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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Vintage

This Stunning Angenieux 35mm F2.5 Lens Belongs On Your Camera

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/02/2021
3 Mins read
Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

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The name Angenieux means a lot for photographers who have been around for a long time. They’ve arguably made some of the most beautiful lenses in history. You typically hear about them with regard to the cinema industry these days, but their vintage lenses are worth every single penny. The Rare Camera Store has an Angenieux 35mm f2.5 for only $500 right now. And it’s guaranteed to make a photographer very, very happy.

Welcome to the Rare Camera Store: a joint initiative of The Phoblographer and the wonderful folks at Blue Moon Camera. We work to bring you some of the coolest and rarest items for a great price.

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

The Angeniuex 35mm f2.5 is an awesome lens. We searched Flickr for image samples. Check this one out that was shot with the Nikon Df. That one photo proves what this lens is capable of. It’s available in Exacta mount, which means that it can pretty much be adapted to any mirrorless or DSLR camera around. Want a lens with softer contrast? This could be the one. In fact, if you shoot Sony, I implore you to shoot with this lens. It’s a much different look than the modern digital lenses out there. And if we reviewed it, I’m sure our own staff would adore it. I speak with both Brittany and Hillary on a near-daily basis, and we love lenses with character.

This Angeniuex 35mm f2.5 is going for $500. And here’s what Blue Moon Camera has to say about it:

This P. Angenieux Paris 35mm f2.5 Retrofocus Type R 11 is is a wide angle lens designed for cameras that use the Exakta Mount. The lens is an early example of the retrofocus design applied to SLR lenses.  It is known for having softer contrast and producing beautiful bokeh when shot wide open.

There is a sticker from a former user on the lens barrel. There is oil on the aperture blades. Neither of these issues affect usage or image quality.

Blue Moon also says this lens has a fair amount of wear. Most vintage camera and lens buyers I know really adore that worn-in look. We call it Patina.

I guarantee some of you are wondering who Angenieux is. Well, these days, they make cinema lenses. But for many years, they were in the photography world. They’re based in France. From what I was able to find online, it seems like they’re also still made in France. That’s far better than a few other companies. Indeed, Angenieux lenses have a cinematic look and feel to them. And if that’s what you’re looking for, you should pick this one up. Slap it onto your camera using an adapter. Then lock your white balance to Daylight or Tungsten. You’re going to get a film-look that you’ll be smitten with. 

As an aside, I’d probably really only use this on a full-frame camera. It doesn’t make sense to use it on APS-C cameras unless you’re really okay with that. But a Fujifilm GF camera and this lens could surely be cool using a Classic Negative look. 

Because this lens has low contrast, you’ll have to be careful using it. When you think you’re in focus, you might not be. Use both focusing peaking and magnification. For what it’s worth, most modern focus peaking is absolute garbage. You have to use it with magnification. Canon’s system is one of the best we’ve seen for focus peaking, but Sony’s for full-frame is bad. In fact, most full-frame focus peaking is awful. On APS-C, though, you’ll have a better shot.

Go grab this lens before it disappears.

angenieux Angenieux 35mm f2.5 blue moon camera Bokeh lens rare camera store vintage
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Chris Gampat

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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