Just because it is Cool

[Hoogle]

Not sure if you are interested in the effect this lens produces or not but the actual lens itself is awesome looks and style. beyond Retro

[video]http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lomography/the-lomography-petzval-portrait-lens/widget/video.html[/video]

 

[chrisdesign]

Thanks for sharing...extremely cool lens effects.

 

[Tom Mann]

IMHO, it's a fun idea, but a major part of the off-axis softness imparted by the originals was due to the fact that they were used on large format cameras. The calculations are not trivial, but I'm pretty sure that to get the same amount of off-axis softness on a small format camera, the f-number would have to go down substantially, maybe as low as f/1.4 or even faster. This is for the same reason that for a given f-number and object-to-image demagnification ratio (aka, "equivalent focal length"), the DoF of a point and shoot with a tiny sensor is much deeper than using a full format system.

Unfortunately, I didn't hear any mention of such technical specs in that video.

I would also question whether one of the LensBaby devices, undercorrected for spherical and other aberrations, and which are probably going to be vastly less expensive, would give very similar images.

T

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - I looked up the f-number: It's 2.2, ie a bit faster than the original 3.5 or so. OTOH, they seem to be relying on field curvature which doesn't require such fast f-numbers, so maybe 2.2 is good enough, especially at an 80'ish mm FL.

BTW, one thing just caught my eye: The bokeh (shape and character of the out of focus background highlights) of the new Petzval looks like an exaggerated version of the swirly bokeh of my Nikon 35/2 AFD shot wide open.

Here's the new Petzval:
http://microsites.lomography.com/petzval-lens/content/old/petzval-old-lens_13.jpg

and here's my 20 year old Nikon 35 mm f/2 AF-D (cross hairs added to show the symmetry of the OOF highlights):




Tom



PS - Thanks, Hoogle, for posting the announcement. I hadn't seen it before now.

 

[Janifar]

Really cool lens effect you promote here, work for me as look like tremendous it.