I want a haze prone lens: any recommendations?

[cheesegears]

I got a natural high when I saw some photos on the net taken with a Summar 5cm that had internal haze. General opinion was the lens needed cleaning. Personally I thought the results were great. Nice and soft with a hazy glow. I've seen it called bloom. No way would I clean it. It was a nice signature. All of a sudden a Summar 5cm [with haze!] was top of my list. But have you seen the prices? And I don't even have an M mount camera!

Then I got to thinking maybe I could get the same effect from a different [cheaper!] lens. So it's over to you chaps.

My budget - £200 [for camera/lens]; 35mm or 120 format; and I'll be shooting b&W only.

Name a haze prone lens. Any cheap but decent "bloomers"? Come to think of it can haze be induced?

[nb I was going to link to a site with examples but wasn't sure of protocol here so haven't. But still could]

Thanks

[cheesegears]

Just to update my OP. It should be £200 just for lens. I'll have to get a body if it's not an OM or M42 mount [the only two I have]. I shouldn't have used the word cheap either as £200 isn't!

[WolverineX]

well, i think that you can't say with certainty that every sample of certain lens will be susceptible to haze. it's more the way individual lens has been kept and cared about.

if the softness is what you want, minolta had 85mm/2.8 varisoft lens , and also fujinon had ebc 85mm/4 soft focus lens , specialty lenses

also you could try using filters that soften the image on clean lenses

[luisalegria]

The common method back in the day was vaseline on a UV filter.

[jjphoto]

This may seem like an odd suggestion but consider that many lenses can be disassembled fairly easilly and you could really apply your own 'haze' on one of the elements.

[Lloydy]

I've seen someone use hair spray to soften a lens, I didn't see the results though.

[Himself]

As far as I know Sigma is prone to get haze.

[fuzzywuzzy]

My Nikkor 200/4 has a humongous fungus on the rear element.



shot wide open, inside with normal daylight and an overhead light- somewhat soft and hazy



wide open, the sun was setting almost behind the truck, crazy flare and haze



100% crop of the crazy rainbow flare:



The Nikkor sharpens up (mostly) when stopped down, but wide open you're never sure what you'll get.

I think fungus/scratches/whatever on the rear element have a much greater effect on the image. I'd buy a cheap Helios and smear a tiny dab of vaseline on the back of the rear element with a Qtip, see what happens.

[mo]

If what you are talking about is the whiteish covering in the back internal element, then I can say the Alu CZJ M42 Biotar 2/58 and the Zebra Flek 2.8/35 both have had this whiteness that covers the back or inside front element....I had the Biotar cleaned.
Even the M42 pancolar 2/50 had it but in the front element.I am not talking about fungus (spider like webbing) but a "whiteness" coating.

[trev]

For a variable haze try breathing on the front element (better still a filter) and check the results.......works for me

[std]

+1 to mo

..also aluminium Flektogons and Sonnars. The old ones seems to suffer from this fine internal haze. If you ask me i would clean it .. it gives much better colors and better contrast.

[dnas]

I buy quite a few lenses to clean and repair, and some I see often have haze on them. (not just fungus)

The most common one I see are:
- Canon FD 50mm F1.4 SSC
- Super Takumar 50mm F1.4
- Minolta MC Rokkor 58mm F1.4
- Olympus OM 50mm F1.4


Lenses where the haze is usually impossible to remove:
- Canon FD 200mm F4 SSC
- Sigma 70-300mm APO (old version with the flat rear element)
- Just about any Konica AR lens with haze, it's 80% certain you can't remove it.
- Tokina AT-X SD 80-200mm F2.8 (not common, but when I see haze, it's impossible to remove. The front two cemented elements sometime become un-cemented)
- Tokina AT-X SD 35-200mm

[cheesegears]

thanks for all the replies. i’m more of a lurker on here really as you can see from my low post count. i do pop in regular to see what you guys are up to though.

@mo: yes it’s the whiteness i’m talking about. i’ve see it in photos of the Summar 5cm, on the front element. thanks for the lens suggestions. i have M42 body already so that’s handy. Only other mount i have is OM.

@dnas: again thanks for specific suggestions based on your experience. I'l look these up.


@fuzzywuzzy: great fungus shot!!!! I think the terminology to describe these looks is unclear. I’d call what i see in your shots flare. i saw haze as something else. But i’m beginning to think bloom better describes what i’m after!!!!

The 2 photos on p.1 of this thread show what i’m after [mods: if i broke any rule re posting outside links, my apologies in advance. You’re free to delete] http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00UJpW

[womble]

I guess it makes a change from queries about how to get rid of fungus/haze...

K.

[mo]

The shot of my avatar was taken when the Biotar had not been cleaned...so there may be something to your theory...