86 years old lens hacked onto 5DMKII

http://todaystomorrow.tumblr.com/post/19109939479/the-5dmkii-view-camera

by rainboiboi • 14 years ago

86 19 14 years ago

todaystomorrow.tumblr.com

gbaygon• 14 years ago

Not to sound cliché, but that old lens takes the warmest picures i've seen.

It's hard to say what's part of the lens and what's part of the postprocessing - notice that the pictures of the lens/camera itself is quite warm also. May just be the author's style.

Arelius• 14 years ago

Agreed, but not surprising... calling a nice modern lens "warm" would be nearly an insult. Modern lenses generally prioritize accuracy to warmth, and appropriately so. It is however a little sad that there is such a small market for more stylistic lenses.

justincormack3• 14 years ago

There is a reasonable size market, but a vast supply of old lenses so making new ones not very profitable...

dllu2• 14 years ago

It is perhaps sad from a nostalgic standpoint, but otherwise it is quite possible to closely approximate all characteristics of an old lens just by post-processing an image taken with an accurate modern lens (e.g. the Hipstamatic app), so it is little wonder that the market for old, stylistic lenses is so small.

miahi• 14 years ago

That lens was never created for color photography. The warm tones probably have advantages on the B/W film.

stefanoric• 14 years ago

The lens was just probably not color-corrected.

Early BW films were mostly sensitive to the blue and green side of the spectrum. Only later did they become more sensitive to the entire visible spectrum (including the red zone, which we consider warmer). They were called panchromatic films (as opposed to earlier orthochromatic films).

nullflux• 14 years ago

The sharpness surprised me. What a beautiful combination of new and old.

justincormack3• 14 years ago

Old lenses are often sharper in the centre of the field than modern ones, but much less sharp nearer the edges. Trade offs in design, overall sharpness is what people want now.

dfischer• 14 years ago

What's the limitation that causes this?

wisty3• 14 years ago

People often underestimate the sharpness of narrow apature lenses. Unless you need a fast exposure, a narrower apature can be be sharper.

On an APC-C, at 135mm, difference between the maximum center resolution of a cheapish superzoom lens (Tamron 18-250mm), and a luxury prime lens (a Canon 135mm f/2) is ~10%. And neither perform best wide open (especially at the borders). The difference at the border is ~20%. The prime lens has other advantages (much better max apature, less distortion, less CA), but the sharpness of "bad" lenses is often underestimated.

bradleyland• 14 years ago

I hope you're getting a ton of up votes for this. As geeks, we have a bad tendency to focus on the gear. As if good, sharp photos can't be taken without a $2,000 lens.

My interest in photography tends to be periodic, with phases of intense interest, followed by droughts of inactivity. The last time I got back in to photography, I had already sold my old Canon A1 35mm camera, so I only had a Canon SD870IS point-and-shoot camera. I started out by digging around on the internet searching for the "best value" in camera gear.

I don't remember what triggered it, but I remember stopping to think, "If I want to take photos, what's stopping me from just taking this SD870 out and shooting?" After reflection, I decided that it didn't matter what other people thought of my gear. When/if I decided to post anything online, I'd just omit my gear information anyway.

So I went out, and I shot. As it turns out, I was really pleased with the results. I kept the 870 with me nearly all the time, so if I found myself driving back from out of town and saw some cool ship yard, I'd just stop and shoot it. I ended up getting some shots that I was really happy with.

brico• 14 years ago

I first saw pictures made by Timur Civan with a similar technique and an even older lens:

http://colt-rane.com/timur-civan-1908-wollensak-35mm-f50-cin...

hcarvalhoalves• 14 years ago

An absurd ammount of flare... but the camera looks awesome with the Frankenstein in front of it. As a side note: I use a lens from the early 50's in my Pentax DSLR - without hacks - and it produces beautiful portraits. Amazing how optics were already damn good back then.

86 years old lens hacked onto 5DMKII

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