The imagon-effect

Retro · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 173 Location: Krautland

I´m not only fond of looking for old M42-lenses but also for good old photo- literature.
Recently I found a nice book ("Stapf, Helmut. 1955. Fotografische Praxis. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig") which contends detailled charts about old cameras, lens constructions and very interesting old techniques. One of them is the mention of the Imagon-lens. Usually industry was looking for optically good adjusted and sharp lenses (like the Tessar). But there was also a trend and need for special lenses with a dreamy and soft-focus effect. So they developed this imagon-lens in combination with three perforated discs.

One can no longer get such a lens, but it is possible to reproduce the imagon-effect perfectly with photoshop:
http://eye.de/tip_imagon.shtml
http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info.html
I would give the advice to create a personal action of this technique.

Significant is the following statement of the author of the first mentioned web-side (Klaus Mangold):
"...Von einfacher Weichzeichnung unterscheidet sich dieses Bild ganz erheblich durch die fast vollständig erhaltene Schärfe in den dunklen Bildteilen..."

(freely translated > "There is a dramatic difference between a simple soft-focus-effect and the nearly totally maintained sharpness in the darker areas in pictures with the imagon-effect")

dakoo · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 603

i was about to put up a thread for this..
Are there no actions which actually replicate the chacterstics of older lenses in PS.
Not that they can ever produce the image.. But maybe colors, contrast etc ...

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

vilva · Expire: 2015-05-27

Well, I get nicely along without PS, that's too sterile for me, no post-processing here:

see http://galactinus.net/vilva/retro/eos350d_meniscus.html and the linked pages, it's more fun that way. Besides, if you have got some extra money, you can always get an Imagon, it is quite common even on eBay, much easier to find than e.g. a Jupiter-6 or a Cooke triplet.

Veijo

Retro · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 173 Location: Krautland

bob955i · Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 2495

@ Retro:

That's a Photo Arsenal/Leica price.... Wink

Meanwhile, back in the real world....

Click here to see on Ebay

lulalake · Expire: 2011-11-18

Thanks so much for that link. Fantastic!

Jules

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

He has rare stuff sometimes but his prices are "a bit" through the roof. I had to send some stuff back I bought or it turned out that it was not in the condition they advertised it. So it would be good to have them check that again before sending an item. Their prices are without VAT btw.

Cheers,

Retro · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 173 Location: Krautland

@lulalake: