Scratched f2.8 XENOTAR tests

[pentaxpete]

Some years ago I was given a 1956-59 ROLLEIFLEX 2.8 E2 XENOTAR by a widow lady whose late husband had got kit off a Press Photographer -- the taking lens had bad scratches, the bottom latch pin was missing, the winder was stiff, the meter did not work , there was a Light Leak -- so I finally got it repaired -- he made a new very small pin for bottom latch plate, got the meter working lubed it and kit all works now ! I found a roll of outdated Kodak GPF C41 film in fridge with no wrapping so no exact 'date' -- I rated it at 50 ASA and went out in town with Rollei in dull light . I took a small series of tests with the scratched XENOTAR at full aperture and one at f5.6 -- results were amazing ! Film scanned very light ' soft and blue so I just did a colour correction and used 'Curves' to bring contrast back to how subjects looked at the time as near as possible and a small amount of 'Un-Sharp Masking' for the 'Digital Scan'
F2.8 XENOTAR at full aperture

Scratched XENOTAR at full aperture by Peter Elgar, on Flickr
f2.8 XENOTAR at f5.6
Scratched XENOTAR at f5.6 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr
f2.8 XENOTAR at FULL Aperture
Scratched XENOTAR at full aperture by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

 

[Asha]

Very good results there Pete.

I've used lenses with considerable scratches or riddled with fungus and the results were just fine.

Even had a couple of lenses with minor marks to the rear element, in fact I have a LF lens that has a slight mark/ scratch/chip to the rear element which is clearly visible to the eye but appears to show no detrimental effect on the images that it captures…...Tbh it often renders the sharpest results out of all my LF lenses!