[Alt-photo] Re: Lomography Resurrects the 19th Century Petzval Lens for Canon and Nikon SLRs

[Tomas Sobota]

Christina,

The actual maker of this lens is the Krasnogorsk factory near Moscow. They
were the builders of the Zorki and Zenith cameras among others, as well as
dozens of Russian lens designs. I bet that for these guys 1666 lenses, as
you say, is not such a large batch. They always had a problem with quality
control, but I guess that nobody will care too much about quality in these
Petzvals.

I won't be buying one of these. On the one hand I already have three real
Petzvals for my large format cameras, and on the other hand I agree with
John Brewer in that this is a somewhat spurious business on the part of
Lomography. What is news for me is that these lenses are not Petzvals. Is
that so? Is there a diagram available somewhere to compare?

Oh yes, and the bokeh of the images that these lenses make is dreadful. For
my taste, that is.

Tom


On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Christina Anderson <
christinazanderson at gmail.com> wrote:

> Eric (and John)
> Thanks for the link! I thought, when I first read the description and it
> said "$300 will buy you a bit of history" I thought, what a great idea,
> I'll sport for that. Then when you click on further, it says $499. Then
> further the lens is now  $599! So that is a bit steep for trying something
> out unless it is really good. So, John, I'm glad you say this, that it
> isn't really a Petzval. Makes the 100% increase seem not worth it. But if
> anyone buys it will you let us know if it is worth it?
>
> Also, I noticed they got $1,000,000 already and production date for
> pre-orders is pushed to May or later. By my calculations, at even the $600
> price that is making 1666 lenses. Can you IMAGINE??? No wonder production
> is pushed back.
>
> Lenses are such a big deal. I have one lens that has its shortcomings but
> is really a gorgeous lens--the Nikkor AF micro 60/2.8. It makes such a
> difference when I use that lens. So I am a sucker for the allure of glass.
>
> But still, Petzval...how intriguing an idea....I say as I dug out my Holga
> lens for my D800 to go out for a shoot...
>
> WOOHOO for Christmas break.
>
> Chris
>
> Christina Z. Anderson
> http://christinaZanderson.com/
>
> On Dec 16, 2013, at 4:20 AM, John Brewer wrote:
>
> > Hi Eric
> >
> > Lots of people, mostly us wetplate guys, have issues with this. It isn't
> a Petzval lens, that is it doesn't have two air spaced elements at the back
> and two cemented elements at the front. Additionally Lomo used Kickstarter
> to raise money, which while it conforms to Kickstarters rules it's a bit
> immoral for a company of that size the raise money that way.
> > The Lomo lens is faster than a lot of Petzval from the 19th century but
> you can take out baffles of the older lenses.
> > A much better option IMHO is
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162663202/the-petzvar-f-38-120-mm-medium-format-petzval-port/description
> > Just my tuppence worth.
> > Best wishes
> > John
> >
> >> On 16 Dec 2013, at 07:40 am, eric nelson <emanphoto at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Kinda cool.
> >>
> http://petapixel.com/2013/07/25/lomography-resurrects-the-19th-century-petzval-lens-for-canon-and-nikon-slrs/?fb_action_ids=603949566318750&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B177449689104403%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
> >>
> >> or *http://tinyurl.com/m76r4rn <http://tinyurl.com/m76r4rn>*
> >> --
> >> *Eric Nelson Photography*
>
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