Favorite Portrait Lenses on 8x10

Hello!

Could everyone post a list of their favourite Portrait Lenses on 8x10, with a short note

on why they love that particular one or two!

Let us include also the really old ones!

All the best

pietro

My favorite portrait lens for 8x10 is my 14.5" Wollensak Verito, followed by:

16" and 12" Turner/Reich Triple Convertibles, and an 18" Wollensak Rapid Rectilinear.

The Verito is fast at f4, and produces a velvet-smooth range of softness receding into sharpness as the lens is stopped down. The Verito required more practice to use effectively than I expected, and I had a lot of trouble with its Studio shutter before I had it repaired by Flutot's Camera Repair, but once the shutter was made reliable, the lens' idiosyncrasies were far more manageable. The degree of softness used is largely a matter of taste, and I find few images benefit from maximum softness, so I generally shoot at f5.6-f11, and the 8x10 contact prints made from these negatives are lush and beautiful.

The T/R convertibles and the Rapid Rectilinear are usually shot wide open, and produce beautiful, slightly soft images, with the advantage of real shutters and the alternatives of longer and shorter focal lengths relative to the Verito. These three lenses in their combined forms provide focal lengths of 12", 14.5", 16", and 18", which is a very comprehensive range for portraiture. The many focal lengths possible by converting these lenses covers a range from 12" to 42", and will cover up to 16x20. That's a lot of overkill, and if I had to choose just one lens, it would definitely be the Verito, which I find to be an ideal focal length, and I've come to love its image qualities. That being said, any of these lenses is capable of excellent portraits, and I believe the same to be true of just about any lens of appropriate focal length and speed. Good luck, and enjoy.

my favorite portrait lens on 8x10 is a wollensak triple (13/20/25).

it has beautiful out of focus areas and the in focus area is nice and smooth.

it has a very large image circle, and i also use it on a 11x14 camera ...