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Interesting Japan made soft lenses
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:17 am    Post subject: Interesting Japan made soft lenses Reply with quote
Today I found some interesting soft lenses on the internet:

KIYOHARA KOGAKU VK50R 50mm F4.5
KIYOHARA KOGAKU VK70R 70mm F5.0

Here is the link for the VK70R
http://www3.airnet.ne.jp/~yoko/fc2/lens/kiyohara_VK70R_M42.jpg

Here is the link for the VK70R (EOS) in a Japanese online shop: http://translate.google.com.hk/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=zh-TW&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.antiquary.jp%2Fshopdetail%2F026000000061%2Forder%2F&sl=ja&tl=en

KIYOHARA KOGAKU (Kiyohara Optics Inc.) is a Japanese company who make some optical products. They only make two camera lenses and all of them are soft lenses.

The VK70R are produced in several mounts (M42, Nikon-F, EOS) while the VK50R seems only produced in M42.

From the information obtained in another Japanese site, it shows the two lenses are in 1 elements 1 group. I guess it is just a coated convex/concave lens (the type of lens used in magnifying glass) with aperture blades. Such a simple lens is sold for 9800 Yen (around 110usd) in Japan.

Here is the Japanese blog with lots of samples for these two lenses:
http://frt5.blog94.fc2.com/blog-category-116.html
http://frt5.blog94.fc2.com/blog-category-53.html


PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:58 am    Post subject: Re: Interesting Japan made soft lenses Reply with quote
calvin83 wrote:
Today I found some interesting soft lenses on the internet:

KIYOHARA KOGAKU VK50R 50mm F4.5
KIYOHARA KOGAKU VK70R 70mm F5.0

From the information obtained in another Japanese site, it shows the two lenses are in 1 elements 1 group. I guess it is just a coated convex/concave lens (the type of lens used in magnifying glass) with aperture blades. Such a simple lens is sold for 9800 Yen (around 110usd) in Japan.

The Kodak Vest Pocket cameras are very popular in Japan, due to the unique soft focus effect provided by their lenses, most of them being equipped with a single element meniscus lens. The Kiyohara lenses are modern clones of these famed Vest Pocket lenses. They have never been sold outside of Japan, as there is very little interest for soft focus lenses in the Western world and are out of production in Japan. The Kiyohara lenses appear from time to time on Yahoo auctions Japan and I have been trying to buy one for years, but most Japanese sellers don't want to ship out of the country. Even Kurt from Japan Exposures wasn't able to help when I contacted him!!! If someone has a VK50R or a VK70R in Pentax mount to sell, please PM me.

Cheers!

Abbazz


PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:00 am    Post subject: Re: Interesting Japan made soft lenses Reply with quote
Abbazz wrote:
calvin83 wrote:
Today I found some interesting soft lenses on the internet:

KIYOHARA KOGAKU VK50R 50mm F4.5
KIYOHARA KOGAKU VK70R 70mm F5.0

From the information obtained in another Japanese site, it shows the two lenses are in 1 elements 1 group. I guess it is just a coated convex/concave lens (the type of lens used in magnifying glass) with aperture blades. Such a simple lens is sold for 9800 Yen (around 110usd) in Japan.

The Kodak Vest Pocket cameras are very popular in Japan, due to the unique soft focus effect provided by their lenses, most of them being equipped with a single element meniscus lens. The Kiyohara lenses are modern clones of these famed Vest Pocket lenses. They have never been sold outside of Japan, as there is very little interest for soft focus lenses in the Western world and are out of production in Japan. The Kiyohara lenses appear from time to time on Yahoo auctions Japan and I have been trying to buy one for years, but most Japanese sellers don't want to ship out of the country. Even Kurt from Japan Exposures wasn't able to help when I contacted him!!! If someone has a VK50R or a VK70R in Pentax mount to sell, please PM me.

Cheers!

Abbazz


Thanks you for your information. I know that most people in western world are not interested in soft focus lens.

There are two copies of the lens listed in Yahoo Japan which cost 20000yen in Nikon mount. Which i think is over priced.

If no one is able to sell you a copy in pentax(m42) mount. I may able to help you if you see it again in yahoo japan.

Cheers! Very Happy


PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:36 am    Post subject: Re: Interesting Japan made soft lenses Reply with quote
calvin83 wrote:
There are two copies of the lens listed in Yahoo Japan which cost 20000yen in Nikon mount. Which i think is over priced.

If no one is able to sell you a copy in pentax(m42) mount. I may able to help you if you see it again in yahoo japan.

Thank you for your kind offer. These lenses seem quite rare in M42 mount, since most of those offered for sale are in Nikon mount, or sometimes Canon EF. But they seem to be quite popular in Japan, according to the number of hits when googling VK70R or VK50R.

Meanwhile, I have found the VK50R and VK70R mentioned here, as well as their big brother, the VK105L (105mm F/4.0 for medium format, would you believe). Apparently, all the Kiyohara lenses follow the Vest-Pocket design with a 2 element - 1 group meniscus achromat. Like in the original Vest-Pocket camera, the diaphragm is located in front of the lens, the convex side of the meniscus facing the film/sensor plane.

Cheers!

Abbazz


PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 8:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I could have helped as I have a partner in Japan, but you seem to have that issue solved Sebastien (??).

I am too quite interested in soft focus lenses and found the VK have a problem to use them, the aperture control lies inside the front lens, so if using a sunshade and or filter, one looses access to it (if I see this correctly). That's why I refused to get them.

What I found interesting is the Kenko 2.5/85mm soft focus lens, hard to find here too. I have several of them and the mount can easily replaced with any mount wished (Canon, Nikon, M42,...)
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