Kickstarter campaign for 0.75 lens

[Huss]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...stest-photographic-lens-in-the-w?ref=category

No rf coupling, needs a separate adapter to focus. No aperture blades, needs aperture blanks to narrow the opening. Finished like a beer can.
"Like most ‘vintage’ lenses, the image straight out of the camera is less contrasty than what you get from modern optical designs"

"And there is no focus mechanism. Much like, for example, Voigtlander‘s new 40 mm Heliar, focusing can be achieved by using a mount adaptor with inbuilt helicoid."

This is where they lose me. The lens is in Leica M mount. They show it in two images attached to a Leica M with no helicoid adapter, so how does it focus on the Leica? Is there a helicoid adapter that is Leica M mount on both ends?

Can you imagine the uproar if LOMO put out a lens like this?!

Images:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/45721529@N06/24497265045/

Does anyone think this is innovative, and if so, why?

 

[sevo]

Does anyone think this is innovative, and if so, why?

If you ask me, it is verging on a scam. Claims that this is not a X-Ray lens (it is, and the most common of them, too), pictures with far more Softar style haze than OOF area (what OOF area they have could be delivered by any f/2.8 lens), and a proposal to make a "adapter" which does not do anything beyond a $50 T2 adapter. All that for four or five times the ebay going rate of a Oude Delft (and it is already overpriced at that).

 

[Kent]

Without having used such a lens, it is really difficult to say what it is.
But I also think that this whole project tries to ride the "fast lens"-wave and takes it to the extremes.
It's a lot of money and a considerable part of it seems to go directly into their pockets.

But one has to be careful, since we cannot completely estimate their costs.

 

[sevo]

Without having used such a lens, it is really difficult to say what it is.
But I also think that this whole project tries to ride the "fast lens"-wave and takes it to the extremes.
It's a lot of money and a considerable part of it seems to go directly into their pockets.

But one has to be careful, since we cannot completely estimate their costs.

As I said, these lenses currently tend to go for 400-600€ on ebay - domestic only sales may even run much cheaper as almost all potential buyers appear to be in and around China. When I last was interested, some years ago, pre digital era X-Ray surgery cameras with a Oude Delft inside were available at surplus sellers for around 20-50€ - if they found a bulk source, it will probably be closer to that than to ebay sales prices. A mere bayonet adapter that does neither adjust the lens for infinity nor provide a focusing helical costs next to nothing - a T2 adapter and thread reduction ring are all you'd need. If they spent more than 500€ per lens, they were not smart enough...

 

[Sid836]

For sure it is 100% innovative! There is nothing like it. The point is if one would be willing to pay that much (way too much) for a lens that although gets a 0.75 of light, it cannot focus and it cannot be stopped down just like any other lens.
I think that they are way more ambitious from what they could possibly achieve. It is a nice idea, stalled by being very incomplete. One would expect an M mount lens to be able to focus and stopped down just like any other lens. A very expensive half idea.
I have to say though that the existence of such projects does not forgive Lomo's sins.

 

[Huss]

For sure it is 100% innovative! There is nothing like it.

Apart from all those other Xray Oude Delft surplus lenses that you can get for a fraction of the cost.

If innovative is a hole in a tube with a chunk of glass....

 

[Kent]

For sure it is 100% innovative! There is nothing like it.

Oh, there is a lot like it. Private tinkerers who adapt lenses like those to their cams - and they've done this for years!

 

[bmattock]

Oh, there is a lot like it. Private tinkerers who adapt lenses like those to their cams - and they've done this for years!

Yep. I've got a bunch of that sort of lenses, plus copier lenses, etc. Never got around to having mounts made for them, but I've finagled duct-tape connections and such in the past. They work. They used to be cheap. Sigh. Not anymore.

 

[Kent]

Yes, I also have several ones. No f/0.75 though. 😉

Meopta 1.0/50
Meopta 1.4/70
ISCO 2.0/100
... just to name a few.

My lates "project" is a Leitz Colorplan 2.5/90 made usable on my Fuji X-T1 and X-E2.
Wow! That is a gem of a lens!

 

[xayraa33]

As Filthy Harry would say, "Its fast Cal, but not fast enough."

 

[Huss]

$3000?!!



I still want to know how the Kickstarter lens is able to focus on the Leica body, seeing they show it attached to one but w/o any focusing adapter.

"And there is no focus mechanism. Much like, for example, Voigtlander‘s new 40 mm Heliar, focusing can be achieved by using a mount adaptor with inbuilt helicoid.

On Leica M cameras, the 50 mm viewfinder frame lines are displayed. Although the lens features a Leica M mount bayonet, it is not rangefinder coupled. There simply isn’t enough space to fit the complex mechanics."

They mention the helicoid adapter but there isn't one for Leica M cameras. Which is why they don't show one. But they still attach the lens to a Leica M implying you can use it on one.

 

[noisycheese]

It seems like DOF would be so thin that using a tripod would be mandatory...

 

[xayraa33]

This Bokeh craze is getting ridiculous.

I got two magnifying lenses from the dollar store and a cardboard tube and roll of duct tape.

I should try to raise some money to make a few hundred of these bokehlicious lenses and sell this goodness to photographers with more money than common sense.

 

[santino]

This Bokeh craze is getting ridiculous.

I got two magnifying lenses from the dollar store and a cardboard tube and roll of duct tape.

I should try to raise some money to make a few hundred of these bokehlicious lenses and sell this goodness to photographers with more money than common sense.

Good one 😀

 

[Kent]

This Bokeh craze is getting ridiculous.

I got two magnifying lenses from the dollar store and a cardboard tube and roll of duct tape.

I should try to raise some money to make a few hundred of these bokehlicious lenses and sell this goodness to photographers with more money than common sense.

Seriously! If one knew how to calculate and manufacture auch a thing witha classical look a flange distance of about 50mm (so that it can be used on systemcams as well as on DSLRs) and then added some HongKong helicoid adapters to the "set", he would probably sell that "lens" for quite an amount.

 

[Rob-F]

Why offer it in M mount, when you could never use it on an M because it would block the finder window.

 

[xayraa33]

Why offer it in M mount, when you could never use it on an M because it would block the finder window.

One would have to use a SBOOI or its CV equivalent.

I use a SBOOI on my Leica III and IIIC and IIIf when I use the Canon 50mm f1.4 lens, because it partially blocks the built-in finder.

All in all, this Dutch made lens is impractical on all counts .

 

[xayraa33]

Seriously! If one knew how to calculate and manufacture auch a thing witha classical look a flange distance of about 50mm (so that it can be used on systemcams as well as on DSLRs) and then added some HongKong helicoid adapters to the "set", he would probably sell that "lens" for quite an amount.

I remember that up to 20 years ago the Army/Navy surplus store in Toronto had many interesting old lenses for sale that had military applications circa the 1940s and 1950s. They even had an Aero Ektar and a lot of British made TTH aerial camera lenses going for around 30 dollars a pop back then.

I doubt that many of them were suitable for 35mm or digital FF camera use but one never knows.