Andrew Fildes wrote:
>How about lenses from old tin and bakelite 127 Kodaks - they are ten
>for a penny and often single element meniscus lenses of dubious
>quality with a solid softness and violent vignetting. You'd have to
>make your own mount, of course. Remember, in that era, many folding
>cameras were the expensive, high end units from each manufacturer.
>
>
I thought about that and didn't suggest them for the simple reason that
they are too slow. I think one wants something fast enough for shallow
DOF. The box camera lenses were ( and in disposable cameras, still are)
designed for just he opposite of the "Lensbaby" effect.
I also thought about a Holga lens, the inspiration for the Lensbaby.
Also, if trying this route, I would suggest a lens from an old 620
camera, rather than 127, to get coverage for shifts/tilts.
The problem with using MF lenses to get coverage, as suggested in so
many posts, is that you end up with a tele lens, not at all the ticket
for many of the obvious shots for this type of lens. My recollection of
playing with a Lensbaby is that the fl is more like 50mm or less than
75-80.
I'm wondering about using a cheesy 28 or 35mm fl lens for 35mm on a DLSR
and taking out the baffling so the image circle is larger. It should
then have vignetting and OOF in the expanded area, Then maybe try
mounting elements backwards, taking one out, etc. With digital, the
exerimenting doesn't cost anything but a bit of time.
Some interesting info from reviews:
"For center sharpness, the LB2 does well against the Nikon 50mm f1.8
lens. To my eyes the Nikon wins out by a tiny margin, but the LB2 is not
embarrassed in any way and is certainly head and shoulders above the
original Lensbaby." - A review by a camera hobby person, not an artist.
I bet most of them stay with the original....
"This April, Strong unveiled the Lensbaby 2.0, a version with a
higher-quality, two-element lens; an f/2.0 aperture in addition to the
original f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6, and f/8.0 options" - So now we know, as I
proposed a bit ago, that the original LB is a single element lens. +10
CU lens is 100mm fl, +20 is 50mm.
Moose
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