Petzval constructions, soft-focus, pictorialist... Whatever you wish for. Novelties from the mid-20th century, but also from the depths of the previous one. Back then, glass was more glassy and brass was more brassy. It wasn't the size and weight that mattered, but the character and bokeh... There's plenty of that here. Leave the pixel magnifiers at home and prepare for absolute perfect imperfection. These lenses don't take images, they draw them.

There were loads of aerial photography lenses. Shitloads. Companies jumped into making them when the war machine needed 'em - even if they'd previously done something else like binoculars or other optical thingies (hello Aldis!). Or they pivoted from commercial optics, either partly or completely - cue Dallmeyer, Wray, Ross, TTH, Burke & James and...

Back then when people thought radiation was basically a vitamin, they crammed it into everything from face masks to toothpaste (Radium girls gives it a thumbs down), optics manufacturers weren't far behind (but hey, at least in their case it actually did something useful, Jiří Zouhar gives it a thumbs up).

What better way to start than with one of the most legendary lenses in history, first introduced all the way back in 1900? The name Heliar is such a prized family heirloom that it has survived to this day and is still in production - though now for digital cameras (I am crossing myself). However, it must be...