The Taylor, Taylor, and Hobson (TTH) Rapid View Portrait (RVP) lens is extremely rare and difficult to find today. The lens was made in the early 1880s, so they became increasingly difficult to find as time passed.
This 12.37 inch (312mm) F8 soft focus lens begs to be used wide open to show all of its beautiful imperfections that no longer exist with any type of lens made in the last 100 years.
My lens is in incredible condition and you would have no idea that it is 145 years old. The brass finish on the lens probably looks nearly as good as it did in the 1880s when a photographer was using this lens.
The best way I can describe this lens is that it produces an incredibly pleasing image that feels natural to the eye. You don’t realize how soft it really is until you directly compare the same scene shot on a modern multi-coated large format lens. This exact lens was used by legends such as Alfred Stieglitz, Clarence White, and Gertrude Kasebier.
I am working on a couple of projects where I am photographing Missouri’s historic mills and covered bridges and I am trying to work it out where I can use this lens. It’s considered a normal lens on 8×10, and slightly long on 5×7. If you are interested in learning more about these projects, click on the Projects menu item above.
The text below is from Russel Young’s thesis, THE SOFT-FOCUS LENS AND ANGLO-AMERICAN PICTORIALISM, William Russell Young, III, A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews.
The Taylor, Taylor and Hobson (TTH) lens, Rapid View and Portrait (later simply known as the R.V.P. as identified on the lens barrel itself) originated before 1885 and consisted of a simple combination meniscus set well behind the aperture blades.
It “was merely a landscape lens normally working at f/16 opened up to f/8. This introduced or rather increased the spherical aberration and the curvature of field, and the definition was by no means even, being very much sharper in the center than around the edges.”
It was the first soft focus objective used by Clarence White; it was also used by Alfred Stieglitz at some time in his career as well.
In 1913 it was rebranded as the Cooke Achromatic Portrait Lens. Except for the improved quality of the glass and the working aperture, the R.V.P. was nearly identical to Charles Chevalier’s achromatic French Landscape Lens f/15, of 1839, one of the earliest lenses designed specifically for photography. This general landscape lens design was in production for nearly a century and was in wide use in 1900 and Kühn believed it was the model for Smith’s lens.
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My TTH 12.37 inch F8 RVP lens is mounted on my Chamonix 8×10 view camera using an adjustable IRIS lens board because I don’t have the original mounting flange. I am so concerned something will happen to this lens during shipment to a place like S.K. Grimes, I just use the lens like this and rest easy. If I am using a negative medium that needs a shutter, I simply mount my Sinar Copal Shutter behind my front standard and I am ready to go.
Forum Posts
In a post in the Large Format Photography Forum in 2012, Garrett wrote “I wanted to post about a lens that is not seen very often, and is almost forgotten. The Taylor, Taylor and Hobson Rapid View Portrait (or R.V.P.) is the grandfather of a lot of soft focus meniscus lenses from the 1910s -1920s such as the Cooke Achromatic Portrait, the Karl Struss Pictorial, the Pinkham & Smith Semi-Achromat, the Bausch & Lomb Portrait Plastigmat, and even the Kodak 305 and 405 Portrait lenses. Clarence White and Alfred Stieglitz among others used the RVP for their pictorialist works.
The RVP has a long barrel, with an achromatic doublet meniscus in the rear. The front holds only the iris, at F8 or sometimes mentioned at F7.5. The workmanship on all TTH lenses is of the highest quality, with deep, precise engraving, the patented “exactly three turns to remove” flange, and a glowing brass lacquer so hard their lenses usually look 50 years younger than they are. These two 130 year old TTH lenses of mine have lacquer that looks brand new. It’s easy to see why they ended up making the Cooke lenses.
