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Lomography’s New Petzval Portrait Lens Mounts to Your Canon or Nikon DSLR

Chris Gampat
No Comments
07/25/2013
2 Mins read

Petzval_lens_quarter2

We had a surefire feeling that Lomography would be trying to take a step into the more serious direction after they announced their Bel-Air camera–but we had no idea that it would be this badass. A couple of days ago, we received the news about their just announced Petzval Portrait Lens for Canon and Nikon DSLRs and SLRs, and we were all freaking out. Petzval lenses are ancient optics that are designed to give swirly backgrounds in addition to out of focus bokeh. But Lomography is making a brand new one with Zenit in Russia; and their Kickstarter to make it happen launches today.

This lens is a fully glass optic with a fully brass exterior. To change the aperture, you’ll need to use a slider (called the Waterhouse system) with interchangeable apertures–just like in the old days. Plus, it will obviously be a manual focus optic. In the end, it equates to an 85mm f2.2 lens–which has a faster aperture than any other lens like this out there. The reason for this partially is because many of these lenses were for a larger format. Sure there is going to be vignetting and field curvature, but that is one of the beauties of Petzval lenses.

You can expect it to hit shelves in February of 2014 for $499, but the company is also confident that they’ll ship the first units out this December. If you donate a certain amount to the Kickstarter, you can even get your name engraved on it. Tech specs are after the jump.

Lens Technical Specifications

  • Focal Length: 85mm
  • Maximum Aperture: f/2.2
  • Apertures: Waterhouse aperture set, up to f/16
  • Image Circle: 44mm
  • Field of View: 30 degrees
  • Lens Mounting Profile: Canon EF and Nikon F
  • Electronic contacts: No
  • Closest Focusing Distance: 1m
  • Focusing Mechanism: Gear Rack Focusing
  • Lens Construction: 4 Elements in 3 Groups
  • Filter Thread: 67mm
  • Max. Diameter x Length, Weight: 120mm x 85mm x 80mm (Please note: This is an estimate based on the first working sample)
  • Weight: 500g (Please note: This is an estimate based on the first working sample)

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canon dslr gear History lens lomography nikon Petzval tech
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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