[LargeFormat] cult lenses

[Les Newcomer]

On Tuesday, June 3, 2003, at 09:54  AM, Michael Briggs wrote:

>
>
> Some of this is from Dagor77's skill with words and selling.
>
> Some of this is from lore on the Internet being misunderstood.  
> Various experts
> on the internet have correctly recommended certain older lenses are 
> being of
> high-quality at a low price -- soon the demand exceeds the supply, the 
> price of
> the classic soars, and one can buy a newer lens of higher quality for 
> a lower
> price, so that the former bargain classic no longer makes sense as a 
> user lens.
> Sometimes readers of the praise of these older lenses misinterpert the 
> praise
> to mean that the lenses are better than recent offerings.   Sometimes 
> the
> rarity of these older lenses in excellent condition drives up the 
> price by
> collector/users or just plain collectors.
>
> The cases where these classics can still make sense even at elevated 
> prices are
> for ultra-large formats and sometimes 8x10.   Lenses made in recent 
> decades for
> all purposes for 4x5 are highly available on the used market.   For 4x5
> the newer lenses are generally better (sometimes by a small margin or 
> by being
> in a better shutter), especially for wide angles.  In recent decades 
> the market
> for lenses for 11x14 and larger formats has been too small to justify 
> (in a
> business sense) the production of certain types of lenses, so there 
> are gaps in
> what has been manufactured.
>
> --Michael
>
>

Well put Michael!.

I will add that in a few cases the internet has added supply and 
lessened the lore. A friend of mine whose been in the business longer 
than I have can remember when Lens & Repro had to know who you were 
before they would even let you think they had any Protar Vs  They were 
as coveted as  the RVPs, and the Pinkam Smith lenses are today. Now 
anybody with a Paypal account can get one.