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The Wollensak Verito is one of the classic soft focus lenses popular in the first half of the twentieth century. It is very soft wide open, but becomes noticeably sharper as it is stopped down. The Verito here is an 8 3/4" f/4 which has been mounted in an Ilex Universal #4 shutter. For these photos the lens was mounted on a Wisner 4x5 Pocket Expedition camera, the focal length being nice for portraiture in that format. Lens to subject distance was about 36"; the subject is 12" tall. Images were made on Polaroid Type 54 film which provided convenient prints for scanning. These are straight, unmanipulated scans. The subject is a model steam engine by Georges Carette which probably predates the lens by a bit. Georges Carette (who, by the way, was a photographer) formed the company which bore his name in 1886 in Nuremberg. Georges Carette et Cie manufactured some of the most elaborate toys of the day, including steam engines. With the outbreak of World War I, M. Carette was forced to return to France and his company closed. |
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| f/4 Wide open and as expected, it's very soft. (The missing image at the upper right corner is where the Polaroid emulsion tore away.) |
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| f/8 The image is noticeably sharper. |
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| f/11 Sharpness is just slightly more than at f/8. As expected, there is a little more depth of field. |
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| f/16 A marginal increase in sharpness; just a little more depth of field. The stucco wall is beginning to show texture. |
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| f/32 The old lens looks pretty sharp at this aperture. |
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It's apparent that the Verito's usefulness as a portrait lens is in the f/4 to f/8 range which is where the greatest increase in sharpness occurs. Beyond that the increase in sharpness is very gradual. Throughout the range, however, the Verito seems to display a smoothness of tonality which I find attractive. (This is much more apparent in the original prints.) |
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The Verito was made in focal lengths ranging from 5 inches to 18 inches. Some of these are shown in the photo below. (The Nikon F3 is shown for scale.) Clockwise from upper left are the 18", 14 1/2", 11 1/2", 8 3/4" (which was used for the comparison above), and the 5". In front of the 18" is a 22 1/4" extension lens. This is a weaker positive lens which replaces the front element of the 18" lens to make a lens with a combined focal length of 22 1/4". Without any front element, the 18" becomes a 30" lens. All Veritos are convertible, the rear group providing a focus between 1 2/3 to twice the focal length of the combined elements. The speed is reduced correspondingly. More information can be found in the Wollensak catalogs of the day, many of which may be viewed at Cameraeccentric.com.
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