This topic contains 8 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by 
viktor pavlovic 9 years, 2 months ago.
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I will post here few shots, that I took with a Sony E mount camera and lenses that I experimented with. If you like some photo, tell me about please. I will make entire blog post on those experimental lenses soon.
Cheers,
VerybigloboNo.1
Here is another shot with the same lens
2.
AnonymousHi Viktor, which lens is this? I am really liking this bokeh 🙂
Hi Martin, sorry for the late reply. Those are all lenses that I made myself using as a base some very cheap projector lenses and changing few elements, usually front or rear ones. I also cut the barrel to create space for adding home made apodizing filters. Lenses looks terrible now, but they are capable of some very interesting bokeh as you can see. Here is another one based on 50mm f/1.0 projector lens.
AnonymousNo problem for the late reply 🙂
These are fantastic images. I think the bokeh is really special–my kind of thing.
peace 7Hello! I just discovered your blog today and have been reading for hours now… Great content, and I also really enjoy the experimental aspects such as this. Thank you!
I searched and could not find any– have you made any posts on your lens experiments yet? These shots look incredible, and I’d love to see more!
I’ve been considering modding/making my own lenses (or related) in ultra ghetto fashion for awhile now, and coincidentally I’ve found note of your lens experiments and a guy at Maker Faire who made his own large format camera for cheap- so it’s a siiiign, myaaaan…..
From making a DOF adapter ~8 years ago, I realized that high aesthetic qualities could be gotten affordably in exchange for convenience (or brightness, sharpness, etc. (and at the very least, the highest quality can only be gotten in exchange for experience and application of aesthetic sense, so there is necessarily always a “loss” somewhere)). As far as light is concerned, modern lenses are designed under the assumption that some sort of idealistic “perfection” is the way forwards, all whilst ignoring the fact that not even two humans have the same visual perceptive abilities (and no one lens sees like the two eyes of humans), so for me, even citing chromatic aberration as “an error” is a purely arbitrary and somewhat meaningless judgement when it comes to aesthetics. That being said, I’ve found that some of the Sigma compacts (with the fabulous foveon sensor) are able to come pretty close in mimicking binocular human perception of space, monocularly.
I imagine the future of VR/3-D camera tech will push lens development in the direction of mimicking “flaws” in human eyeballs, to more “realistically” capture human-esque imagery (actually, capture will prolly be hi-res light-field lenses, with eye tracking to focus, etc.), and somewhere between now and then, are threads like this with people experimenting with lenses for the sake of expression! Anyway, wtf am I writing… I hope to see more on these lens experiments. Thanks again. Peace~
Hi peace 7,
sorry to reply this late, but I’ve been out for a while…Thing is that most people (found on web discussions) are taking some virtual visual perfection as a merit of aesthetical value. What’s so more, they would consider anything subpar in comparison to highest MTF as a pure trash and useless tool.
In my hummble opinion, it is a stupid approach at best.
It is like saying that only cotton canvas, camel hair brush and oil colors are acceptable for any painting artistic attempt. Things less perfect such as charcoal or even soil on a finger can’t be used for any serious art…
Regarding lens experiment, I am struggling with mechanical and optical workshop. I was able to calculate few (IMHO) interesting lenses, similar to those in this thread, but my prototype production capabilities went to zero, since my friend – optician recently get retired.
I am still playing with some legacy optics that I have at home, using super cheap projection lenses as a base, but those experiments are pure fun and trial/error method. If I make something interesting again, I will post it here, and I encourage all others to do the same.
Let’s celebrate imperfection!!!
TheaViktor, do you still modify this lenses?
Hi Thea,
I still have few of those but the problem is that their usage is very limited. In order to make them interesting for production, we (people that were involved in the experiments) would need to invest in RD too much, and profit would be hard to make,But you can achieve nice results (similar to those) with some projection lenses. I will take a look what I have in studio and will let you know.
Cheers,
Viktor
