Lomography, in cooperation with Zenit, started a kickstarter project on a Petzval portrait lens for Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras (as many of you guessed correctly in this post). The lens is currently in production, the first prototypes are expected in the next month or two. For more information, visit this page.
Press release:
Invented in 1840, Reloaded in 2013 by Lomography and Zenit: The New Petzval (D)SLR Art Lens
The comeback of the year
Zenit and Lomography engineers redraw, re-calculated and re-measured the original 1840 Petzval lens to make it work for your modern (D)SLR – cameras. With the same unique features as the original lens – swirly bokeh effect, sharpness, large aperture and high contrast - the new design will be compatible with analogue and digital cameras! The Petzval lens is available for pre-order exclusively on Kickstarter.com, a platform to fund product innovation ideas: http://www.kickstarter.com..(Please change when final)
With your funding you help us to bring back this fantastic lens for a whole new generation of photographers and film makers in the 21st century.
Character matters
Re-create the original and amazing looking 175 year old swirly bokeh effect with your modern SLR camera! The lens made out of Russian glass has a large f2.2 aperture, narrow depth of field, field curvature, with an extremely high resolution in the focus area, making the objects in focus crisp and sharp, while elements out of focus get blurry and swirl away like it was never seen before. While the original lens was only optimized for black and white photography, the new Petzval lens is a high quality multi coated lens to ensure great performance in nowadays colour analogue and digital cameras!
A totally distinctive look of photos
Filters go home! The Petzval’s sharp and blurry distinctive swirly bokeh effect is impossible to reproduce with any filters or computer programs. Furthermore the lens has great features such as high colour saturation and contrast as well as a large aperture, close to large format photography! And as the Petzval lens is compatible with all Nikon F and Canon EF mount analogue and digital SLR cameras, you can now get the unique Petzval look on film, pixel images and even video! Say goodbye to complicated post-production retouching!
See photos taken with the first working prototype of our New Petzval Lens here.
Technical specifications
Sample images
