Product Description
Kodak Lenses for Professional Photography
CHOOSING YOUR LENS
The choice of a really fine lens is perhaps the most important decision with respect to equipment the photographer is called upon to make. His future photography rests not only on the quality of the lens itself, but also on the suitability of the lens for the tasks it is to perform.
The drawing and perspective of the image formed by a lens depend upon the point of view—the camera position—not on the lens. However, the area of the scene covered, and the size of the image, is a function of the lens, and these in turn often are the factors which determine where the camera is placed. Thus the covering power and focal length of lenses regulate their suitability for a given purpose. In general, a normal lens will cover a film when the focal length is approximately the same as the film’s diagonal dimension. Focal lengths longer than this dimension will also cover the film but relative image sizes are increased and the area covered decreased. To decrease the image size from normal and increase the area covered, special lenses are employed called wide field or wide angle. These will cover a film satisfactorily even though their focal lengths are less than the diagonal dimension.
But whatever the focal length, whatever the optical characteristics, the sharpness or definition of the image the lens forms depends upon the care with which it is made, the patience, skill, and basic integrity of its manufacturer, and the formula from which it was designed. All Kodak Ektar Lenses have been designed, manufactured, and mounted with infinite care, always remembering the perfectionist’s need for perfection. Flare, with its accompanying degradation of shadow areas and of color purity has been overcome by the use of edge-blackened lens elements, light-baffling in the mount, and by Lumenizing, the Kodak method of coating all air-glass surfaces.
Superlative lens quality is not an intangible entity that must be taken on faith alone. It is something that the eye can detect by results. The Kodak Ektar Lenses are presented with pride, secure in the knowledge that here are the finest objectives possible—professional lenses that meet the requirements of the most discriminating.
