[interested_observer]

A Legendary 19th Century Lens. Reinvented For Use With All Nikon F & Canon EF Mount Analog & Digital SLR Cameras.

In the 19th Century, the vast majority of photos were shot with the extremely popular Petzval lens. The lens was invented by Joseph Petzval in Vienna in 1840 and had a huge impact on the development of photography. Photos shot with a Petzval lens are immediately recognizable for their sharpness and crispness, strong color saturation, wonderful swirly bokeh effect, artful vignettes and narrow depth of field. The totally distinctive look of Petzval photos is all about the fantastic lens design that gives you the satisfaction of the instant optic experience that goes far beyond using photo editing software and filters.

For this Kickstarter project, we are reinventing the Petzval Lens for 21st century photographers and videographers. It doesn’t matter whether you shoot analog or digital; the brand new Lomography Petzval Portrait Lens is designed to work with Canon EF and Nikon F mount cameras. So, for the first time, you can easily get the fantastic Petzval photographic look with 35mm analog cameras and DSLR cameras too. This will bring with it a whole new world of possibilities; from shooting Petzval photos with your 35mm SLR or DSLR, to creating amazing DSLR movies with the lens!

• The Lomography Petzval Portrait Lens by Lomography — Kickstarter

[Na Horuk]

I cant believe those guys already got half a million.. damn..
And for a lomo lens? Made by Zenit? Clever Russians. But you can get an all-metal portrait lens with same poor edge performance and good center for $25 - Industar, Helios

We should get a kickstarter going for a Pentax DFA 77mm WR with QS..

OH and btw, isnt the Pentax 560mm based on Petzval design?

[K-9]

Looks ugly to me. I know they want to keep with the vintage brass look, but it's not attractive in the least.

[Fogel70]

IMO it's a very cool looking lens, and it will probably look even better after some use when the brass start to get tarnished.
But it will probably look best on a gold LX, but then you might need to polish the lens before each use.

[Aegon]

Subjective taste, and all that. But I don't like the swirly bokeh. This lens is not for me.

[Clavius]

So, Lomography isn't going to bring out this lens in a Pentax mount... Just saying... The Pentax market being to small of a market for LOMOGRAPHY. All charts, businessmodels and forecasts can't show the state in which Pentax is in as Lomography looking down on Pentax.

[D4rknezz]

just found this on kickstarter....and thought of pentaxforums...and here is the thread.
Is there no one who can say a good thing about this lens and its bokeh? I so wanna give them my money.

[LeRolls]

just found this on kickstarter....and thought of pentaxforums...and here is the thread.
Is there no one who can say a good thing about this lens and its bokeh? I so wanna give them my money.

I was semi excited till I saw that it wasn't available in Pentax mount. Would probably rather get the Helios 85mm f/1.4 which is a bit more expensive but just seems like a better lens overall and still has the swirly bokeh.

[scratchpaddy]

Would probably rather get the Helios 85mm f/1.4 which is a bit more expensive but just seems like a better lens overall and still has the swirly bokeh.

Yes, probably a better lens overall (and actually slightly cheaper than the Petzval), but that's not the point. The decision to spend $500 on a lens designed 200 years ago is not a logical one. Some people want a piece of history, and they want something unique. Even the Helios is not a logical buy, since Samyang has a lens which is technically far superior, for even less money. I bet Lomography could have charged twice as much for this lens, and people would still buy it, but then again, people have already thrown $1.2 million before they've even sold a single lens.

No, as much as we try to prove otherwise, people are not logical. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, though. I'm a happy owner of a Helios 40.

[D4rknezz]

But...but...
the ability to modify your own aperture shapes.....

[johnmflores]

Blah blah something about suckers blah blah every minute.

I keed. I hope the people that buy them use them well

[D4rknezz]

Yeah...those born every minute... they always get me so mad - why are they populating the earth?

But lets get back to the topic at hand...this pretty lens - is there really no argument for it?

[Na Horuk]

Well, a couple months after it becomes available, I'll be happy to see some sample photos, maybe reviews.
What is interesting about it is that it is so different from modern lenses, that it will probably produce quite different photos. But there are already plenty of lenses that already do that. Especially Pentax has some really wonderful primes available, both in K and m42 mount. That petzval lens might have pixie dust, but Pentax is no stranger to pixie dust. Other brands have more boring lenses, so they search for odd ones - so they can stand out of the crowd. With Pentax, just buy a limited, a nice K mount from the 70s, maybe a soviet m42 lens..