I use the 8 3/4″ F4 (1920), 11 1/2″ (1911-1946), 14 1/2″ F4, and 18-inch Verito soft-focus lenses to create my soft-focus pictorialist-style fine art images for my Solitary Witnesses project, and I exclusively use the 11 1/2″ F4 Verito for my Pictorial Whispers project.
Edward Weston is renowned for his early work using the Verito soft focus lens, which he employed extensively before 1923 to create atmospheric, Pictorialist images. However, after joining the f/64 group, Weston embraced the modernist aesthetic of sharpness and precision, ultimately abandoning his earlier Pictorialist style. In his later years, he expressed deep regret over having discarded much of his early work, including his negatives and prints—an act he came to see as a significant loss to his artistic legacy. If you want to see his amazing soft-focus Pictorialist photographs, get a copy of the book “Edward Weston: The Early Years“.
The Verito is likely the best-selling and most widely used soft-focus lens ever. It was adapted from the Bodine Pictorial Lens around 1911 and remained in production until 1946. It was updated, coated, and replaced by the Veritar in 1950. The rear cell can be used alone at nearly twice the original focal length.
Table of Contents
Verito F4 Soft Focus Lens
The Wollensak Verito is a historic soft-focus portrait lens originally introduced by Wollensak Optical Company in the early 20th century, highly prized for its gentle, ethereal rendering qualities. Here’s a concise yet detailed summary suitable for your notes:
Optical Design
- Type: Achromatic doublet (two-element construction)
- Construction:
- Two elements in two groups (cemented doublets)
- Front element: Achromatic doublet
- Rear element: Single meniscus doublet (also usable independently)
Focal Lengths
Common Verito focal lengths and their metric equivalents:
- 8¾ inch = 222 mm
- 11½ inch = 292 mm
- 14½ inch = 368 mm
- 18 inch = 457 mm
Convertible Lens Feature
The Verito lenses were designed to be used either as a complete lens or as a single-cell (rear element alone), resulting in a lens with increased focal length and reduced maximum aperture. Approximate conversions:
| Original Lens | Rear Element Only | Approx. Converted Focal Length | Exposure Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8¾ inch (222 mm) f/4 | Rear only → 14 in (~355 mm) | f/6.4 (+1⅓ stops) | x 2.3 |
| 11½ inch (292 mm) f/4 | Rear only → 20 in (~508 mm) | f/7 (+1⅔ stops) | x 2.6 |
| 14½ inch (368 mm) f/4 | Rear only → 24 in (~610 mm) | f/6.7 (+1⅓ stops) | x 2.3 |
| 18 inch (457 mm) f/4 | Rear only → 30 in (~762 mm) | f/6.4 (+1⅓ stops) | x 2.3 |
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Soft-Focus Characteristics
Signature Look:
- Produces dreamy, soft-focused images, especially at wide-open apertures (f/4 – f/5.6).
- Gentle glow around highlights, smooth tonal transitions, and subtle diffusion of detail.
- Ideal for portraits, pictorial, impressionistic, and artistic applications.
Adjustable Softness:
- Achieves maximum softness wide-open; softness decreases and sharpness increases as you stop down (typically f/8 and smaller apertures produce noticeably sharper images).
Bokeh:
- Famous for creamy, painterly bokeh (out-of-focus highlights and backgrounds) enhancing artistic, pictorialist aesthetics.
Historical Significance
- Widely adopted during the early 1900s (1907 onward), particularly popular in the Pictorialist movement.
- Used by prominent portrait photographers and fine-art photographers to emulate painterly styles popular in Pictorialism.
Verito Resources
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The coveted Pinkham and Smith lens costs 10X of the Verito. Check out this archived article and comparison photos by Jim Galli. I think you will be amazed at the performance of the Verito for a fraction of the cost.
The Verito barrel was finished in polished brass with black trim through 1913 and in black enamel after that. The Verito was redesigned in 1920 to reduce halation and align visual focus with chemical focus, as well as to offer softness at f/4 equal to the prior design’s softness at f/6. The redesigned Verito eliminated diffusion stops for enlarging (which had been introduced in 1917) and controlled image softness solely using aperture adjustment; see pages 11-13 of Lensology and Shutterisms Vol. 8 No. 4 for details. Wollensak’s later production f/6 Verito A and B, as well as the Verito Motion Picture lenses, are a different 2/2 periscopic design, thought it is unclear when this change occurred. Serial numbers followed the Verito Series until 1942, and the Anastigmat Series thereafter.
The handmade Calotype paper negative below was created with my 11.5-inch F4 Verito lens wide open.
And here is the handmade Kallitype made from this negative.
The handmade Calotype paper negative below was taken with my 11.5-inch F4 Verito wide open and purposely defocused to achieve my desired aesthetic.
The Calotype below was taken with the Verito 11.5″ F4 lens wide open at F4.
18″ F4 Verito Lens
14 1/2″ F4 Verito Lens
11 1/2″ F4 Verito Lens
8 3/4″ Verito F4 in Barrel
The Wollensak Verito Diffused Focus lens, introduced in 1911, quickly gained popularity for its lightweight, three-element doublet design. It was a staple in catalogs until about 1950, thanks to its availability with a Wollensak shutter.
Initially, in 1911 and early 1912, the Verito lenses were rated at f/5 speed. However, by the 1912/1913 catalog, they had been slightly modified to f/4, enhancing their appeal as portrait lenses.
In January 1920, Photo-Era Magazine highlighted the Wollensak Optical Company of Rochester, N.Y., for significantly popularizing soft-focus photography over the preceding decade. The article praised the Verito Diffused Focus F 4 lens for its role in this trend, noting its advantages such as convertibility with a rear focal length about 1.5 times longer than the doublet, high F/4 speed, reduced need for retouching, versatility for various photography types, and suitability for soft-focus effects.
The magazine acknowledged that while the original Verito had already won widespread favor, Wollensak’s Experimental Department had made further improvements. The new Verito maintained the qualities of the older version but minimized halation. It also provided softness at F/4 comparable to the older lens at F/6, allowing photographers to use wider apertures without undesirable fuzziness. This new design ensured fast exposures without the risk of double lines, halos, or a mushy appearance, and it presented the same image in the ground glass as in the finished negative, unlike other soft-focus lenses.
The Verito offered a range of apertures from f/4 to f/8 for varied soft-focus effects. At f/11, it produced sharp, crisp images. Its versatility, from soft to crisp imagery, made it the most popular soft-focus lens of its time. The lens was initially produced in brass and later in black enamel paint, available in various sizes and with barrel or shutter options. The final version even featured coated glass. Special Verito lenses were also produced for smaller format cameras over time.
Historic Wollensak Catalog Advertisements
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