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Austrian photographer Markus Hofstätter has shared a few of his impressive projects with DIYP so far. His latest project is as always ambitious, unusual, time-consuming, and totally worth the effort.
While walking around a flea market, Markus found a huge 500mm Petzval lens, produced around 1860. It was in a pretty bad condition, but Markus had an idea. He bought this rare gem, restored it, and took some fantastic portraits with it.
Lomography has announced Petzval 55 mm f/1.7, a new lens that brings vintage and modern together. It was inspired by Joseph Petzval’s First Portrait Lens from 1840, and it’s compatible with modern Nikon Z, Sony E and Canon R full frame mirrorless cameras. It lets you control the aperture with the dual aperture system, which allows you to achieve all sorts of creative effects and control the bokeh to your liking.
We’ve shown a few DIY lenses in the past, including a 3D printed lens. This one, though, really takes it to the extreme. Based on a Petzval design, Swedish camera maker Mats Wernersson built the lens completely from scratch. But looking at the final product, you’d never know it. It looks like it came straight from a factory production line.
No stranger to building cameras of all types and sizes, even digital, a lens appears to be a new first for Mats. The amount of work and attention to detail that’s gone into its construction shows a level of patience I definitely don’t possess.
I was super excited to hear a few weeks back that Lensbaby had a new lens in the works and even more excited when I heard it was going to be a lens with the swirly bokeh effect.
In the past this swirly visual effect had been the money-train for Lomo and their Petzval lenses in the form of the 85mm and the soon to be publicly available 58mm. I own a lot of the Lensbaby lenses and I’ve been very pleased with the resulting optical effects from their previous products so I was certainly pleased to hear Lensbaby were taking a crack at the swirly bokeh effect now too.
Petzval lenses are nothing new, but that’s kind of the point. Dating back as far as 1840, Petzval lenses offer a unique look to our images that other lenses simply can’t match, and while it may not be to everybody’s tastes, one can certainly see the allure.
Lensbaby have now entered the world of Petzval lenses with the introduction of the Twist 60, fitting neatly into the Lensbaby Optic Swap System.
Last month we reported that Lomography is releasing a new 58mm Petzval lens with built-in bokeh control. But, for those who don’t like to quickly part with your money for every new gadget that comes along, photographer Sam Luyk devised a wicked cheap yet creative way to simulate the same swirly goodness in his images.
Lomography made a big splash when they released a 21st-century version of the famed Petzval lens last year. Now, 175 years after it was first invented by Joseph Petzval, Lomography is planning to launch a 58mm version of the lens with a built-in bokeh control ring. This ring, according to Lomography, will allow you to “determine the strength of the swirly bokeh in your photos” with its seven different levels of swirliness. The new lens goes for $450. For those too cheap to spring for the new lens, we assume an ample amount of peyote will achieve the same result.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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