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Lenses

First Impressions: Lomography Neptune Convertible Art Lenses (EXCLUSIVE)

Chris Gampat
No Comments
05/04/2017
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Lomography Neptune Lens Collection first impressions 1

Last Updated on 05/05/2017 by Chris Gampat

Today, Lomography is announcing a brand new series of unconventional lenses designed for Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras; they’re called the Lomography Neptune Convertible Art Lenses. They’re a curious and extremely different system based on an older camera and lens system–which is right in line with what Lomography tends to do. The Lomography Neptune Convertible Art lenses are a three element system which all start with a mounting system. The aperture and focusing are built into the lens base unit that attaches to your camera. Then from there, you attach another optic. The optics are switched out when you want a different field of view and can also work with special shaped apertures.

I had a moment to head over to the Lomography Gallery Store here in NYC and took a look.

Tech Specs

  • ●  Focal Length: 35mm, 50mm, 80mm, front element group convertible
  • ●  Aperture: dual aperture system

o Multi-scaled diaphragm aperture: 35mm: extended, f/3.5-f/22 – 50mm: f/2.8-f/22 – 80mm: extended, f/4-f/22.

o Drop-in aperture plates: special shapes TBC

  • ●  Image Circle: 44mm
  • ●  Field of View: 35mm: 46° – 50mm: 63° – 80mm: 30°
  • ●  Lens Mounting Profile: Canon EF or Nikon F
  • ●  Closest Focusing Distance: 35mm: 0.25m – 50mm: 0.38m – 80mm: TBC
  • ●  Lens Construction:

o Rear element: 3 elements in 3 groups

o Front lens elements: 4 elements in 4 groups for each focal length ● Filter Thread: 52mm

  • ●  Lens Coating: Multi-coated
  • ●  Electronic Contacts: No
  • ●  Focusing Mechanism: Helicoid

Ergonomics

The Lomography Neptune Convertible Art Series lenses are a gorgeous looking system. Each piece oozes with old school Soviet design of some sort.

There are three focal length optics. They are:

  • Proteus 80mm f4
  • Despina 50mm f2.8
  • Thalassa 35mm f3.5

Each of them mount onto the main lens base. They mount on in a similar way to a lens with a DSLR: you fiddle with a button and then they can be unscrewed. There’s also a dot system that lines everything up.

By themselves, the optic system won’t actually work. These are simply just the focal lengths. Each of them have different silver rings on them to differentiate which one is which.

Then there is the optical lens base. You can control the aperture and focusing from here. The aperture is smooth and clearly labelled. Additionally there are markings and a very smooth focus. Yup, no need to zone focus really! In fact, even though I was dealing with prototypes, these didn’t seem simple to zone focus with.

Build Quality

With the exception of perhaps the Petzval lens system, the Lomography Neptune Convertible Art Series lenses have to be the best built system I’ve seen and held from Lomography. The entire thing is metal and glass–and each piece is solidly built. Despite spending less than an hour with the system initially, I’m confident in saying that they’re better built than most lenses out there. However, they’re not weather sealed; so keep that in mind.

Ease of Use

When the idea was first pitched to me; I found it tough to wrap my head around. Then it was explained to me again. So here goes:

  • There’s a lens base with focusing and aperture built in
  • The base mounts to your Nikon or Canon DSLR
  • Then you pair it with an optic/focal length

There are no electronics here and focusing is done like a normal manual focus lens. The same applies to aperture changes in regards to lenses that use an aperture ring. The lens cap for each lens is a screw on cap; and so each of them is made from metal and works really well.

Focusing

To focus each lens, you’ll need to mount the optic onto the lens base. Then you look through the viewfinder of your camera or the LCD screen set to Live View and you focus manually. The Lomography Neptune Convertible Art Series lenses focus pretty smoothly too.

Image Quality

Since I was working with prototype lenses, I wasn’t allowed to mount it to my Canon DSLR and shoot photos with them. Lomography has some sample photos with the Kickstarter that launches today though. They’re designed to have certain technical flaws and characters just like all Lomo products.

I’ll be working to call them in for independent review for a while.

First Impressions

So far, I’m really liking the idea behind the new Lomography Neptune Convertible Art Series lenses. They’re well built, seem very different from everything else out there, and also a pretty solid deal all around. But I’ll need to take a look at a final production unit to give my final analysis.

Check out the Kickstarter in the meantime.

build quality camera canon Despina 50mm f2.8 dslr focusing image quality kickstarter Lomography Neptune Convertible Art Series lenses metal neptune nikon Proteus 80mm f4 review Thalassa 35mm f3.5
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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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