Pinkham-Smith, Cooke Pinkham, Vesta, Imagon, Verito, Petzval, modified Petzval, Heliar, Dagor, Apo-Lanthar, Velostigmat, Rapid Rectillinear. These are names of lens types and lens brands. Old lenses. I've been wanting a soft focus portrait lens for my 4x5 Graflex and these are some of the names I've come across in my search. Yesterday I was actually bidding on a Wollensak Vesta Portrait, F5, for a short period hoping to get it cheap. My hopes were dashed. But I spent some time googling for information on portrait lenses and I've decided the 5x7 Verito Diffused Focus, F4, is the lens I want. They are soft through the miracle of sperical aberration. As the are closed down, they sharpen up until, at F8, they are reasonably sharp. At F4 they are pretty fuzzy but the trick is to stop them down until you get the level of not sharp that you want. It was a Verito that George Hurrell used for many of his classic Hollywood portraits. However, I really need to test out the lens that is already on the Graflex: a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 210/3.5. It may be that, wide open, it will soften up. If it's still too sharp I will need to search for a Verito. I don't want real fuzzy, just a little smoothing.

The mail just came. First was a used copy of Ruth Harriet Louise and Hollywood Glamour Photography. She preceded George Hurrell. Some studying of pictures to do. The second was my 5x7 black and white film. Now I really need to get those 5x7 film holders cleaned up. I still need to relube those Jupiter 8s first.