Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Still life photography with a new Petzval lens on the Fuji X-E2

The Petzval portrait lens was invented in 1840 by Joseph Petzval. This innovative design allowed much faster apertures than previous lenses, and significantly cut down the exposure times needed for taking pictures. A new version of the original Petzval design to fit Nikon and Canon cameras has recently been re-manufactured as part of a Lomography Kickstarter project.  I will be writing a full blog post on this lens on a Nikon camera in a later post, but for now I couldn't resist the temptation to mount the lens on a Fuji X camera using a Nikon to Fuji X adapter.

The lens is noted for its flattering use in portraiture, and a soft, swirling bokeh effect in out of focus areas. To harmonize the characteristics of the lens with my still life project, I kept to muted colors and soft, bright lighting.

The Petzval lens was mounted on the X-E2 using a Nikon to FX adapter. The lens uses rack-and-pinion focusing and  has Waterhouse stops inserted in the top for aperture settings, the widest aperture being f/2.2.  I used the f/2.8 stop for all of the still life photos.














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7 comments:

  1. hpchavazJanuary 16, 2014 at 6:30 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Roger WhiteheadJanuary 16, 2014 at 10:01 AM

    It's a lovely effect, isn't it? Thanks for posting about this lens.

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  3. Björn NordströmJanuary 16, 2014 at 12:13 PM

    Seems to be a fantastic lens for creative work. Great post production as well with a nice tone to the images.

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  4. Alex TimmermansJanuary 17, 2014 at 4:15 AM

    You won't get the swirl unless it will be used on full frame.....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Online marketing optimizationJanuary 17, 2014 at 9:18 PM

    Characteristic photos shot with the Petzval lens are recognizable for their sharpness and crispness in the centre, strong color saturation, wonderful swirly bokeh effect, artful vignettes and narrow depth of field. Because of the characteristic swirly bokeh effect that it produces, the New Petzval Lens is perfect for portraits where you want your subject to be the center of attention.

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    New Petzval Lens is a reinvention of one of the first and greatest lenses of all time. Manufactured in Russia by Zenit, each New Petzval lens is crafted from brass and features high‐quality glass optics. The lens produces images with extreme sharpness, strong color saturation, artful vignetting and absolutely beautiful swirly bokeh. Because of the characteristic swirly bokeh effect that it produce.

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