Jim Galli’s website at https://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/ went offline in 2019, which is a shame because he published a lot of great content about vintage soft focus lenses. He posted authentic large format photographs from some of the most desirable lenses.
Please note Jim’s original text and photographs below are his copyright, and I have made every attempt to ensure this is clear and properly attributed to Jim.
Jim shared a few portraits in this post comparing the Pinkham & Smith IV Visual Quality 13-inch lens and the Verito 11 1/2-inch lens. The P&S lens if you can find one starts around $4500 and the Wollansak Verito 11 1/2 inch lens around $500 to $600.
Is the Pinkham & Smith worth 10 times the Verito?
Read Jim’s original post below and review his photographs comparing these two legendary lenses.
“A Pinkham & Smith Series IV Visual Quality 13”! This lens has always been rare and sought even in the days when the dinosaurs were roaming the earth un-checked. A peruse of the 1959 Burke & James catalog which includes a literal who’s who of portrait lenses over 2 pages with Verito’s, Cooke’s, and Vitax’s being common as dirt found not a single Pinkham & Smith of any variety.
Indeed as much as I love learning the history accurately of all my lenses there is VERY little information to be had on the web or in any of the written resources I own. Thus I will make some educated guesses and hope that perhaps with luck someone who actually has some good solid information will chime into the discussion.
My lens simply states on the forward barrel that it is a Pinkham & Smith Series IV Visual Quality 13″. As soon as I unwrapped the lens I said to myself this was built by Wollensak. That isn’t to say the optical design is Wollensak, just that it seems to be spec’d by talent at Pinkham & Smith, a large Boston photo retailer, perhaps Walter Wolf?, and built at Wollensak Optical.
The reasons I’m guessing this are that first, it was very common practice in the period roughly 1890 to 1920 for big houses to have their names on lenses built elsewhere. ie. I own an Eastman petzval and a Hyatt petzval, and previously owned a SeRoCo Petzval, all identical, and all built by Bausch & Lomb. I have a SeRoCo petzval that is identical to Wollensak f5 series petzval and even has the Wollensak name on the black band next to the studio shutter. And second, the look and finish is identical to my 11 1/2″
Verito. I could interchange the front barrels of the Verito and the Pinkham & Smith lens. The Verito’s rear barrel is longer but threads are the same. The flange is interchangeable between the 2 lenses. Still, a guess, but a fair one and I’m anxious to hear from anyone who has a good history.
Jay Allen says the Verito and the P&S are similar lenses, and that may be true to a point, but they are different optically. The Verito has a single light in front and an achromat in back. Where the P&S has doublets both front and back like a Rapid Rectilinear. It seems better corrected wide open than a Verito. Much less fuzzy at f4. Interesting that the Visual Quality hints that it gets all of it’s work done between f4 and f8 with aperture scales of f4 f4.5 f5 f6 f7 and f8 all engraved. After f8 there are dashes so you can find the stops on up to f22 or so but they arent listed.
The photos I’m including that I did on Saturday are just the tiniest scratch on the surface of what any of the lenses I used that day can provide. Still it is surprising what you can learn even with only a couple of uses.
It was bitter cold in Tonopah Nevada on Saturday and I knew my chances for getting friends to model outdoors would be limited. Since I’m a novice I find shooting males to be much less daunting on so many levels. They can be ready in less than 30 seconds. They don’t really care much what the picture will look like. Mostly, they want to get back to a good game and a beer. Since I’m a consumate coward, why would I even consider tackling women?
I did 5 shots with 3 lenses. The Pinkham & Smith 13″, the 11 1/2″ Verito, and a giant 20″ Voigtlander Euryscop IV No. 6 Portrait, all on 8X10. I used my venerated Eastman 2D 8X10. It has both extensions, a 30″ bellows, and the 7″ Packard has a recent overhaul and is working extemely well. The big Packard actually is stuffed into the first bellows fold but anything smaller wouldn’t have a shutter aperture big enough for even these moderate portrait lenses.”
Do you see 10X the price difference between the P&S and Verito?
I don’t and that’s why I own several of the Verito lenses all costing less than one P&S lens.
Once again in these two photographs, do you see 10X the value of the P&S versus the Verito? Only you can be the judge of that for yourself, but I sure don’t.
I am very happy with my Wollensak Verito lenses.
More information about the Wollensak Verito lenses can be found on the website at https://antiquecameras.net/softfocuslenses2.html
