I have a Goerz Dagor Berlin 6,8 30cm compound very very soft (too for me) and very difficult to utilize. Have you explanation to his subject? Regards Alain

-- Faure Alain (davy-faure@wanadoo.fr), July 03, 2001

Answers

Hi Faure, it's not normally known as a soft lens. What f-stops are you using to take photos with? David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), July 03, 2001.

The lens could be minutely scratched, or maybe the cementing is coming apart. That's the trouble with old lenses, you have to worry about 3 things; condition, condition, and condition.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), July 03, 2001.

My 135 mm 6.8 Berlin Dagor has a fairly dramatic focus shift when stopped down from wide open. A 30 cm must be even worse. Are you checking final focus at the taking aperture?

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), July 03, 2001.

It doesn't sound like this lens is coated. I've always gotton sharp and contrasty results with a factory coated Dagor 7" that I have. Several years ago, Ron Wisner did a parallel line comparison test between a Dagor (about 150mm or 180mm) against a well known German optic (Schneider), and the Dagor was more contrasty.

Personally, I avoided the Berlin Dagors, since they're so old and usually uncoated. The Goerz Americal Optical Co. lenses are the optics in which I was most interested. They seem to be pretty reliable in terms of performance. After serial numbers of about 77xxxx, these lenses are coated. I'm not sure of the exact breakpoint, if one exists.

-- neil poulsen (neil.fg@att.net), July 03, 2001.