14 inch Commercial Ektar

[Walter Glover]

I recently acquired a Kodak 305mm Portrait lens in an Ilex shutter which i am using for a studio project on 8x10 black & white. It is truly magnificent in its rendering both in terms of resolution/aberration and tonality. There seems to be considerable acreage to the image circle and the uncoated optics form a very gentle image gradation - particularly suited to the subtle nuances of contact printing.

The rewards of this lens have fired up my determination to get a 14 inch Commercial Ektar for images with greater resolution and similar tonal gradation. Is anybody willing to share any data concerning image circle, etc. of these lenses? Or is there a recommended site that lists such arcanum?

[Alan]

Walter,

I'm quoting from "Large Format Optical Reference Manual" - J.L. Wooden 2000.

The 14" in an Ilex/Univ, Sync. - Max f/6.3 - 4 elements in 3 groups - 75mm filter size - angle of view is 53 degrees and an image circle of 444mm at f/22.

I hope that is of some use.

Best wishes,
Alan

[David A. Goldfarb]

The 14" Commercial Ektar was one of Yousef Karsh's preferred lenses.

Info on the classic Ektar lenses can be found in a few spots:

http://largeformatphotography.info/classic...ic-experts.html

http://people.smu.edu/rmonagha/mf/ektar.html

[carlweese]

Walter,

The 14 inch Commercial Ektar is one of the three lenses I *always* carry for 8x10 work. The Commercial Ektar is a relatively simple tessar design, but the quality control was fabulous. The lens (according to Arthur Kramer in some discussion years ago) was optimised for contrast, rather than resolution, specifically for use by commercial photographers shooting chromes for full page magazine ads. This is apparantly why it is also wonderful for b&w contact printing work. In practice, while tessars don't have enormous image circles, you've still got tons of adjustment available on the 8x10 format. My Deardorff comes very near encountering bellows cutoff before the Ektar runs out of image circle.

[William Levitt]

I too am a fan of commercial ektars for b/w work. I have the 12" version and am more than happy with it's sharpness, contrast (again, 8X10" contact prints) and image circle as well.

[Eric Rose]

I tried to find one of the oldest posts on APUG and bring it back to the top, just for grins. During my research I found that the topics discussed today aren't very much different than those in 2002.

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Eric Rose;

You're right. The topics do not really change that much. There are always people coming along who are new to the subject. I am one of those, having years with 35mm, but just a few months short of two years with Large Format. I admit that I am learning photography all over again. A view camera is a humbling thing.

[Curt]

Do you think Walter ever got that 14" lens?