Photos by Igor
Lantana Sphere
"Lantana Sphere"
One of the reasons that I employ mirrorless cameras, as part of my tools of the trade: a HUGE array of backwards-compatibility with old cine lenses.
Cine lenses (particularly those with a c-mount design) ... vintage remnants from the bygone era of 8mm and 16mm reel-to-reel motion picture format ... are finding a new lease (and resurrection) on life, thanks to the advent of mirror-less cameras which have a shorter FFD (flange focal distance), hence making these old "legacy lenses" backwards compatible with new digital technology while retaining infinity-focus of the native lens.
(Such an adaptation is not possible to accomplish with traditional SLR and DSLR cameras employing a mirror-box/optical filter design, because this results in a larger FFD due to the added space that these components take up. Therefore, mounting 8mm/16mm-format cine lenses on traditional SLR/DSLR camera bodies will not permit infinity-focus; meaning, their entire range of focusing will be crippled, and only permit for a limited degree of macro photography. Not so, when it comes to mirrorless cameras which have a smaller FFD, and hence permit an adapted cine lens to retain its entire focus range).
What's more, many of these re-purposed vintage cine lenses, which can be had for a mere pittance, can possess remarkably good resolution, extremely "fast" f-ratios for their focal lengths, and in some cases an interesting rendering of OOF (out-of-focus) regions of the photograph.
One such example is the Bell & Howell-made Super Comat 1-inch (25mm) F/1.9 cine lens - which exhibits a curious "swirly" bokeh/background blur (most strongly apparent when shot with the aperture wide-open at F/1.9), while rendering surprisingly sharp foreground subjects at such an aperture setting.
This "swirly background" phenomenon is due to what is known as 'Petzval Field Curvature' - a very specific type of optical aberration. But, as you can see by this image example, some of these optical "imperfections" can be considered a unique form of "character" for certain lens which generate these effects, and thus can be exploited in creative, surprising, and pleasing ways that are otherwise impossible to derive from more modern and "perfect" lens construction.
Indeed, the art of photography is not always about having a "flawless" lens. On the contrary, some "design flaws" inherent to more vintage lenses can be advantageous when implemented in certain ways.
____________________________
~ Location: Como, Mississippi
~ Camera: Olympus E-P2 (Micro-4/3 mirrorless system).
~ Lens: Bell & Howel/Super Comat 1-inch (25mm) F/1.9 cine lens, in c-mount. All-manual focusing and aperture setting.
~ Settings: ISO 100, Effective Focal length 50mm (25mm x 2, due to the 2x crop factor of a Micro-4/3 sensor), Shutter 1/2500 sec (photographed in partial shade!)
Additional notes: Minimal image editing/processing. Only a few moderate adjustments made to the photo, using a nudge of the shadow/highlight curve sliders and vibrance slider, in Photoshop Elements 10.
Lantana Sphere
"Lantana Sphere"
One of the reasons that I employ mirrorless cameras, as part of my tools of the trade: a HUGE array of backwards-compatibility with old cine lenses.
Cine lenses (particularly those with a c-mount design) ... vintage remnants from the bygone era of 8mm and 16mm reel-to-reel motion picture format ... are finding a new lease (and resurrection) on life, thanks to the advent of mirror-less cameras which have a shorter FFD (flange focal distance), hence making these old "legacy lenses" backwards compatible with new digital technology while retaining infinity-focus of the native lens.
(Such an adaptation is not possible to accomplish with traditional SLR and DSLR cameras employing a mirror-box/optical filter design, because this results in a larger FFD due to the added space that these components take up. Therefore, mounting 8mm/16mm-format cine lenses on traditional SLR/DSLR camera bodies will not permit infinity-focus; meaning, their entire range of focusing will be crippled, and only permit for a limited degree of macro photography. Not so, when it comes to mirrorless cameras which have a smaller FFD, and hence permit an adapted cine lens to retain its entire focus range).
What's more, many of these re-purposed vintage cine lenses, which can be had for a mere pittance, can possess remarkably good resolution, extremely "fast" f-ratios for their focal lengths, and in some cases an interesting rendering of OOF (out-of-focus) regions of the photograph.
One such example is the Bell & Howell-made Super Comat 1-inch (25mm) F/1.9 cine lens - which exhibits a curious "swirly" bokeh/background blur (most strongly apparent when shot with the aperture wide-open at F/1.9), while rendering surprisingly sharp foreground subjects at such an aperture setting.
This "swirly background" phenomenon is due to what is known as 'Petzval Field Curvature' - a very specific type of optical aberration. But, as you can see by this image example, some of these optical "imperfections" can be considered a unique form of "character" for certain lens which generate these effects, and thus can be exploited in creative, surprising, and pleasing ways that are otherwise impossible to derive from more modern and "perfect" lens construction.
Indeed, the art of photography is not always about having a "flawless" lens. On the contrary, some "design flaws" inherent to more vintage lenses can be advantageous when implemented in certain ways.
____________________________
~ Location: Como, Mississippi
~ Camera: Olympus E-P2 (Micro-4/3 mirrorless system).
~ Lens: Bell & Howel/Super Comat 1-inch (25mm) F/1.9 cine lens, in c-mount. All-manual focusing and aperture setting.
~ Settings: ISO 100, Effective Focal length 50mm (25mm x 2, due to the 2x crop factor of a Micro-4/3 sensor), Shutter 1/2500 sec (photographed in partial shade!)
Additional notes: Minimal image editing/processing. Only a few moderate adjustments made to the photo, using a nudge of the shadow/highlight curve sliders and vibrance slider, in Photoshop Elements 10.