The Old-and-Improved Petzval Lens Gives Your Portraits a Swirly

 

The message is clear: A lot of people want a 173-year-old electron lensto use with their modern-day Canon and Nikon DSLRs.

Lomography and Zenit have teamed up to make that happen, and their Kickstarter campaign for the Petzval Portrait Lens has raised more(prenominal)than half a million dollars in a privateday. The project’s original goal was a mere $100,000.

The brass-barreled Petzval lensof the eyelooks gorgeousby itself, but of course, the real magic happens when you take photos with it. It’s a prime lens with a focaldurationof 85mm — enceintefor portraits — and its maximum aperture of f/2.2 captures shallow depth of field and allows you to use debauchedshutter speeds. But those traits alone aren’t anything special. There are mickleof lenses available for DSLRs right now that match that focal length and aperture. So what’s the big deal?

The secret sauce of the Petzval lens is the directionit captures bokeh, a fancy word for the blurred-out background behind in-focus subjects. The lens creates a whirlpooly, shimmering bokeh, making it look analogousthe in-focus subject is in the eye of a mild tornado.

A sample shot takenwith the working prototype of the new Petzval lens.

As the Kickstarter page mentions, this is the first Petzval lens that’s built to use with HD-video-capturing DSLRs. That pull up stakesmake it acovetcreative tool for photographers and filmmakers alike.

The new versions of this really old lens won’t have electronic contacts that let you use modern autofocus systems or control lens settings from the camera; they’ll just have the appropriate mounts for Canon’s EF and Nikon’s F lens systems.

You’ll need to focus manually using a little knob on the bottom of the lens, just like in olden times.

In another retro touch, the Petzval lens ordainhave a Waterhouse aperture system, which uses different slide-in diaphragms to adjust aperture settings. For example, you’ll need to sluein separate little plates to change the aperture from f/4 to, say, f/11. The lens will come with six slide-in diaphragms that range from f/2.2 to f/16.

Lomography says the lens will go for $500 when it becomes available in February, 2014. That sounds like a fair price, assumptionthat Canon and Nikon’s own 85mm f/1.8 portrait lenses cost in the $400 to $450 range. The get offhas also cleared the stretch goal of $500,000, meaning that everyone who backs the run acrossgets a leather pouch. It’s meant for the lens, but you can also come outdoubloons in it.

Product photo and sample photo courtesy of Lomography

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Materials taken from WIRED