Soft look at f/0.75

I walked around home for scenes to capture with my new ultrafast f/0.75 vintage X-ray lens. This is a flower on our kitchen table. As you can see, the lens is very soft. The center is reasonably sharp, the outside is blurry, and has strong vignetting. The depth of field is very shallow at about 8 mm.

 

The new toy is a German made Rodenstock XR-Heligon 50mm f/0.75. This lens was used for X-ray machines before the digital age. The flange focal distance is less than 10 mm, e.g. too short for Sony E-mount, which has 18 mm. I adapted (aka abused) a Leica L39 to E-mount adapter for this X-ray lens. I gained 5 mm by placing the lens inside the E-mount, resulting in a 13 mm flange focal distance. Close enough, but not to the point where I can focus to infinity. With this setup the focus distance is about 32 cm. This lens has a fixed focus distance, e.g. I have to focus with my feet, which can be challenging with the very shallow depth of field. The lens is always fully open since it has no diaphragm.

 

See shots of the setup, and more test shots on the Quality HDR Photography Facebook page at bit.ly/34XkRf5.

 

I processed a balanced and a photographic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

 

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

 

-- ƒ/0.75, 50 mm, 1/125 sec, ISO 200, Sony A7 II, Rodenstock XR-Heligon 50mm f/0.75, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC7673_hdr1bal1pho1c.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

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