, at f16.5
12 inch Kodak Commercial Ektar, coated, at f16.5
12 inch Goerz Dagor
12 Inch Kodak Ektar
12 inch Kodak Ektar
12 Inch Goerz Dagor
Another image made at f11.5
Kodak 12 inch Commercial Ektar, coated, at f11.5
Goerz 12 inch Dagor, coated at f11.5
A few links
I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you’ll find it interesting.
Links to my books, still available at Amazon!