Looking at the cross section of the
Zeiss Protar VII lens you will see 4 elements
1 group cemented.  I surmised that perhaps by
removing the rearmost element you would end
up with a lens that still had much of it's character
but had lost it's corrections.

I was wrong and the config was un-useable.  But
when I looked at the ground glass through just the
2 rear glasses I found I had a roughly 8 inch f4 lens
with lovely softness and character that retained
 much of it's original definition.  I re-cemented
the doublet and mounted it in it's original barrel.

These images were made with the lens.  I found
in use that f4 was almost too diffuse.  About f6
it would start to look good.  Stopped down it
would get pretty sharp.  The bottles in my
window were the best of the example photos
so I'll lead off with them.  Click on the pics
for a slightly larger size to study.

bottles f6

bottles f9

bottles f18

Welch's Grape & Dr. Pepper f6

Maple & Pepper f6

Maple & Pepper f18

39 Ford Head-On f4

39 Ford Head-On f6

39 Ford Side f4

39 Ford Side f6

Window Water Co. Shack, Tonopah, NV.

The final picture of the Water Co. Shack
is telling. I had the back of the Deardorff leveled.
You can see the kind of barrel distortion
that the lens has in it's modified config.