Re: Plane of Sharp Focus

Hi John,

yes, a real soft focus lens is a mighty tool, love it =:)

I have only one real soft focus lens, aside some beeing nearly SF, like from Angenieux. That one is an ISCO lens from the 1960s or 1970s, that I´ve bought from the used camera bargain desk of a photo store. Maybe they didn´t see what they had got there. Or they knew that it needs a connoisseur to sell such a lens to. A lens and film developer told me that he doesn´t know any soft focus design from that company, but well, it is a soft focus lens. After some tests I think that if one likes the pictoralists view on the world SF lenses are even better than shooting with a pinhole camera -- there is a great difference between a unsharp focus, photographing with a small depth of field and a soft focus lens with it´s sharp focus and soft imaging outside the plane of critical focus.

Cooke has built a highly praised SF lens in the recent years and the effect is pretty good visible in the photos in the related test reports like http://www.cookeoptics.com/cooke.nsf/attachments/ps945pdf/$FILE/Cooke%20PS945%20v1.4.pdf.

All the best and a Merry Christmas to all of you
  Kai
Received on Sun Dec 25 12:09:04 2005