But the RVP was made in the 1880s, not the 1920s, much earlier than the second wave of soft focus enthusiasts. For a decade or more, this was the lens to use if you wanted soft focus. Earlier photographers experimented with opened up landscape lenses or shot “slightly out of focus” conventional lenses. Actually, in the 1800s a “view lens” meant a landscape lens, and the Rapid View (RV) was TTH’s version, at F11. At some point, they realized that opening up the lens to F8 would give a softness that was conducive for portraits. Thus, the Rapid View Portrait was born. As you can see, the two lenses are quite similar, but notice the larger front iris on the RVP (on left).
The story is that in 1913 TTH/Cooke was requested to remake the RVP, because a new generation of photographers wanted a lens like the first Pictorialists used. So they brought out the Cooke Achromatic Portrait Lens f/7.5. If you compare them, they are identical to the RVP except for the engraving. A couple years later Karl Struss and Smith started making similar lenses, and the rest is history.
Dan “CCHarrison” replied to Garrett’s post and I thought it would be useful to see his comments:
Thank Garrett.
Just to refine your post a bit, the Cooke Achromatic Portrait was on the market in 1911. From my Soft Focus article: http://antiquecameras.net/softfocuslenses2.html
“While the Cooke Portrait Anastigmat line of lenses was the main soft focus product by T,T&H, in 1911, they also produced the now, rarely seen, Cooke Achromatic Portrait Lens. This lens was basically a copy of an older lens sold by T,T&H, known as the Rapid View and Portrait Lens which was a combination meniscus lens with a good amount of spherical aberration left in the design.
An 1911 issue of The Photographic Times writes, “The Taylor- Hobson Company of New York have placed on the market a single Achromatic lens known as the Cooke Achromatic Portrait lens. This is really the old Rapid View and Portrait lens made twenty years ago by Taylor & Hobson, of Leicester, England, and known then as the R. V. P. For many years the lens has been used by artists like Mrs. Kasebier, Clarence White, and Alfred Stieglitz, and has been preferred by them to the modern anastigmat. It has been marketed as the result of numerous inquiries that have been received for a lens of that type. Whoever expects sharp definition will be disappointed, but the photographer who desires softness and roundness coupled with line modeling and a true perspective, will be both astonished and delighted. Each Cooke achromatic portrait lens is furnished in an English sole-leather carrying case, and shows the same fine workmanship that characterizes Cooke anastigmats. The lenses work with a full aperture of /7.5. Full particulars will be mailed on request by the Taylor-Hobson Co., 1135 Broadway, New York.”
The Photo-Miniature magazine of February 1912 remarks, “The Taylor-Hobson Co., 1135 Broadway, New York, have placed on the market a single achromatic lens known as the Cooke Achromatic Portrait lens. This is really the old Rapid View and Portrait lens made twenty years ago by Taylor & Hobson, of Leicester, England, which has been used by artists such as Gertrude Kasebier, Clarence White and Alfred Stieglitz, in preference to the modern anastigmat, for certain sorts of pictorial photography. It is noteworthy for its softness of definition, roundness and plasticity of modeling, with an accuracy of drawing which is particularly pleasing in portraiture. Those who seek these qualities in their work, and do not demand extreme speed or sharp definition, will be pleased with the performance of this lens.”
Dan
Picture of a C.A.P. Lens
Re: Rapid View Portrait (RVP) Pictorial lens
This is lens porn…. and I like it.
The sailor uniform photo is Gertrude Kasabier’s, not White’s. I think it’s taken in White’s cottage/home though in Georgetown ME if I remember correctly what I’ve read. Still a very nice photo, and White is a good reference as to the skill of what was done; he’s still teaching us today.
Russell Young also commented:
If you’re interested in further reading, pages 122-127 of my dissertation discuss how the Rapid View & Portrait lens influenced the design of the Semi-Achromatic. No less an authority than Heinrich Kuhn, who owned both lenses, felt certain that Smith had copied the RVP design. I posit therein that another lens is the father of the Kodak Portrait lens, not the RVP.
YMMV.
Russ
