I wrote:
>Since my niece mentioned that she would like to take photos with soft-focusing
>effects, I started noticing that there are new lenses emphasizing the softness
>of focusing. At first, the available soft lenses are from camera manufacturers
>or a very expensive German lens, but I stumbled on more reasonable
possibilities
>provided that they are exported to the rest of the world.
>
>Kenko makes three soft lenses in 35mm/4, 45mm/4.5 and 85mm/2.5. The Olympus OM
>mount is available. The list prices ranges from 29,800 to 38,000yen.
Frank van Lindert wrote:
>I own a Zuiko 100/2.8 soft focus portrait lens!
>This is a 'normal' 100/2.8, which has been converted by a portrait
>photographer who also owned a camera repair shop.
snip
>What did he do? He built a disc into the lens, not far from the
>position of the aperture blades, with a large hole in the middle. This
>centre hole is just as large as the aperture when opened to 5.6. In
>the remaining part of the disc many smaller holes (about 1-2mm) were
>drilled, which actually cause the 'softening' effect. The disc is made
>out of aluminium painted black matte.
>Result of this is that with aperture 5.6 or smaller the lens behaves
>like a normal 100mm short tele, but when you open the aperture to 4.0
>or 2.8 you will get the softening effect caused by the
>semi-transparent disc.
According to the B&H Professional Source Book, the above is the principle used
in making very expensive Rodenstock Imagon Soft Focus lenses. With the
Rodenstock lenses, the front of the lens has a built-in circular plate with a
center hole surrounded by many small holes. B&H describes, "it rather overlays a
clearly defined image core with delicate diffusion, controlled by adjustable
push-on perforated diaphragms. These are large format lenses and also available
for the medium-format cameras according to B&H.
According to the Japanese catalog, the Imagon lenses are also available for the
35mm cameras as well and various camera mounts are made in Japan. The lenses
have exorbitant price tags.
The new German lens, the Dreamagon, 90mm/4-11, has a list price of 88,000yen,
adaptable to most of SLRs (I assume both 35mm and the medium format). Kenko
obviously decided to make lenses for the 35mm cameras. Now these Kenko lenses
as pictured do not show any perforated diaphragms in front. Perhaps they are
made in the manner Frank described......
The Japanese catalog shows a front-on view of the Imagon lens attached to the
Hassie, which can be scanned and sent to anyone who wants to fashion his/her
soft-focus effect.
Tomoko Yamamoto
mailto:tomokoy@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.charm.net/~tomokoy/
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|