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This guy adapted f/.73 and f/.4 lenses...or nearly
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2023 2:04 pm    Post subject: This guy adapted f/.73 and f/.4 lenses...or nearly Reply with quote
Hi all,

I've been an fan of youtube.com/@MediaDivision (no affiliation, but great respect!), which seems to be a film maker's channel, but holds great information and impulses for photographers as well.

If you are interested, have a look around. In particular, I'd like to point you to his adaptation of an old X-ray lens, a Zeiss R-Biotar here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKjeglkR97o

and to a large format Depth of Field adapter he built with a Leitz Hektor lens, equalling a 4o mm f/.4 on FF here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4uzyhbDFas

He also tests a lot of more mundane vintage lenses, albeit of course with videography in mind.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2023 8:41 am    Post subject: Re: This guy adapted f/.73 and f/.4 lenses...or nearly Reply with quote
kathala wrote:
Hi all,

I've been an fan of youtube.com/@MediaDivision (no affiliation, but great respect!), which seems to be a film maker's channel, but holds great information and impulses for photographers as well.

If you are interested, have a look around. In particular, I'd like to point you to his adaptation of an old X-ray lens, a Zeiss R-Biotar here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKjeglkR97o

and to a large format Depth of Field adapter he built with a Leitz Hektor lens, equalling a 4o mm f/.4 on FF here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4uzyhbDFas

He also tests a lot of more mundane vintage lenses, albeit of course with videography in mind.


Thanks a lot for the interesting link! While that's not something I would ever be able or would dare to try, it is really fascinating to watch and the results are absolutely spectacular (at least for video). I'm also extremely impressed by the presentation/high production value of those videos. A lot of effort and skill that went into creating those.

The lens with the shallowest DOF I personally own is a JML Optical 64 mm f/0.85 and while it might not be a very interesting lens for still photography, I'm sure it could be used to great effect for video...

Always try to keep it drill! by simple.joy, on Flickr

For me f/1.2 seems to be pretty much the limit where I can create anything reasonable on full frame, and that often times requires a bit of processing to work out to my liking:
Defying the bleakness by simple.joy, on Flickr

Have you ever attempted anything similar to what the video shows?


PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I love that first image! Very poetic.

For images up closer, I would not pursue more separation either, and indeed most lenses get irrelevantly soft wide-open PLUS close-up. But I love the wide-angle shallow-depth-of-field look as a narrative tool. In search of options, I have pursued many approaches and done quite a lot of research. Anamorphics for example disappointed completely, as did front-mounted wide-angle converters. Focal reducers work decently, but a "proper" large format camera would be the next step. Provided one finds the right lens in terms of coverage and indeed separation (I find his comparison shot between the Leitz f/2.8 and the Nikon f/5.6 not all that different in regards to separation, sadly).
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