dreamy Nikon lenses
I have been fascinated with the old Soft Focus Lenses fore some time
now. I have one of the most desired Soft focus lenses of the period , a "
Pinkham Smith Visual Quality #4. Many of the famous photographers of that
day used the Pinkham. These soft focus lenses were generally used on a
view camera.
If you have a Nikon that produces this effect consistently, you have
a little jewel there. It is probably uncoated... Typically soft focus
lenses function at very wide apertures producing a halo effect I would
imagine at f1.2 thru f.4 on a 35 mm camera. A lens desined for this effect
will have a very wide range between these two f stops..... Portrait
photographers of the day would commonly use this effect to glamorize a
portrait . You will never get the same effect using a soft focus lens vs.
just putting a filter on a regular lens. There is a night and day
difference caused by spherical aberations vs. just diffusing the light with
a filter.
Soft focus is going thru a tremendous renaissance and is hot hot
hot! Unfortunately Most photographers that really knew how to use one are
now dead along with their secrets.
John Cremati
> > Good morning!
> > Some of you are quite knowledgeable on lenses. Do you know of a Nikon
> > 35mm lens that would have been in use in, say, the 40's, that produced
> > really dreamy, glowy images?
> >
> > The slides I have are from the 40's to the 70's and there is a major
> > difference in lens between earlier and later. Or was it the film? I
> > pulled apart one of the glass slides and it is Kodak "safety" film.
> > Chris
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> ________________________________________________________________
> Bogdan Karasek
> Montréal, Québec bogdan(at)bogdanphoto.com
> Canada www.bogdanphoto.com
>
> "I bear witness"
> ________________________________________________________________
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