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Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.

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Russian Projector Lens P-4 (Petzval) 100mm F/2
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:56 pm
Post subject: Russian Projector Lens P-4 (Petzval) 100mm F/2
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:56 pm
Post subject: Russian Projector Lens P-4 (Petzval) 100mm F/2
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I recently bought a Russian projector lens made by GOMZ in Leningrad. It's a P-4 lens of 100mm focal length and f/2 maximum aperture. What attracted me was the original Petzval optical formula of this lens. The Petzval optical formula has 4 elements in 3 groups and was used as a portrait lens on the daguerreotype cameras thanks to its wider aperture than the other lenses of the time. It is usually quite sharp in the center of the field but is rather soft outside a narrow circle in the middle of the frame. The bokeh is usually quite nice.

Here are my first pictures taken with this lens. Of course, all were shot wide open as the lens has no diaphragm. No sharpening was applied:

1:


2:


100% crop of above picture:


3:


4.


5.


100% crop of above picture:


Cheers!

Abbazz


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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:04 pm
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:04 pm
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Looks very nice like a Helios 40!


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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:43 pm
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:43 pm
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Works nicely for me Abbazz!!

Never tried this idea, though - learnt sth new from you!


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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:58 pm
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:58 pm
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Thank you Attila and Klaus for the kind comments.

Attila wrote:
Looks very nice like a Helios 40!


Yes, I must admit I found the idea of using these projector lenses by reading the 200+ pages long thread about the Helios 40 on the club.foto.ru website. I bought a bunch of these superfast projector lenses in the last few weeks and this is the one offering the best results, many of the others suffering from ugly color fringing.

Cheers!

Abbazz

Last edited by Abbazz on Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:58 am; edited 1 time in total


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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:02 pm
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:02 pm
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WOW! Shocked Cool
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