GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 29 



for itself. Almost any of the modern ana- 

 stigmats can be used for such work. The 

 Goerz, Voigtlaender, Cooke, Zeiss, and other 

 makes are all known to be good. If one is 

 selecting a lens for this special purpose, and 

 if price is a great consideration, he will natu- 

 rally choose one of comparatively short focus, 

 since such a lens will give photographs of 

 fruits at natural size without the use of the 

 long bellows extension. These short-focus 

 lenses, often spoken of rather erroneously as 

 wide-angle lenses, are not suitable for general 

 outdoor work, however, and are to be re- 

 garded always as special purpose tools. Too 

 short a focus should not be adopted under 

 any circumstances. A 6-inch focus may be 

 regarded as the minimum for a 5 x 7 plate, 

 7^-inch for a 6}^ x 8^ plate, and 8^-inch for 

 an 8 x 10 plate. 



For myself, I greatly prefer a lens of consid- 

 erably longer focus, such as is used for gen- 

 eral landscape work. These lenses will run 

 about as follows : Focus of 8-9 inches for 5x7 

 plates, 9-12 inches for 6^/4 x 8/4 plates, and 

 1 114 inches for 8 x 10 plates. As a general 

 rule, subject to some qualifications, it may be 

 said that the longer the focus of the lens the 



