

86 years old lens hacked onto 5DMKII - rainboiboi
http://todaystomorrow.tumblr.com/post/19109939479/the-5dmkii-view-camera

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gbaygon
Not to sound cliché, but that old lens takes the warmest picures i've seen.

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Arelius
Agreed, but not surprising... calling a nice modern lens "warm" would be
nearly an insult. Modern lenses generally prioritize accuracy to warmth, and
appropriately so. It is however a little sad that there is such a small market
for more stylistic lenses.

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dllu
It is perhaps sad from a nostalgic standpoint, but otherwise it is quite
possible to closely approximate all characteristics of an old lens just by
post-processing an image taken with an accurate modern lens (e.g. the
Hipstamatic app), so it is little wonder that the market for old, stylistic
lenses is so small.

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wisty
I used to have a mobile phone which could take "warm" photos. It could also do
"alien vision", and a couple of other neat tricks. People said it was cheesy.
You can also attach some APS-C lenses to a Full Frame, and get "romantic"
vignetting. If you do that in Photoshop, it's fake. The "creamiest" bokeh you
can get is a gaussian blur, unless they know it's photoshopped and then it's
no longer "creamy".

There's some kind of emotional response people have to optical distortions
which they don't have if they know it's from post-processing.

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brico
I first saw pictures made by Timur Civan with a similar technique and an even
older lens:

[http://colt-rane.com/timur-civan-1908-wollensak-35mm-f50-cin...](http://colt-
rane.com/timur-civan-1908-wollensak-35mm-f50-cine-velostigmat-lens-102-year-
old-lens-on-a-5dmkii/)

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nullflux
The sharpness surprised me. What a beautiful combination of new and old.

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wisty
People often underestimate the sharpness of narrow apature lenses. Unless you
need a fast exposure, a narrower apature can be be sharper.

On an APC-C, at 135mm, difference between the maximum center resolution of a
cheapish superzoom lens (Tamron 18-250mm), and a luxury prime lens (a Canon
135mm f/2) is ~10%. And neither perform best wide open (especially at the
borders). The difference at the border is ~20%. The prime lens has other
advantages (much better max apature, less distortion, less CA), but the
sharpness of "bad" lenses is often underestimated.

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bradleyland
I hope you're getting a ton of up votes for this. As geeks, we have a bad
tendency to focus on the gear. As if good, sharp photos can't be taken without
a $2,000 lens.

My interest in photography tends to be periodic, with phases of intense
interest, followed by droughts of inactivity. The last time I got back in to
photography, I had already sold my old Canon A1 35mm camera, so I only had a
Canon SD870IS point-and-shoot camera. I started out by digging around on the
internet searching for the "best value" in camera gear.

I don't remember what triggered it, but I remember stopping to think, "If I
want to take photos, what's stopping me from just taking this SD870 out and
shooting?" After reflection, I decided that it didn't matter what other people
thought of my gear. When/if I decided to post anything online, I'd just omit
my gear information anyway.

So I went out, and I shot. As it turns out, I was really pleased with the
results. I kept the 870 with me nearly all the time, so if I found myself
driving back from out of town and saw some cool ship yard, I'd just stop and
shoot it. I ended up getting some shots that I was really happy with.

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wisty
I find a lot of geeks are actually _not_ crazy gear-heads. You don't see many
geeks falling for $1000 gold plated audio cables or CPUs with massive GHz
ratings either. I'm a mediocre photographer, but I know how to get the best
technical results out of my gear, and can tell what kind of gear and
configuration is needed for a good shot.

It's often geeks (and genuinely good photographers) who shout the loudest that
any camera with a decent sized sensor is fine. Yes, we love spec porn, but at
least we know when it's a con.

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hcarvalhoalves
An absurd ammount of flare... but the camera looks awesome with the
Frankenstein in front of it. As a side note: I use a lens from the early 50's
in my Pentax DSLR - without hacks - and it produces beautiful portraits.
Amazing how optics were already damn good back then.

