Today Lomography announced the revival of the old Petzval lenses.
Our article about the Petzval lens is already online, but here is the official press release from Lomography.de.
The Lomographic Society presents:
Invented in 1840, revived in 2013 by Lomography and Zenit.
The new Petzval (D)SLR Art Lens
The comeback of the year: The first and best portrait glass lens of all time, reinvented and manufactured for (D)SLR cameras with Canon and Nikon mount!
Character matters: Extremely sharp, high color saturation, dreamy bokeh effect, artistic vignetting, large aperture/shallow depth of field
Unique photos: Play with manual focus, depth of field, swirl effects and other Petzval specialties – clearly better than any photo editing!
THE COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
Zenit and Lomography committed to redesigning, recalculating and resizing the original Petzval lens from 1840 to make it accessible for your modern (D)SLR cameras. With the same unique characteristics of the old lens, such as bokeh effect, large aperture and strong contrast – the new design will be compatible with analog cameras as well as digital cameras. On Kickstarter.com, a platform to fund ideas for product innovations, it is now possible to pre-order the Petzval lens:
http://www.lomography.com/kickstarter
With your support, you help us bring back this fantastic lens for a new generation of photographers and filmmakers in the 21st century.
CHARACTER MATTERS
Create the original and unique look of the 175-year-old bokeh effect with your modern (D)SLR camera! The lens made of Russian glass has a large f2.2 aperture, shallow depth of field and field curvature. The extremely high resolution in the focus area makes the object in focus clear and sharp, while elements outside the focus become blurred and smeared. The original lens was made exclusively for black and white photography, while the new Lomography Petzval lens is a high-quality lens and performs very well in modern analog and digital color photography!
UNIQUE PHOTOS
A Petzval photo is especially recognizable by the sharp focus and the beautiful circular bokeh effect in the background. You can also expect high color saturation, artistic vignetting and shallow depth of field. The uniqueness of Petzval photos comes from the fantastic design of the lens. You instantly get a wonderful effect that far exceeds photo editing programs and photo filters. The Petzval lens is compatible with all (D)SLR cameras with Nikon F and Canon EF mount. This means you can capture the Petzval look on analog and digital images as well as on video!
Here you can see photos taken with the first prototype:
Technical Details
- Focal length: 85mm
- Maximum aperture: f/2.2
- Aperture: Waterhouse aperture set, up to F/16
- Image circle diameter: 44mm
- Field of view: 30 degrees
- Lens mount: Canon EF and Nikon F
- Electronic contacts: No
- Closest focusing distance: 1m
- Focusing mechanism: Gear rack focusing
- Filter thread: 67mm
